The first game of the post-Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter era did not go according to plan for the Colorado football program and Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders.
With Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter starting at quarterback, Colorado lost to Georgia Tech 27-20 at home. And while Salter's (and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur's) performance left a lot to be desired — he completed 17 of his 28 passes for 159 yards and a touchdown — much of the talk after the game was centered on ‘Coach Prime' and his management (or mismanagement) of the clock down the stretch.
When Salter and the Buffaloes' offense took the field for the final time Friday evening, they had 1:07 left in regulation to drive down the field and score a touchdown. The first play of the drive, a pass behind the line of scrimmage, lost two yards, and despite his player being tackled in bounds, Sanders decided against taking one of his two timeouts. As a result, by the time the next play was snapped, only 45 seconds remained, and the Buffs were 77 yards away from paydirt.
Sanders defended his decision-making on Tuesday.
“Do you call a timeout there? No, you're right there. You don't call a timeout there. You've got to go. You've got to go,” Sanders said, via ESPN. “You're running tempo.”
The next play, an 11-yard completion, was much more successful, but by falling short of a first down and in bounds, the clock continued to tick. Again, Sanders decided not to call a timeout, leaving less than 30 seconds on the game clock when the third play of the drive began.
The third play was the longest of the ill-fated possession, with Salter dropping back and then running horizontally across the field toward the Colorado sideline for a 5-yard gain and a first down, burning 12 seconds. With 18 to go, evidently feeling the need to pick up a lot of yards in little time, Salter heaved a pass 70 yards toward the end zone, but it bounced on the turf in front of his intended receiver, gaining no yards but chewing up 10 seconds in the process.
Salter did complete one more pass for a first down, getting to midfield with three seconds left, but his Hail Mary to the end zone on the final play of the game fell incomplete in the end zone, sealing the Buffaloes' fate.
“If we hit the darn plays, we wouldn't be asking these questions,” Sanders said. “We had the plays. We just didn't make it happen.”
