BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 7, 2026

Deion Sanders

Ford Center at The Star

Colorado Buffaloes

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have Colorado Head Coach Deion Sanders.

DEION SANDERS: First and foremost, you know we have the best Commissioner. Where are you at, my man? We have the best Commissioner. Where is he? There he goes. We have the best Commissioner in the world, and he's definitely the best dressed Commissioner ever. I love him to life, and he always raises the bar, and he's infectious. Every time I see him, I got to hug him and appreciate who he is and what he does.

And our AD, Fernando, is around here somewhere as well. He's been doing a heck of a job. He's just taking the reins, taking the baton from a dear friend of mine, Rick George. You talk about a sprinter. He has sprinted and has been more than expected. Fernando, you're doing a heck of a job. I love you to life, and keep up the great work.

We've lost a young man, Dominiq Ponder. We miss him dearly. Our prayers go out to his family, who we're in contact with on a daily. We will wear a patch on our jerseys this season in his honor, and his legacy should encourage kids to make responsible choices and have those hard and tough conversations.

Adam Munsterteiger, I hope I got that right, sweetheart. I hope he's here. His beautiful, wonderful wife is here. There you go, girl. Stand up, please. Please. Can we give her love and support and respect.

(Applause.)

Love her. He passed away on May the 19th. I want to thank the Big 12 for reserving a seat for him today. We will hold his seat in the press conferences and press box in honor of him this season. Wonderful wife, Liz. You go. I love you so much, and thank you. Your strength encourages us all. Whatever you need from us, the Buffs this year, you got it. He has covered CU for over 20 years for the Buff Stampede.

Coaching staff. CU coaching staff, 250 years of coaching experience, 172 years of college, 106 years at the Power 4 level, 5 coaches who have served as a head coach at some level, 17 years of NFL experience, 51 years of high school experience. This is all to say we're pretty good. We're pretty darn good, okay?

Roster breakdown. 104, 83 scholarships, 21 walk-ons. I love my walk-ons. How many of you cried at the movie "Rudy"? I did. When Rudy got in, it was over for me. That was it. I love my walk-ons dearly.

I think we have two or three on the staff -- on the team right now on the roster were walk-ons. They're on scholarship right now. We hope to continue that as well.

We had a over 3.0 GPA this spring. Highest GPA in CU history. Right now we're at 3.035 right now, which is wonderful.

We have over double digits in young men that's on our roster that were captains on their respective teams, and they're with us right now. We have a tremendous amount of leadership, and I know you're tired of that, so let's go.

Q. Coach Prime, it's been quite a year. Last year we talked about public strength, private battles, and building a culture at Colorado that isn't defined by outside noise. After a tough finish last season and Colorado also being left off of the Preseason All-Big 12 Awards, how have you leaned on your faith and that culture of resilience that you built at Colorado to keep your players focused on the standard, use that internally in blocking out the outside noise?

DEION SANDERS: Amen. I can't remember all that, but I'll try my best.

Q. Basically, how do you keep your players --

DEION SANDERS: Focused.

Q. -- focused on --

DEION SANDERS: The now.

Q. -- your internal standards instead of the outside critics.

DEION SANDERS: We don't care about what people say. People are always going to have an opinion. If my kids and my coaches and our staff don't understand who they are, we have a problem. They're not going to allow you to identify who we are. Just because our guys were snubbed off a poll that's probably not going to be consistent with the end of the season, we don't give a darn.

Our kids know who, what, when, where and how they are, and they know what they got to do and how they got to work. It just gives them that extra "mmm" inside of them, and I'm thankful and appreciative of that. Thank you for your wonderful question.

Q. A few of the coaches in college football are not in the video game. You're one of those. I'm curious why that was and what went into that decision.

DEION SANDERS: I don't know about the video games. I have a wonderful team that handles a lot of business for me. If I'm not in the game, that mean they weren't paying enough. They probably didn't fit where we're going right now. That's probably it. It was probably just that simplistic.

Thank you, Athletic. You guys do a wonderful job. You know I'm lying, right? Next.

Q. I wanted to ask you how has being a coach at Colorado transformed you as a person, and what do you think your younger self would think about your coaching experience and what you've been able to accomplish thus far?

DEION SANDERS: Transformed me? I don't think Colorado has transformed me. Colorado has given me a tremendous opportunity that I'm so darn appreciative of. I want to live up and surpass the expectations.

My younger self would be proud. Would be proud that I was here last year fighting a battle called cancer, and now I'm here with full strength, full energy. I got that thing back. I got that swagger back. I got that dog back. I got that charisma back.

See, last year I had on shorts up under the suit. I had on a sweat suit up under the suit because I was probably 15 pounds down looking like Eddie Kane up here, those of you that seen "The Five Heartbeats." Now I'm ready. I'm back. I'm close to 204, legs absolutely bowed. I'm back, baby. I cannot wait.

I see my dog right there. What's up, dog? I cannot wait to get back on that sideline and do our thing. I can't wait to get back to camp. I can't wait to get back. I haven't even seen my kids yet that are here. I can't wait to see them, because I know they're looking good in our unis. I'm excited about this season and the expectations thereof. Great question, my brother.

Q. Coach Prime, you have two games on the road, and then you have the Big 12 champ coming to Colorado. What will those first two games tell you about the team that you have with the product that you put on the field?

DEION SANDERS: Let's digress a bit and think about Georgia Tech. Let's think about going to Atlanta and handling our business on Thursday night in front of the whole world and that being our stage.

We're going to take one game at a time, man. I'm not thinking about those two games that's farther down the road. We're thinking about that first one.

First of all, we think about going to camp and having a wonderful camp and getting it on and kind of pressure-wise our coordinators and our team in certain situations because Coach Brennan Marion and Coach Marve, this is the best coaching staff that I've had in my minute coaching career, and I'm excited about it.

I'm excited about the young men. I'm excited about everything that we have on this roster because I feel like we have the team to win, and I cannot wait to see it.

Q. Several of your players talked about them feeling like they need to take on that leadership component, player-led team. They say that maybe that fell a little short last year. Do you think that was the case? How confident are you in them sort of taking that role?

DEION SANDERS: Well, I'm thankful that God didn't allow my neck to go back and look all the way back, because that would be a tremendous pain right now. I'm thankful that I look ahead, and I'm right on point.

But the young men, they're close. They're close. Some of them wasn't even here last year, so I don't think the collective would have that opinion. Maybe a couple of them that were here. They're pretty accurate.

But I'm loving everything I've seen in the spring. I'm loving everything that we've added. I'm loving what we did in the portal. I'm loving what we're doing recruiting-wise right now. We're right where we want to be. Right where we want to be. We're going to even get better.

Q. First, thank you for everything. That's the first thing I have to say. Secondly, since you started coaching, the landscape of college football has just changed so much. You're always adapting, always trying to get ahead of the scheme. But how has it changed you as a person? What kind of lessons have you learned not only as a coach, but as a person getting to learn patience, adapt, and all the adversity that you've been through as well?

DEION SANDERS: That's a great question. As a coach, patience. It's taught me tremendous patience. It's taught me that a lot of young men want to benefit from the game financially. A lot of young men want to benefit from the game because they love the game, and you've got to really understand there are two sides to this coin and make sure you flipping these kids on the right side because it's a whole different game.

Sometimes you can't get stuck in the old ways. You got to go forward and welcome and invite some of the new-school ways and adapt to them. Thank God I got kids. I got five of them that keep me on my toes, keep me on my game, and keep me hip to what's coming and what's going on right now, so I'm thankful for that.

I got a little grandson. He can't really talk right now, but he can ask. I'm thankful that they're keeping me on point. That's tremendous. Thank you. Great question.

Q. Just what can you say about your faith, keeping the main thing the main thing with everything changing in sports, just having that focus on God and being unapologetic about that?

DEION SANDERS: Well, that's the only way I can rock steady, because you guys flip, flip, and blow with the wind and ride the waves that you're supposed to ride, and I understand that. You got to understand that I've been up here, and I've been out there. I know what you thinking, but you don't know what I'm thinking.

I understand life, and I understand the trial and tribulations of life, but I have a God who has been so darn good to me. I can't help but acknowledge Him and praise Him every opportunity I get. I don't allow anyone out there to tell me who I am, what I am, and why I am. I have a God that has showed me all of that. That's why I embrace it, and that's why I'm never going to stop praising Him and talking about Him tremendously.

Thank you. Great question, my man.

Q. What is one area where you expect your team to surprise people this coming-up season?

DEION SANDERS: Well, we better win. That's going to be the surprise (laughing). That's the surprise. We better win. We're going to win. I love what I got. I love what I see.

Q. Coach Prime, could you share with us a little bit about the retreat? What were the origins of the retreat, and what was the best --

DEION SANDERS: I don't want to talk about no retreat at my crib. They don't want to hear about that.

Q. I want to hear about it. This is just me and you talking.

DEION SANDERS: We had a good time. You can meet me right around the corner, and I'll tell you everything. We had a good time. The young men, the coaches, the staff, we had a great time. We really did, and we got closer. We bonded. I loved every last minute of it.

I could not wait until they left, but I loved every last minute. You know I'm old school. You got three days at my house. You got to go. Jesus got up on the third day. You can get up too. So you got to go.

But I love you. Let's talk over there. God bless you.