After starting the 2023 college football season like a house on fire with three wins in a row, Deion Sanders and Colorado football have their backs pressed hard against the wall. The Buffaloes have now lost two in a row, both against rivals in the Pac-12. The first one was a devastating 42-6 loss in Eugene to the Oregon Ducks and the second was a 48-41 defeat at home at the hands of Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans. The current struggles of his team, however, have given Sanders an opportunity to issue a challenge to his team, per Kyle Bonagura and Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.

“We're yet to have an identity,” Deion Sanders said. “I challenged them all week on: ‘What's our identity?' I don't know who we are. From week to week, I don't know what we're going to do. From practice to practice I do, but we've got to translate that into the games. So we're still searching.”

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It is not only Colorado football players who will have to step up. Sanders knows that his coaching abilities are also being put to the test amid the slide of the Buffaloes, who have already been taken out of the Top 25 rankings.

Still in search of their first win in conference play, the Buffaloes will hit the road this week to face the Arizona State Sun Devils in Tempe this coming Saturday. If Sanders' words have a major impact on Colorado football players, it should show in the upcoming showdown against the Sun Devils.