Colorado coach Deion Sanders isn’t making much of the alleged play-call leak before last week’s loss to Texas Tech. He confirmed the internet chatter, acknowledged that the Buffaloes’ opening script may have been found and shared, then brushed it aside as just another football wrinkle.
The issue surfaced the night before the game, when a fan on a Texas Tech message board said he had discovered Colorado’s game script at the bar inside the team hotel. He didn’t post photos there, but images later showed up on social media before kickoff, and they appeared to line up with Colorado’s opening sequence.
Sanders was asked about it Tuesday while previewing this weekend’s matchup with 11th-ranked Utah, and he didn’t see much reason to make it a bigger story.
"A whole playbook? Somebody left a whole playbook, or was it a script of several plays?
I don't think we even have a whole playbook," Sanders said. "I think week to week they get a script.
I thought we scored the first drive, so what's the purpose of the question? Why would we (look into that)?
The game's over.
"We probably know a lot more than you think we do. That happens sometimes.
I've heard of that on the pro level as well as the collegiate level. But we scored on the first drive, so I guess it didn't work."
And he had a simple point to back it up: Colorado marched 75 yards in nine plays for a touchdown on its opening possession against Texas Tech. The catch was that the touchdown was all the Buffaloes managed in a 29-7 defeat.
When asked again whether the leak mattered, Sanders stayed in the same lane.
"I think if someone had left that, they left it, mistake," Sanders said. "What are we going to do about it?
It's over. Let's go.
Let's go. Let's go.
We could have the opposing team's first 10-15 plays, but we still have to stop it. When you get something like that, do you really trust it as a coach?
Was it a dummy script or was that real? That's what you're thinking as a coach."
There’s at least some history there. Reports have long suggested teams have used decoys to throw opponents off, and Mike Leach once famously left a fake playbook in the trash can before the Red River Rivalry against Texas when he was an offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Colorado is trying to get its offense moving again, and Sanders is turning back to Isaac Wilson at quarterback against Utah. Wilson transferred from Utah this offseason and started the year as Julian Lewis’s backup before earning first-team reps after impressing the staff during a Week 4 loss at Baylor.
Wilson threw for 290 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions in the loss to Texas Tech.
"Isaac's always up to the task," Sanders said. "Isaac is the same Isaac, man.
He don't flinch. He don't place blame.
He is what he is."
Through Week 7, Colorado sits 14th in the Big 12 in total offense, last in scoring offense and last in turnover margin at minus-6.
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