BYU 36, Colorado 14
DEION SANDERS: God bless all of you for being here, for covering us and giving us the love and respect and appreciation that you did, if that's what you did.
Hats off to the Valero Alamo Bowl and all the dignitaries that made it possible for us to be here. They did a phenomenal job of hosting. The persons that reside in this city did a wonderful job of just being a blessing, and the hotel staff and everyone. It was a phenomenal week for us.
We're not happy with the results, but we're happy with the journey of getting here and being here and what transpired during the week.
Wonderful job. Wonderful job by BYU. They're well-coached. They did a phenomenal job of running the football. Special teams kicked our butts. We couldn't do nothing offensively much at all. Defensively I think we had some sound stops, but we didn't eat enough and we came up short.
Not to take nothing away from them. They played a heck of a football game. If I'm going to get my butt kicked, I'd rather get my butt kicked by that coach. I love him to life, man. He's a good man.
Q. Tonight was the end of an incredible chapter in CU football with this senior class. What, if anything, have these men taught you about yourself and coaching these last two years?
DEION SANDERS: Patience. They've taught me a tremendous amount of patience, and they taught me about forgiveness. There's a lot of young men, a lot of things transpired that you guys don't know about and aren't privy to, but I'm a tremendous forgiving person, and I absolutely love these guys. You don't understand, you never get an opportunity to see the subtle "I love yous" that go on between us pregame and postgame and practice and this week's preparation and all of the OBs, Original Buffs, how thankful and appreciative they were that they got an opportunity to come participate in a week of bowl festivities.
Patience and forgiveness and just overall love, man. That's what they've taught me.
Q. Coach, I know you guys are big competitors and everything else. You talked about your relationship with Cam and Shedeur yesterday. How do you try to -- I don't want to say minimize what just happened but try not to have that overshadow the journey and everything else you guys have accomplished in two years?
DEION SANDERS: It won't. That's a wrap. It's over. They're on to the next. They're going to have tremendous careers. They're going to move on. They flush it. They may analyze it on the way home. I know Cam is going to think about it and he's going to think about plays that he made or didn't make, but they're going to flush it in their own to relax a little bit, first and foremost, then get their bodies back right for preparation for combines, pro days, and I think Cam is going to the East-West game, so he has to stay focused on that, as well.
Q. Coach Prime, we saw an emotional father at the beginning of this football game with your sons there. You knew this was coming. When did the reality hit, and how special a journey has it been? You had an opportunity that not many, if any, had.
DEION SANDERS: When we walked. When we did our walk and Shilo was there and looking across the field and I'm seeing Cam and I'm seeing Herm and so many of the other guys that have been on this journey with us, man, that's tough. I've been knowing this young man for a long time, and he's been balling out for a long time. Just the consistency that he has.
And then my sons, man, that's tough. That's tough, to know that that's it, that that walk won't happen again. That's tough. We've been doing this for a long time.
You recollect just the times in youth league and seeing them lay out uniforms in my closet, getting ready for the next game, and he used to have 100 wristbands on his wrist trying to stunt. All of those things I recall.
Q. Shedeur and Travis, you played late into the game regardless of the final score. What went into that decision and what it says about their character to play?
SHEDEUR SANDERS: Yeah, we started it so we had to finish it. That was simply it, no matter what it was, if it was the other way around and we was up, we were still going to play regardless.
Q. Shedeur, can you allow yourself to feel some of those same emotions your father is talking about or are you too much of a competitor, you're mad about what happened out there tonight?
SHEDEUR SANDERS: What emotions are you speaking of?
Q. This being your last game playing for your father.
SHEDEUR SANDERS: Yeah, the reality and all that hasn't kicked in yet. We're just focused on what happened out there and how to fix it going into the off-season and knowing how to prepare and get back healthy.
Q. You talked this week about trying to figure out that BYU defense and how tough it was going to be. What was it about their defense that was tough for you guys to figure out?
SHEDEUR SANDERS: Well, we started to identify and we started to get the rhythm of things, but we just wasn't connecting overall. That's what stopped us overall is ourselves.
Q. How has it been having the new recruits be with the team this week, and what do you think of importance of giving them that experience is?
CAM SILMON-CRAIG: It's been wonderful seeing the guys come in with a hunger. They kind of caught on how we get things done. I know I talked to one guy, I was like, it's your first time getting yelled at by Coach Prime so you're getting broke in. But these guys coming in, they're very -- they're way more humble than I thought. These guys are very quiet trying to listen and learn everything, so I'm going to be happy for these guys coming in. They're going to do some big things.
Q. Cam and Shedeur, what has it meant the last two years to put on the black and gold and represent CU?
CAM SILMON-CRAIG: It's meant everything just to be here and be here and be able to play under this wonderful tradition, play for Ms. Peggy and play for all these wonderful fans. It's been everything just to grind again with my coach, grind again with Coach Prime, Coach Hart, Coach Mathis. I've been with these guys for a minute so it means a lot to be successful with these guys one last time.
SHEDEUR SANDERS: It felt great representing Colorado and bringing it back to where it was in the past. We kind of, I'll say, relayed the foundation of the program, so now it's able for the other players coming in to take off and pick up where we left off.
Q. Where did you feel like you struggled offensively tonight?
SHEDEUR SANDERS: Everywhere. Yeah, there was nothing that we did great tonight.
DEION SANDERS: Ditto.
Q. Tonight aside, the two years that you guys have had here, how will you look back? For Shedeur and Cam, how will you remember your time in Colorado? You talked about what an impact, but how will you remember it when you look back?
CAM SILMON-CRAIG: I think about the work. I think about the brotherhood that we built. I love those guys in the locker room with all my heart. They mean a lot to me, so I think about the brotherhood when I look back on it and the way that we bond and have so much fun.
SHEDEUR SANDERS: I think time away will because right now we're all in this situation and we just came from a loss, so that's kind of what's on the forefront of our minds. But I would say within the next week when we're all separated, when we're all not together anymore, then I feel like I'll go back and be able to think about those times.
Q. Coach, when you look at the work your coordinators did this year, Pat Shurmur and Robert Livingston, what would you say about their body of work and their resume stepping into these new roles?
DEION SANDERS: They did a wonderful job. I'm proud of them. I love them. They know how to communicate with all of our young men. They really put them in positions for them to be extremely successful, and I love where we're headed. I'm proud of those two. Not just those two, the whole staff. I'm pretty sure a couple of them are going to come in my office about elevation because people are going to want them on their staffs, and that's what we're here for. We're here to advance people. You either get terminated or elevated; it's either going to be one of the two sooner or later.
Q. A 9-4 season, a Heisman winner and plenty other accomplishments and improvements across the board from year one to year two. What do you think you've established in the program that you can carry on and take the team to the next level?
DEION SANDERS: Expectation. We've established expectation. So now you expect us to perform a certain way. You expect us to win. You expect us to be exciting. You expect us to be a lot more disciplined than we displayed today. You just have expectations of us now. That's what we've established.
Q. Coach, as some of your players start to depart to the NFL, what have those messages been like as they prepare to hopefully have some great NFL careers?
DEION SANDERS: Well, we've got two up here, so you guys talk about them.
CAM SILMON-CRAIG: We always had a professional mindset going into everything. We always tried to move like a pro. Just being around him for so long, six years, so I feel like just every day he gives me different things to being a pro.
DEION SANDERS: You said that. I felt that. God, that's a long time.
SHEDEUR SANDERS: I would say just by the way he established and just the way he goes about everything, the way how he makes us go about everything, I feel like that's already instilled in us, so I don't really see a big change, a big difference, besides just the level of it. But everything outside of that, I feel like we had the full experience our years in college.
Q. For Coach and Shedeur, top four receivers in terms of production this year, headed to the next level. For both of you, how confident are you in kind of the young guys in that receiving room to be able to continue to stand there moving forward and continue to be productive?
SHEDEUR SANDERS: Great because those young guys played and helped us out tremendously, so they understand the standard. They understand overall even just playing with me, so they know out of the next quarterback that comes in, which they're both already here, they know the standard and they know what they should be doing, and they'll be able to communicate and still have contact with me to be able to still help them out overall.
Q. Unfortunately it did not end the way you wanted it to, but more importantly this season left a legacy for not only CU but for college football, and being able to wrap up the season and leave a footprint on college football and how we recruit, market and display yourselves, what does that mean to you, the legacy not only for CU but for college football?
DEION SANDERS: I don't think we consider that at all. We really don't care. We don't know what that means, the legacy. We're just trying to develop these young men, win games, make sure they're consistent men in the community with their relationships, with their families, and then school. Trust me, to get an education. We don't think about it like that. We're thankful we play a role in that, but that does not enter our mindset, not one bit.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports