Colorado State coach 'tired' of all the Colorado and Deion Sanders hype ahead of Rocky Mountain Showdown
Colorado State and coach Jay Norvell are ready to move on from the hype surrounding Colorado and Deion Sanders.
The Rams play the Buffaloes on Saturday in a game that will be televised on ESPN and preceded by both ESPN and Fox's pregame shows on-site in Boulder. Colorado is 2-0 after wins over TCU and Nebraska to start the season and plays its in-state rival before opening its Pac-12 schedule against Oregon and USC.
On his coaches show Wednesday, Norvell said that both he and Colorado State’s players were “tired” of all the attention Sanders and his program were receiving.
“We had to do a bunch of ESPN videos and that’s great, I love them,” Norvell said. “But our kids came out of those videos really with a chip on their shoulder. They’re tired of all that stuff. They really are tired of it. And I sat down with ESPN today and I don’t care if they hear it in Boulder, I told them I took my hat off, I took my glasses off and I said, ‘When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That’s what my mother taught me.’
“They’re not going to like us no matter what we say or do, doesn’t matter. So let’s go up there and play. And so that’s just how I feel about it. I don’t mean to take over the show but I’m just tired of it. I’m tired of all that stuff. And I know everybody else is too. So let’s go play.”
The glasses and hat comment is clearly directed at the Pro Football Hall of Famer Sanders. He’s done numerous televised interviews with a hat and sunglasses on inside. In an interview aired before Colorado’s Week 1 game against TCU, he even gave Fox’s Erin Andrews a pair of sunglasses.
It didn't take long for members of the Sanders family to notice, either. Deion Sanders Jr. — whose media company has been chronicling his father's coaching career — had a suggestion for pregame ceremonies in Boulder.
Ralphie gotta run out with shades & a hat on this week
— Deion Sanders Jr (@DeionSandersJr) September 14, 2023
Shortly after that tweet, Sanders Jr.'s media company put out a video from Colorado's practice where his father talked about what Norvell said to the team.
“Why would you talk about us when we don’t talk about nobody,” Sanders told his team. “All we do is go out here, work our butts off and do our jobs on the field. But when they give us ammunition, they done messed around and made it [personal].”
“It was just going to be a good game. They messed around and made it [personal].”
The elder Sanders said after his team's win at TCU that he keeps "receipts" and his son Shedeur Sanders said he felt the team was disrespected by Nebraska ahead of its Week 2 win when the Huskers gathered at midfield ahead of the game. The theme of Colorado's season through the first two weeks has been an us-vs.-them mentality and Norvell did nothing to dissuade that theme from continuing with what he said Wednesday night.
The Buffaloes' victory over TCU to start the season was one of the biggest upsets of the opening weekend. And if Colorado State beats the Buffaloes, the Rams’ win would be one of the biggest upsets of Week 3. Colorado is a 23.5-point favorite at home over a Colorado State team that has played just once so far this season. CSU opened the season with a 50-24 home loss to Washington State and was off in Week 2.
Colorado State is also looking to end a five-game Colorado win streak in the series that dates back to 2015. Colorado State’s last win came in 2014 with a 31-17 win. The teams haven’t played since 2019, but Colorado has won the last four games by a combined 104 points.
