SAN ANTONIO – This is the moment that Deion Sanders didn’t want to think about too much − the final game coaching his sons, Shedeur and Shilo.
It all comes to an end here Saturday night at the Alamo Bowl against BYU.
“It’s gonna be something to behold,” said Deion Sanders, Colorado’s second-year head football coach. “I don’t know how I’m gonna handle it. I know Travis is gonna trigger me. I know it because he always does, and he’s gonna bring tears out of my eyes. But I don’t look forward to it. But I do, because that means they’re going to another level, another chapter of life. And they’re gonna soar.”
Sanders said this Friday after a week of bowl festivities, including a roller coaster ride at SeaWorld and a pep rally on the Riverwalk. The idea was to have a little fun after a 9-3 season and a first-place finish in the Big 12 Conference. But there’s also a certain seriousness at play in this game for the likes of Shedeur Sanders and Hunter, Colorado’s two-way star. It’s why they’re playing in it and not opting out of it to avoid risking any injury that could hurt earning potential next year in the NFL.
Shedeur Sanders, Colorado’s quarterback, even grumbled to his father this week about all the non-football activities scheduled.
“Dad, can we stop going to all this stuff so I can focus and lock in?” Shedeur asked him, according to Deion.
“That’s where he is mentally right now,” Deion Sanders said.
‘The People’s Big 12 championship’?
Sanders called the game a “blessing.” It might even be the most attractive non-playoff bowl game of the season.
BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff went as far as calling it the “the people’s Big 12 championship,” a secondary Big 12 title game of sorts after BYU and Colorado finished in a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 to end the regular season. Because of league tiebreaker rules, the other two first-place teams played in the actual Big 12 championship game earlier this month, with Arizona State beating Iowa State to advance to the College Football Playoff.
Ironically, Arizona State was picked to finish 16th out of 16 Big 12 teams in a preseason media poll. Colorado was picked to finish 11th, with BYU 13th.
“We’re taking it serious, because we were predicted not to be here, by some of you wonderful folks’ in the news media, Sanders said at a news conference Friday at the Alamodome.
‘We wouldn’t have had a Heisman Trophy winner’
Sanders has coached his sons since youth football, through high school and then at Jackson State before they all came to Colorado. Besides being a family farewell ballad, the game marks the realization of Sanders’ vision of Colorado, which finished 1-11 before his arrival in December 2022.
If he didn’t take the Colorado job in December 2022, would Hunter have won the Heisman Trophy under him at Jackson State, which plays at a lower subdivision level? Would Shedeur Sanders have been considered a top-10 NFL draft pick like he is now?
Sanders thanked Colorado athletic director Rick George for hiring him.
“I’m thankful that Rick gave me the opportunity, because if not, we wouldn’t have had a Heisman Trophy winner,” Deion Sanders said. “We wouldn’t have had a guy that’s (projected) to be the first or second pick in the whole draft … It wouldn’t have happened here if I hadn’t had accepted that calling.”
Deion Sanders loses ‘dress-up’ match to BYU coach
The game also represents a love fest between Deion Sanders and BYU head coach Kalani Sitake. Both expressed their admiration for each other Friday after getting to know one another in recent years. Sanders attended the news conference in stylish white coveralls and sunglasses, sitting on stage with Sitake, who came wearing white Nike sneakers, a blue blazer and black shirt.
Sanders noticed.
“His shoe game is on-point today as well,” Sanders said of Sitake. “You know he’s clean. He’s got the jacket. I had no idea, but it’s not like I would have changed anyway. But he’s looking really good. And he’s won the dress-up match today. He got me, and I’m not happy about that.”
“I’ve got one outfit, man,” Sitake responded. “If we switched wardrobes right now, I’m pretty sure I would get a lot more from it than you would. I could never make that work.”
Sitake, 49, then said he “grew up watching” Sanders, 57, play in the NFL.
“I ain’t that old, man,” Sanders said.
Sitake even said he recently met Colorado superfan Peggy Coppom, who turned 100 last month. “That was super special,” Sitake said.
Coppom is attending the game after Sanders promised before the season he would get her to a bowl game, Colorado’s third since 2016. She sat next to him Friday at a luncheon for the teams at a hotel on the Riverwalk.
Kickoff on ABC Saturday from the Alamodome is at 7:30 p.m. ET. As of Thursday evening, limited tickets were still available.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com