“Don’t say we. I’m sorry. Scratch that. I’m not getting it done all the way around.”
That is Deion Sanders, after a 20-10 loss at Arizona State that left Colorado 3-6 and 1-5 in the Big 12, correcting himself in real time so the blame would land on one man only. It sounds like accountability. I read it as a locked door. When the head coach claims every bit of a failure, nobody gets asked whether anything else needs fixing, and the one person whose job is the failing unit gets to stand behind him.
The failing unit is the offense. Colorado averages a conference-low 19.8 points per game in the Go-Go attack brought by coordinator Brennan Marion. Sanders says he hasn’t given any thought to replacing his play-caller. His review of the coordinators is “a phenomenal job, the best they can.” Asked more about Marion, he fired back: “Is this Killing Brennan Day, today?”
Put those side by side. The season is entirely his fault, and the person calling the plays for the lowest-scoring offense in the conference is doing the best he can. Both can be true only if nothing about the offense is fixable, and nobody believes that about a unit stuck at 19.8.
He also says he isn’t worried about himself. “I ain’t worried about me. I’m good. I’m not worried about me.” And: “I’m not here for my job. I’m here for these young men.” Fine. Then the young men on that offense are the ones who pay for a coordinator nobody is allowed to question, because the coach already took the hit and called it a day.
None of this is new.
https://x.com/BleacherReport/status/2106615551313514910
“It’s on me” is a reflex now, a sentence that ends the conversation before the follow-up question arrives. Say it enough and it stops being a confession and starts working as a shield.
The best case for him is real, and I’ll give it its due. Coaches who point at players, officials or the schedule are everywhere, and one who stands at the podium and says the loss is mine is rarer than it should be. Taking the heat can be leadership. If his offense were humming, I’d call this a strength and move on.
It isn’t humming. He’s 19-27 at Colorado, and 6-15 since Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter left for the NFL. He makes $10 million this year on a contract that runs through 2029, with a buyout of about $25.5 million, so the accountability costs him nothing he can’t absorb. Colorado has to win its last three games to reach bowl eligibility, and the first is Friday night against No. 14 Houston. That is a lot to ask of an offense whose coordinator is getting a vote of confidence instead of a review.
We have covered Colorado’s rematch with Georgia Tech and the NIL fines and salary-cap questions around the program here before. The scoreboard keeps asking the same thing in a different week. A coach who says the whole mess is his, then keeps the person running the offense out of the conversation, has left no room for anyone else to be right about it.
Real accountability would be uncomfortable for more than one person. Claiming all of it while protecting the play-caller costs Sanders a sentence and the offense another Saturday.
