Colorado’s Deion Sanders Reveals Surprising Buffaloes Stepping Up as Leaders

Deion Sanders emphasized how important leadership is with the voice of the Buffaloes, Mark Johnson on the Colorado Football Coaches Show. He gave a shoutout to his special teams unit.

“The kickers are really the leaders on the team right now. All the specialists, they are doing a fantastic job. Including the return team, they are fantastic as well,” Sanders said. "It’s every coaches dream and desire to have multiple leaders on each side of the ball, including special teams. But that’s not the way it happens.”

Colorado kicker Alejandro Mata has been perfect this season; going 8/8 on extra points and 3/3 on field goals. Deion went on to talk about how one can be a leader. It is something that can’t be faked and has to be authentic. Not everybody has that in them.

“You can’t force it, you can’t forge it, you can’t manipulate it by any means. It has to be a true leader. Guys can’t fake it because their teammates know,” Sanders said. “He may not lead from the front, but he may lead from the back…His practice habits, his preparation, his countenance, academically as well as athletically. It has to be a level of consistency.”

Sanders admitted that back in his playing days, he wasn’t the type of leader that was vocal and instead let his play do the talking. He did however, add that if there was something that needed to be addressed, he would speak out. 

“I was never a vocal guy. I never ‘rah rah’ gave you the big speeches before the game; I never was that guy. I played,” Sanders said. “When something needed to be said, then I would say.”

Deion Sanders Claims 2025 Team Is "Better" Than 2024

It has been a rough start for the Buffaloes in 2025. Colorado is 1-2 with losses to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Houston Cougars. Their lone win was against an FCS team, the Delaware Blue Hens. Despite these struggles, Sanders claims that this Colorado team is a better team that last year’s. The 2024 team had a record of 9-4.

“This may sound crazy but the receiver core is just as good. Let’s just take the elephant out of the room. There’s two elephants; Travis and Shedeur,” Sanders said. “This is a much better team, but we got to have stability from the quarterback position and we have got to have consistency on the defensive side of the ball…We have the personnel, but they got to ball.”

Colorado is having trouble filling the void left by quarterback Shedeur Sanders and cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter after the two were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. Will Deion Sanders be able to find answers and turn the season around before it’s too late?