Is the SEC Stuck?
The SEC has been considered the dominant CFB conference since 2006. But as Dan Wolken and Paul Myerberg explain, these teams don’t have the same wow factor they’re known for.
BOULDER, Colo. – Deion Sanders told the world last week that his Colorado Buffaloes would never be as bad as they were in their last game against Oregon.
A game later, it seemed like he was wrong. The Buffs stumbled again early, falling behind by 27 points in the first half.
But then the magic came: quarterback Shedeur Sanders, his son, continued to fight. In the second half a new star was born. And then the Colorado football team got within seven points in the final two minutes before falling 48-41 to No. 6 Southern California.
“I’m really proud,” Sanders said after his team beat USC 27-14 in the second half.
In the end he said that it came down to one thing:
“What is our identity?” Sanders said. “I don’t know who we are. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I do that from practice to practice, but we have to translate it into games. So we are still searching for our true identity.”
The loss moves Colorado to 3-2 after starting the season 3-0 and suffering a stunning 42-6 loss at Oregon last week.
What happened?
For a while, this week seemed like a repeat of last week, as the Buffs faced another high-scoring heavyweight and fell behind 35-0 at halftime. This time, Colorado fell behind 34-7 late in the second quarter before showing signs of life in front of a national television audience on Fox and another sellout crowd at Folsom Field (54,032).
It turned out that USC quarterback Caleb Williams was too much for Colorado. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner threw four touchdown passes in the first half and finished the game with six 30-of-40 passes for 403 yards and one interception for the Trojans (5-0).
“This kid is a total hit,” Sanders said.
The same goes for Sanders’ son Shedeur, the quarterback who nearly brought the Buffs back together before a late Colorado onside kick attempt failed in the final two minutes and USC ran out of time. The final Colorado touchdown came with 1:43 left when Shedeur Sanders hit receiver Jimmy Horn down the middle of the field for a 16-yard touchdown pass.
“We just can’t be bored with the simple things,” said Shedeur Sanders. “We just had to embrace it and understand that this is not going to be a review of last week.”
That was in large part because a new star emerged for Colorado – freshman receiver Omarion Miller. He finished the game with seven catches, setting a new school record of 196 yards and a touchdown, along with a 9-yard reception on fourth-and-5. The final play required vision and precision from Shedeur Sanders, who rolled to his right and found Miller behind a USC defender as he slid downfield. It helped cut USC’s lead to 48-34 with 11:55 remaining.
Who is Omarion Miller?
Miller is a four-star recruit from Vivian, Louisiana, a small town in the northwest part of the state. Before the second half of Saturday’s game, he had never caught a pass in college. Now he’s a rising star being mentored by the likes of Michael Irvin, the former Dallas Cowboys star receiver and friend of coach Deion Sanders.
“It was crazy,” Miller said. “I dreamed about playing like that last night.”
Afterwards, even Sanders expressed surprise at Miller’s performance. Sanders said Miller didn’t play much before Saturday because he didn’t show it in practice.
“I didn’t think we were going to get that from (Miller),” Sanders said. “I hadn’t seen that before.”
Shedeur Sanders also had to remind reporters how to pronounce his teammate’s name with a long “O,” as in “ow-ma-ree-aan,” according to the school.
“Everyone, it’s my man Omarion,” said Shedeur Sanders, who completed 30 of 45 passes for 371 yards and four touchdowns with one interception.
Miller has up to three more seasons left after this season.
“If you don’t see what’s coming with CU football, you’ve lost your mind, you’re just an absolute hater,” Deion Sanders said. “If you can’t see what’s going on and what’s going to happen in the next few months, there’s something wrong with you.”
What happened after halftime?
It didn’t help Colorado that it had to play Williams without three top players on its defensive backfield due to injuries – star cornerback receiver Travis Hunter, starting safety Shilo Sanders and Myles Slusher, a safety transfer from Arkansas.
“No excuses, but three short, three starters short in the secondary,” Deion Sanders said.
That pushed security guard Rodrick Ward to take more comprehensive action. Ward, a Southern Utah graduate, had recorded just three tackles before Saturday. He finished Saturday with nine total tackles and said the Buffs “calmed down” after halftime and “got their eyes on the right place.”
The Colorado defense then reduced USC’s yards per play from 10.1 in the first half to 5.2 in the second half.
Offensively, Colorado outgained USC by 564-498 total yards after a strong showing behind Shedeur Sanders. He led the Buffs to touchdowns on four of their last five possessions, reminiscent of his first game for Colorado on Sept. 2, when the Buffs beat TCU 45-42.
“Today we got a glimpse of who our identity is when we play good football,” said Shedeur Sanders. “And we only had a taste of that in the first week. We know no matter what happens, we have to go out there and score on every drive. I feel like we developed our mindset in the second half.”
Deion Sanders describes his team’s progress
“Coach Prime” suggested that his team didn’t need a fiery halftime speech to shine in the second half.
“I don’t have time to try to fire you up and give you the most dynamic speech I can intellectually formulate and use some real words that I looked up in my vocabulary and in the … thesaurus,” Deion Sanders said . “I don’t have time for that today. I just wanted them to get out of there. I want them to lift me up, you know, motivate me and encourage me, not that I need it. But I wanted to flip the script because I knew what they had in them and all they had to do was believe. And regardless of the color of the opposing teams’ uniforms, they just have to believe. And they do that week after week. It grows.”
He also explained what he ultimately wants his team to look like. He didn’t see it on Saturday.
“The team I envisioned would play four solid quarters and be very physical, really tough and determined and just make an impact and leave an impression on not only the opposing team but the coaching staff and our fan base,” said he said. “That’s what we want to do.”
Was it a moral victory?
Both Shedeur and Deion Sanders were asked about it. Do you believe in moral victories?
“I don’t know what that means,” Shedeur Sanders said.
This is still a program that finished 1-11 last year and then revamped its roster under Deion Sanders, moving many players away from last year’s team while adding 68 scholarship freshmen from a roster limit of 85.
Sanders said he didn’t believe in anything like that either, but was proud of his team and said, “That was fun.”
This time there were even more celebrities and famous former athletes there. Rapper DaBaby was here. So did NBA legends Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, as well as a record 892 certified media representatives.
After the game, Shedeur Sanders also welcomed the game’s biggest star – Caleb Williams.
“Deion and this team brought a lot of energy to Colorado and it was great,” Williams said. “We love being on the go. There’s just something about taking to the streets. You get up early in the morning and can’t sleep at night. It’s fun. It’s fun. They did a great job and it’s fun, like I said, but in the end we got the win, which is the most important thing.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]