'It's over': Colorado lays egg vs. BYU in final recreation of Travis Hunter-Shedeur Sanders period – USA TODAY

SAN ANTONIO – Colorado head coach Deion Sanders hopped on a golf cart subsequent to his bodyguard and zoomed down a stadium tunnel on his method out of city.
He had simply answered questions from reporters about what occurred right here Saturday night time within the Alamo Bowl – a 36-14 loss against BYU in his closing recreation teaching his two youngest sons in school.
He simply didn’t wish to dwell on it.
“That’s a wrap,” Sanders mentioned. “It’s over.”
He mentioned the loss wouldn’t overshadow the bigger journey he’s had at Colorado as a result of they’re already “on to the subsequent.” Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and Sanders’ sons will attempt to climb the ladder to the NFL subsequent season after two seasons at Colorado.
“They’re gonna have super careers,” Sanders mentioned. “They’re gonna transfer on. They flush it.”
But it surely was nonetheless fairly an egg they laid on the Alamodome in entrance of a sold-out crowd of 64,261, particularly after all of the build-up about how emotional this game would be for Sanders. Earlier than the sport, ABC tv cameras even centered on him as he walked his closing pregame stroll along with his quarterback son Shedeur and security son Shilo.
Then got here kickoff and – poof – their edge was gone.
BYU (11-2) appeared way more keen than the Buffaloes (9-4), who’ve been recognized for beginning slowly this season, most notably in a devastating 37-21 loss against Kansas final month, after they fell behind 17-0 and by no means recovered.
On this case, they did it once more, following the lead of their dwell bison mascot, Ralphie, who tried to run on the sphere earlier than the sport however as an alternative simply type of walked earlier than heading for the exits.
The Buffs fell right into a 20-0 gap at halftime, failed to attain on their first six possessions and managed simply 61 yards of whole offense within the first half.
The place did all of it go fallacious on offense?
“In every single place,” mentioned Shedeur Sanders, who was sacked 4 instances and completed 16-of-23 passing for 208 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. “It was nothing that we did nice tonight.”
“Ditto,” mentioned his father.
Regardless of what occurred Saturday, Shedeur Sanders nonetheless could be the primary quarterback chosen within the NFL draft in April. It’s prone to be him or Cam Ward, the quarterback for the Miami Hurricanes.
However each took decidedly completely different approaches to how they dealt with their closing school video games on Saturday. Sanders determined to play the sport although it could have cost him millions of dollars in future earnings if he received injured in it regardless of the insurance coverage coverage he obtained for it.
Ward determined to play in his bowl recreation Saturday, too, but not after halftime. His Hurricanes, main 31-28 on the half, ended up dropping 42-41.
Against this, Sanders performed to the top within the fourth quarter, even when the sport was properly out of attain after BYU took a 36-7 lead with 5:28 left.
Why threat it?
“We began it, so we needed to end it,” Sanders mentioned. “It doesn’t matter what it was, if it was the opposite method round … we had been nonetheless gonna play regardless.”
Hunter, the two-way star, additionally performed many of the recreation and completed with 4 catches for 106 yards and a landing as a receiver, together with 4 tackles on protection. Fortunately, there have been no important accidents.
In some ways, the Buffs seemed like final 12 months’s staff, after they completed 4-8 in Deion Sanders’ first season. They dedicated 5 penalties within the first half as Shedeur Sanders felt regular strain from the BYU protection. They disappeared at instances, trying nothing just like the staff that completed in a first-place tie with BYU and two different groups within the Huge 12 Convention.
At one level within the fourth quarter, BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasker intercepted a move from Shedeur Sanders after which did Deion Sanders’ outdated “Deion Shuffle” dance to have fun in entrance of the Colorado sideline.
“I really feel like going into this recreation, particularly seeing Travis Hunter and Shedeur and these nice gamers on Colorado, I really feel like no one on our staff was nervous,” Glasker mentioned. “We simply was able to play.”
Colorado was not, which was shocking for a purpose, simply two years after the Buffs completed 1-11 previous to hiring Sanders as coach.
“We established expectations,” Deion Sanders mentioned. “So now you anticipate us to carry out a sure method. You anticipate us to win. You anticipate us to be thrilling. You anticipate us to be much more disciplined than we simply performed at present. You simply have expectations of us now. That’s what we’ve established.”
It nonetheless was Colorado’s finest season since 2016, when the Buffs completed 10-4, additionally after a blowout loss within the Alamo Bowl. However it is going to be troublesome for Colorado to measure as much as these expectations after dropping Hunter and Shedeur Sanders.
“It felt nice representing Colorado and bringing it again to the place it was prior to now,” Shedeur Sanders mentioned. “We laid the muse of this system so now it’s ready for the opposite gamers coming in to take off and decide up the place we left off.”
Observe reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Electronic mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
(This story was up to date so as to add new info.)

source