What Mike Sanford said in tonight's weekly Zoom chat:
On CU players supporting him to be hold a permanent head coach on social media
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"Obviously it means a lot. There are a lot of awesome young men that are fighting through a lot of really hard times. That second quarter stretch (against Washington) going into halftime was probably the rock bottom with regards to the emotional toll that losing causes and a sense of embarrassment. A lot of these guys are going through a lot of hard times. And not just this year. If you look at it, take the COVID year out, I think it's one winning season in 15 years. That takes its toll on players.
One thing I think they crave is to have people that are in their lives on a (yearly) basis. I think they want that continuity. But we all know it is a business, too. I have had a lot of players reach out to me and say, 'Hey, I want to say something.' I am like, 'I don't want you to do say something.' But at the same time, just as a young person, older than 18 years old, obviously if you want to speak your mind, whether it be on social media or you want to speak your mind with a private conversation, you're more than welcome to do that. But I don't want anybody to do with that, to be honest. I have seen that deal before where it goes that direction where there are people politicking and working and lobbying and stuff like that and to me that's just doing stuff that I don't think is appropriate. But, yeah, this group has really grown together this year through adversity. It's a group that has been truly forged in the fire. A quote that I think is kind of significant for us, especially being at CU, is that gold isn't gold until it has gone through the fire. We've gone through the fire and we're continuing to go through it."
On preparing for Senior day emotionally
"It is funny, I think we played with emotion going into the last game it is just everybody has a plan until you get hit in the mouth, the old Mike Tyson quote. I think it is going to be an emotional time for a lot of them. Even Brady Russell is hanging around the office a little bit more than he even normally does, knowing his time here is winding down. As hard as his time has been here, I think he has come to the realization sometimes it is about the relationships, the connections, the sense of belonging that you have to something that is bigger than yourself.
That was really my message in the locker room after the game was, no matter how it shakes out, this group - players, coaches, support staff - we all know we have really six more days together. What are you going to do with that? How are we going to honor these seniors? Part of that for me was I changed the schedule today.
We've had these back-to-back (road trips) where land at 3:30-4:30 am. You're all jacked up. I know me personally being in the office for 12-14 hours, you're kind of running on fumes. So I changed the schedule up just to get everybody some rest. With it being an off week with classes, I want to get guys more sleep. I just want to get whatever magic button that I can push in my role, I want to do that to be able to make sure we have our best for our seniors. That's what this thing is really all about."
On limiting Micheal Penix Jr. to season low (226 yards) in passing
"First of all, I think he is a fantastic player. He did a great job. We changed up our coverage looks. Like the USC game, we knew that they are a team that wants to throw the ball. You have to do everything you can to try to neutralize that aspect of their game. We kind of grew the package from the drop-eight stuff we did against USC, gave it a few more presentations, different disguises that I did think caused some issues.
Obviously when you're facing teams that have a dominant trait, you're going to have to adapt your plan to attempt to at least slow down that dominant trait. In the case of Washington, it was their passing game, and their receiving corps is phenomenal. In that instance, you do rob Peter to pay Paul. I think in the run game, the patience they had as a team paid off.
We tried to milk the clock. That was my plan going into the game was I wanted to be able to just use every last second of the play clock. I know it is painful to watch at times. I would love to play up tempo football but when you have a quarterback and an offense on the other side of the field that is waiting there, the longer they can be on the sideline, the better. I think just executing on third down offensively was what proved to our issue to not be able to stay in this game longer than we did."
On Jordyn Tyson's recent surgery and the timeline for his recovery
"It was the best outcome we could have possibly gotten. When they go in, sometimes you don't know the exact injury it was. Sometimes it is three things and if it is the holy trinity of those type of injuries, sometimes it is a year recovery. He was on the lesser side of what could have possibly happened. So I was really encouraged by that. He was, too.
I would be very surprised if he doesn't play in the 2023 season. It would be very surprising to me. Now, play doesn't mean start game one. I want to be careful that I don't misrepresent that information. But he is such an athletic young man.
He's going to be joining us this weekend. He had his operation done by the Dallas Cowboys team doctors, back close to home, which was great. But he was chomping at the bit to come back and be around his teammates. He wanted to be here for the Utah game and be here for the banquet on Sunday. I think he misses his teammates and misses Boulder."
On what he learned as a coach at CU
"I think it's do the right thing. And do the right thing by the people that you are called to serve. There has been some instances this year where you have to really go through your mind about, hey, what's best for me? What's best for our team? And then, what's best for the player? I would say maybe five, six, seven years ago, I would have made the decision for me, personally for me. And I think I've really changed my tune.
I was talking to (Washington head coach) Kalen DeBoer before the game, what a phenomenal guy he is. He was commenting on just how hard our team is playing. It shows up on film. Everybody knows our situation. It's not a [secret] in terms of the roster, the portal exits, and playing a ton of young players, having walk-on starters and walk-on special teams players. The one thing I told to him, I said, 'This has probably been the hardest year of coaching for me. But it's been the most rewarding, the most satisfying. Just because of the relationships.
I have almost rediscovered in my 18 years... these past couple years in particular, but I think it came full circle this year, is why am I in coaching? That is a real big question. My dad did it my whole life but I can't just say it was the family business. I have learned this year more than ever that I am in it for the relationships, I am in it for the players, I am in it for the impact. I've seen that more so in a short period of time, in 10-11 months (at Colorado), than probably I have in times where I have been at a place for three years."
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