Deion Sanders's Colorado Buffaloes dropped its season-opening game 27-20 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Friday night at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo.
Sanders faced scrutiny for the way he handled the game's final minute, in which the Buffaloes, trailing by a touchdown, curiously opted not to use its two remaining timeouts with a chance to drive down the field and tie the game.
After the game, Sanders was asked about the puzzling sequence.
"I think we got out of bounds a couple times," Sanders said. "So we didn't have to take them. So we—that's what transpired. We got out of bounds I think on both sidelines."
Deion Sanders addresses time management on the last drive of the game in Colorado's loss🗣️ pic.twitter.com/03sysTmKCp
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On 1st-and-10 with 1:07 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Buffaloes trailing 27-20, quarterback Kaidon Salter completed a screen pass to running back Micah Welch for a loss of two yards. Colorado declined to use a timeout, and Salter then found wide receiver Hykeem Williams for an 11-yard gain, setting up a 3rd-and-1. But over the span of the two plays, the Buffaloes burned 39 seconds of valuable time.
Sanders, citing the NCAA rule, implemented in 2023, in which the clock stops after a first down in the final two minutes of each half, went on to address that sequence.
"And that's what happened after the first—I think we got a good play," Sanders said. "And we caught the ball for nine yards I think, we got one yard to go. So if you get the first down, the clock stops. So it don't make sense to really use your timeout in that sense.
"So we were really just trying to preserve them to [when] we certainly needed them. So I mean, I don't want to go home with timeouts. They don't do me no good. But you got to be strategic as well. Just burning timeouts just to burn them just so you guys won't say anything—that don't make sense at all.
"But I think we got out of bounds a couple times, which preserved it for us. And we had incompletions."
After a five-yard run on third down, Salter threw an incomplete pass, got a first down on the ensuing play, then made one unsuccessful Hail Mary heave for the end zone on the game's final play.
Given the massive media following the Buffaloes have, Sanders's team is already under the microscope. His odd decision-making at the end of the contest, as well as his seemingly unsatisfactory explanation for said decisions, won't do anything to reduce the attention on his program, whether or not utilizing the timeouts would have altered the final result.
Up next for Colorado is a Week 2 home game against Delaware.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Deion Sanders Addresses Colorado's Questionable Clock Management After Week 1 Loss .
