Shedeur Sanders Comes to Dad Deion Sanders’ Defense as CU HC Forced to Clear Major Blunder

Deion Sanders’ late-game clock management was seen as a blunder in Colorado’s 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech. Once Haynes King’s 45-yard TD run put the Yellow Jackets ahead, Colorado had just over a minute and 2 timeouts to try to move the ball and force overtime. But during that crucial time, the Buffaloes could only run six plays. The biggest misstep that left fans shaking their heads was Deion’s handling of his timeouts. But when the world was busy criticizing the head coach, his son Shedeur Sanders ensured he always had one person in his corner.

On Friday night, with 50 seconds left and a 2nd-and-12 from their own 23, Kaidon Salter connected with Hykeem Williams for 11 yards. It was just short of a first down. Then, with two timeouts in hand, Deion Sanders chose to not use them. But the Buffs didn’t snap the ball again until 28 seconds remained. So, in just two plays, they gained nine net yards while burning 39 precious seconds: a textbook example of poor clock management. Despite all that, Coach Prime appeared unaware of the big clock management mistake when asked after the game.

On August 29, Shedeur Sanders jumped to his dad’s defense on Twitter, writing, “They’ll figure things out. They have a great head coach.” Surely, no one can doubt Deion’s potential. After taking over Colorado in 2023, he turned a 1–11 team into a 9–4 squad in 2024, earning a top-25 finish and an Alamo Bowl berth. He even snagged the Eddie Robinson Award in 2021. Yet, despite all that success, his latest misstep with clock management has fans raising eyebrows. But what did Deion actually say?

Deion Sanders tried to clear the air on the late-game clock fiasco. “I think we got out of bounds a couple of times,” said Sanders. “So we didn’t have to take them. So that’s what transpired. We got out of bounds, I think on both sidelines, and that’s what happened.” Then he explained that Colorado gained nine yards on the play, leaving just one yard short of a first down, where the clock would have naturally stopped.

“We were just really trying to preserve [the timeouts] to when we certainly needed them,” added Sanders. “I don’t wanna go home with no timeouts, they don’t do me no good, but you gotta be strategic as well. Just burning timeouts just to burn them so you guys don’t say nothing, that don’t make no sense.” With that, Deion Sanders attempted to defend the reasoning behind a sequence that left fans frustrated but showcased his focus on strategy over panic. And his explanation just made things worse.

End-of-game situations are all about chances, maximizing every opportunity to move the ball and score. On Friday night, Colorado let nearly 40 seconds tick away on just two plays. So, Coach Prime’s decision was poor. And his explanation? Even worse, showing a clear misunderstanding of clock management. Sure, Colorado might not have won even with perfect timeout use, but giving the offense a few more shots at the end zone would have been huge.

ESPN’s Dusty Dvoracek weighed in on Deion Sanders

ESPN’s Dusty Dvoracek called the Boulder game and didn’t hold back on Deion Sanders’ clock management. Speaking with Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter, he said, “Really poor clock management. There’s really no other way to look at it. Maybe even after the first play, you call a timeout. Definitely after the second play. You gotta call a timeout. Every second is so precious in that scenario, and you got two timeouts in your back pocket.” However, he didn’t stop there.

Dvoracek hammered the point home: letting precious time slip away was inexcusable. “The last thing you ever want to do in a situation like this is it comes down to the end and you’re fighting with the clock, is to end the game with multiple timeouts in your pocket,” he said. Then he added that the mistake is a lesson for Sanders, the coaching staff, and the players.

“That’s something that Coach Sanders, Coach Shurmur has got to learn from and get better from moving forward. And same goes for the quarterback Kaidon Salter.” Now the question is whether this blunder will push them to sharpen their clock management in the next game or they continue to falter when faced with such scenarios.