Deion Sanders tells players to "make up their minds" if they love football

Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders wasn't about any "foolishness" during early Saturday morning's press conference. The Hall-of-Famer was frustrated with how his team fell apart in the 46-43 double overtime loss to Stanford and issued a challenge to his players.

“They gotta make up their mind, are they in love with this game or like it,” Sanders said. “When you love something, you give to it unconditionally. You give everything you got to it. But when you like it, that’s just a button you push."

The Buffs went into the matchup heavily-favored and took a 29-0 lead into halftime. They looked virtually unstoppable with Shedeur Sanders rattling off a Heisman-type performance early. However, CU came out of the locker room flat and got outworked on defense.

It's a hard conversation for Sanders to have with others. There are few in the football world like him and carry his tenacity. He's considered one of the best for a reason and expects that level of athleticism from his players. The fact they blew a 29-point lead, which is the worst in CU history, doesn't help.

“It’s hard for me because I love this. Without a shadow of a doubt, I am truly 100 percent in love with this thing. I just want people to match me. Match my passion, match my heart, match my love, match my consistency.”

This was similar to the message of his 'Louis Luggage' speech from the beginning of the season, but toned down a bit. Sanders will have extra time to pick up the pieces over the bye week. Colorado enters the second part of the season needing two wins for postseason eligibility. No doubt that becomes harder to do with a loss to Stanford, who many believed would be CU's only win of the season.

Colorado fans compare this loss to the 2010 collapse vs. Kansas or the 2018 meltdown against Oregon State. The Buffs blew a 28-point lead in both contests and finished those respective seasons without postseason play at 5-7.