Why Deion Sanders Remains Hopeful For Colorado Buffaloes' Turnaround

Ahead of this weekend's game against the No. 22 Iowa State Cyclones, "Coach Prime" spoke on why he's still optimistic about this season.

"We're playing good football, except for a couple of quarters," Sanders said. "Defensively, you may give up the third quarters that haven't been kind. Offensively, coming back out of halftime as well hasn't been kind. The first two quarters, we played pretty decent football. Second quarter, we got to do a lot better. But the reason I'm still excited about this team that just finished practicing is because I don't feel like we've gotten that butt kicked."

In their past two games, Colorado led BYU and TCU 14-0 early before collapsing. Quarterback Kaidon Salter couldn't build off promising first quarters, and the Buffs' defense committed too many costly mistakes.

"I feel like we've just wrapped it up and given it to them, and that's frustrating," Sanders said. "But also, there's hope in that, that we see where we're messing up at. We see where the faults are, and we got to fix that, so there's truly optimism."

Colorado's offensive and defensive line play is reason for optimism. So is a talented freshman class that includes wide receiver Quentin Gibson, quarterback Julian "JuJu" Lewis and defensive ends Alexander McPherson and London Merritt. However, many of the Buffs' veterans must step up over the next six games.

"I'm sure you see the same darn thing like, 'Dang, here we go again,'" Sanders said. "We're right there. We're not a bad football team. I'm not saying we're a great football team, but we're not a bad football team. We're better than we're playing."

How Colorado Can Upset No. 22 Iowa State

The injury-riddled Cyclones proved beatable in Saturday's 38-30 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats. After falling behind 17-0 early, the Cyclones engineered a spirited comeback attempt but ultimately failed to get enough stops late in their first loss of the season.

For Colorado, beating Iowa State will require a bounce-back game from Salter, continued strong play in the trenches and better execution late.

"They've been good for a long time," Sanders said of Iowa State. "They didn't just get good. They're consistent. There's some blemishes that we can take advantage of. I'm pretty sure they're saying the same thing, but I feel like it's going to be a good contest. What we're working on right now is we've been getting out to a great start and relinquishing those leads. That's not going to happen prayerfully."