The first game of Year 3 of the Deion Sanders era at Colorado ended abruptly when he elected not to use his remaining two timeouts on his team’s final drive during a 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech.
After Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King scored a go-ahead 45-yard rushing touchdown with 1:07 remaining to put the Yellow Jackets up seven, Colorado got the ball back — with two timeouts — with a chance to potentially send the game to overtime. Instead, Colorado’s offense managed to go just 25 yards on six plays, and a Hail Mary attempt by quarterback Kaidon Salter on the final play of the game fell incomplete.
After the loss, Sanders defended the decision not to use his timeouts, stating that it “didn’t make sense” to call them with how the final drive played out. Four days later, Sanders doubled down on that decision.
“Let’s just get the cat out of the bag,” Sanders said Tuesday. “First down, we throw a lateral pass and lose four or five yards, do you call a timeout there? No, you don’t call a timeout there. You have to go. You’re running tempo, right? The next play, you gain 14 yards or whatever and it’s third-and-1, do you call a timeout there? Third-and-1, you get the first down, the clock stops, correct? … When was the time to call a timeout? I’m just getting the elephant out of the room.”
Why Deion Sanders opted not to use timeouts in final minute of Colorado’s Week 1 loss to Georgia Tech
Brad Crawford
On that final drive, Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur called back-to-back passing plays that ran 39 seconds off the game clock before the Buffaloes faced a third-and-1 at their own 34-yard line with 28 seconds left. Salter hurried to the line without a huddle and picked up a first down with a scramble out of bounds that picked up five yards but wasted an additional 10 seconds off the clock in the process.
“Everything has its purpose, man. Sometimes it just doesn’t go like it’s supposed to go,” Sanders said. “We are trying to fix what was broken last week and we are on to this week. We’re not there, last week. We are past that.”
Colorado got off to a hot start against Georgia Tech by forcing three turnovers on the first three offensive possessions. After that, Georgia Tech settled into a groove on offense and amassed 463 yards of total offense, including 320 on the ground, in a thrilling Week 1 victory.
The Buffaloes face Delaware on Saturday, and the offense could look different in that game. Sanders already indicated that freshman signal caller Julian Lewis, one of the prized members of Colorado’s 2025 recruiting class, will play in some capacity against the Blue Hens this weekend.
Read the full article here