Deion Sanders isn’t interested in making a mountain out of Colorado’s leaked-play booklet moment.
Asked Tuesday about the booklet full of Buffaloes offensive plays and notes that fans found at the team hotel before the Oct. 3 game against Texas Tech, Sanders brushed it aside rather than treating it like a major security lapse.
“I don’t major on the minors, man,” Sanders said. “I try to major on the majors.”
The booklet surfaced before Colorado’s 29-7 loss to Texas Tech at home, after visiting Red Raiders fans staying at the Buffs’ team hotel in Broomfield, Colo., posted the script on a fan message board. Once Colorado’s offense struggled through another rough night, the discovery quickly turned into something of a punchline.
But Sanders wasn’t buying the outrage. With Colorado set to host undefeated No. 11 Utah on Saturday night, he argued the situation was a mistake at worst and not something worth dwelling on.
“If someone had left that, they left it. Mistake.
What (are) we going to do about it? It’s over.
Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Sanders said. “Like, we could have the opposing team’s first 10 or 15 plays, but we still gotta stop it.”
He even floated the idea that the booklet may not have been authentic at all.
“When you get something like that, do you really trust it as a coach? Like if we get something, ‘Oh, man, somebody left their plays.’
So was that a dummy script? Or was that real?
Like that’s what you’re thinking as a coach,” Sanders continued. “As the opposing coach, if somebody called us and said, ‘Hey, Utah left the play script of the first 20 plays, I wouldn’t believe that.
Like, ain’t no way. And then, you gotta match it up and then they score on the first drive?
Don’t make sense to me.”
The script did line up with several plays Colorado ran on its first drive against Texas Tech, which turned out to be the Buffaloes’ only scoring possession of the game. Sanders said that kind of overlap isn’t unheard of.
“That happens sometimes,” he said. “I’ve seen that, heard of that on the pro level as well as the collegiate level, but I think we scored on the first drive, so I guess it didn’t work.”
He also made it clear he wasn’t planning to launch an internal investigation into how the playbook pages became public.
“Why would we? It’s over.
Game’s over,” Sanders said. “Why would we do that?
We probably know a lot more than you think we do. But a whole playbook?
Come on, man.”
Sanders also confirmed that junior quarterback Isaac Wilson will get the start against his former team Saturday night in Boulder. Wilson spent two seasons at Utah before entering the transfer portal and signing with Colorado last offseason. While with the Utes, he played in 10 games and started seven.
Wilson’s first start for Colorado came in the loss to Texas Tech, when he completed 26 of 44 passes for 290 yards and threw three interceptions after the Buffaloes opened the game with a touchdown drive.
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