WATCH: Colorado Buffaloes at Pac-12 Media Day
The Colorado Buffaloes made the trip to Las Vegas without coach Deion Sanders, who's currently recovering from a second blood clot surgery. Buffs defensive coordinator Charles Kelly went in Prime's place, along with quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way stud Travis Hunter.
Here's the full transcript from the video (above)
THE MODERATOR: Joined by Charles Kelly, the defensive coordinator. Have you talked to Coach Prime? How did surgery go? How were his spirits?
CHARLES KELLY: We've texted a couple times. I've checked with the people around him. He's doing a lot better. I know his number one thing is to be able to get back so he can lead these players in the fall. He asked me to do this. This was a big honor for me. We're here, but he's doing great. You can bet once fall camp gets here, he'll be ready to go.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Obviously Travis Hunter is expected to play both ways this year. How do you envision that playing out week-to-week?
KELLY: First of all, there are very few players that have the ability to do what Travis can do. Coach Prime has a solid plan on what he wants to do with him on both sides of the ball. Coach has made it very clear that you got to master one side before you can start playing another. I thought Coach Mathis and Coach Prime did an incredible job with Travis last year at Jackson State.
When you talk to this young man about playing corner, he understands how to play the game, he understands the technique, he knows what we're doing on defense. What we did in the spring was we let him play more offense because he needed to develop more as a wide receiver when it comes to route running, those kind of things.
It will be one of those situations where Coach will make sure that he has a plan going into the game how we're going to use him. I can tell you this: If a guy can put points on the scoreboard, he's going to play for us.
Q. When did you learn that Coach Prime was going to be having this procedure, you're going to be standing in? Have you ever done the amount of media that you have had to do today?
KELLY: I found out, I guess, just a few days ago that wasn't going to be able to make it. He asked me if I would do it. I said I'd be honored to do it. We have a lot of people on our staff that are capable of being here. We have a great coaching staff, a great support team, not only just on-the-field coaches, but everybody we have in the organization, I think Coach has put an incredible group together.
It's been good to be here. I've been able to see these, first of all, great players that are in this conference, and also the great coaches that are here. I have a ton of respect for the coaches in this conference, what they've accomplished. I've got a ton of respect for the players that are here. It's a big challenge for us. I'm proud of our players, of what our guys have done since they've been here.
Travis and Shedeur, they've shown a lot of class. We just want to represent the University of Colorado. We want to represent our fans, represent our administration, the whole Buff Nation.
Q. Obviously it's a brand-new roster from last season. One of the holdovers is in your room with Trevor Woods at safety. What impressed you so much with him that he was not only able to earn a number but running with the first team defense?
KELLY: I think one of the things, you ask about Trevor, first of all, Trevor bought into everything that we were trying to accomplish as a team. It was very obvious. He tried to buy into what we were teaching. He believes in what Coach Prime -- the vision that Coach Prime has set for the program. That's what we're looking for as far as players.
I think he really improved in what we were asking him to do. He's a very conscientious young man. He's one of those guys that asks a lot of questions. He can adjust. He can process the game very well. I'm excited. He's worked very hard this summer, along with the entire group.
I mean, our whole defense, that a lot of the guys that have been new, I've been very impressed with the way those guys have worked. We have a lot of new guys in the secondary. I've been very impressed with the way they've worked. Our entire team has worked very hard. That's a tribute to all of our coaches, our support staff, and all of the players for the effort they put into it.
Q. From a defensive perspective, when you watch your quarterback like Shedeur Sanders play, how does it make it difficult for your secondary?
KELLY: First of all, the quarterbacks in this league are just absolutely incredible. It's very impressive group. Might I say I'm pretty proud of our quarterback also. I think Shedeur has done some incredible things in his career.
I'm anxious to watch what he can do, some of the numbers that he's put up. But to your question, I mean, every quarterback in this conference is different. When you watch them play, they have a unique skill set that is a little bit different from week-to-week. That puts a challenge on us calling the defense or going into a game with a game plan. We have to be a little bit strategic on how we control each of these guys a little bit different.
The one thing in today's football that you have to do, you have to be able to affect the quarterback. You don't necessarily have to sack him all the time, but you have to affect the quarterback. You have to be able to get him off the spot.
The thing that I see in this conference, a lot of these guys do well, even when you get them off of their spot, they can move, they can buy time in the pocket, and they use their eyes downfield, and they're very accurate downfield. Watching these guys, that's what I see. It's a big challenge for us every week.
Q. This whole team, but your defense especially, is loaded with guys that came from a lower level or Power Five and they weren't playing a whole lot. A lot of hunger to prove themselves. When you have an entire group like that, how much can that help you build a defense?
KELLY: Well, you're right. We do have guys that are coming from different conferences. But the one thing we have is we've gotten a lot of guys that are coming in that have played a lot of football where they've been. They've been in games. They've been in big games. People ask about playing at the FCS level, a guy moving up.
I think if you look at college football over the last few years since of transfer portal has been in play, there have been a lot of guys that have made that jump from the FCS level to Division I, Power Five, and they've had good careers. The NFL, they don't care where you play at. They want to evaluate and see how you play, and can you play good, can you be consistent.
Yeah, I'm sure a lot of those guys want to be able to prove that, hey, I'm worthy to be at this level. That is important. But I think what our players need to understand is, What can I do every single day to make myself a better player, go through the process of becoming that player, then you're going to get the results that you want. The guys that have been in other conferences that are coming, they'll bring some experience to our team that we need. We welcome that. We're looking forward to it. Now we have to make sure everybody is on the same page, going in the same direction.
Q. We've all season what a master marketeer that Coach Prime is. There is an old saying in business: Hire slow, fire fast. I don't think anybody in this room has seen a roster turn over so dramatically as it did in the off-season. Is there any sense as an assistant coach or within the staff that nobody's job is safe, there's high expectations for you as a staff member to toe the rope, get your job done, otherwise you could be gone? Is there a sense of urgency that this Colorado program has to win right away?
KELLY: There's a sense of urgency. In fact, I can tell you nobody outside is going to put any more pressure on us than we're going to put on ourselves. Coach Prime made it very clear his vision from the beginning. That's one thing.
One of the things that I respect most about him is he tells the truth. He made it very clear what his vision for our program was. As a leader, what you do is you make sure everybody in the organization understands your vision. We all understand that vision. It's not necessarily fear for our jobs; it's just this is our vision for where we want to go.
We want to do it now. We've taken criticism. That's fine. People have their opinion to say what they want to. But we did within what the rules allow for us to be able to create the best roster possible for the University of Colorado. We don't apologize for that.
So what our job is now is to make sure we coach and we develop and we bring these players along. Every day when you're in college coaching, you do three things: you evaluate, you recruit, and you develop. You do that on a daily basis. Coach does that. In organization, our team, with our staff, he's evaluating every day. If he can make something better, he's going to make it better.
Again, not fear for our job necessarily that we have a sense of urgency, it's just a sense of urgency that, hey, this is what we got to do to bring Colorado football back to where our fans deserve it.
Q. What makes Shedeur such a special quarterback in terms of coming from Jackson State?
KELLY: First of all, I love this question because I love Shedeur and what he brings to the table as a quarterback. I've been very fortunate to be on some teams with some very good quarterbacks. They all have some really good characteristics. The first thing is Shedeur is very smart, all right? He understands the game. He understands what people are giving him.
One of the most important things that a quarterback can do is to make good decisions. He makes good decisions. We go against him in practice, and I watch him. He has a strong arm. He's very accurate. What I call hand talent, the guy has hand talent, very accurate with the football. He's got all of those things. He's got the traits that make him a great quarterback.
Look at his numbers. Look at what he's accomplished. Look at his completion percentage. Look at how many yards he's thrown for. Look at how many games he's won. I mean, one of the most important statistics there is for a quarterback is how many games you help your team win. When you look at his numbers, that's pretty impressive. Now, in his defense, he can't help who he was playing against. It's like when we recruit a player out of high school, there may be a player playing at a higher classification, then there's a player playing in a little bit lower classification.
Well, this player is dominating this lower classification, what makes him not relevant to play at our level. He can't help who he's playing against. Production is what you look for. I think Shedeur has all of the attributes to be a productive quarterback in any level. I've known him since he was a freshman in high school. I've watched him develop. We recruited him at Alabama. I've been very impressed with what I've seen.
Q. Ranked at 11th in the pre-season media poll. What was your reaction of that? From looking from the outside, could you understand where maybe the media is coming from in putting the Buffs at 11?
KELLY: If we all went off predictions, we wouldn't kick the ball off or play the game. I don't think any of our coaches, any of our players -- I'm sure they'll use that as a motivation tool to want to play better.
But listen, what we're focused on is being the best football team we can possibly be. That has nothing to do with an outcome of a game, where you're picked or where you're expected to place. How we work or develop as a team, how we come together as a team, that's what's going to determine whether we win or not. It will be all about us. It won't be about anybody else or anybody's prediction. It's fun for the fans, fun for everybody to see those things.
At the end of the day, it's going to be about how you produce and execute on Saturdays. That's what we've got to do.
Q. You come from Alabama, Nick Saban. Are there similarities between Saban and Sanders?
KELLY: Absolutely. First of all, let me say this. Working for Coach Saban was great. It was an honor. Coaching for him, you see things, you look at things different than maybe you did before. He's influenced so many coaches across this country. A lot of these guys that are head coaches right now, they wouldn't be where they were at unless it was for Coach Saban.
That being said, you ask the similarities. People ask me that all the time. There are a lot more similarities about Coach Saban and Coach Prime than there are differences. When I say that, I always say this first of all. First of all, they're very good men, right? Very good men. They have conviction. When they believe in something, they fight for it, all right? That's a sign of a good person.
They tell you the truth. They tell you what is the truth, not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. To me they're very similar in that aspect.
The other thing is they have a way of setting a standard. They're not going to deviate off that standard. That standard is the standard. They're not going to come off of it. Everybody that works with them is going to be the same way. When the standard is the standard, understand you're a leader, you bring people to that standard, that's how you elevate your program. Those are the similarities I see between Coach Saban and Coach Prime
Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter
THE MODERATOR: Can we talk about the shoes right away. This is excellent.
SHEDEUR SANDERS: Something I pulled out of the closet.
THE MODERATOR: Good to have you with us. On a serious note, check in on your father, how is he doing?
SANDERS: He's doing good. I talked to him. Everything is good.
Q. How has Media Day been for you?
SANDERS: Been real long. We answered the same question probably like 30 times (smiling).
Q. Shedeur, what makes you feel like you're not only one of the better quarterbacks in the Pac-12 but in the country? When you guys are going at it in practice, what gets the team more hyped, Travis trying to pick you off or you throwing him a touchdown?
SANDERS: Luckily right now Travis is on my side. Whenever he's on the other side, I definitely try to go at him to work on my game, too. To challenge the receivers, if they can't win against him, how are they going to win in the game? It goes back and forth. The beautiful thing about football, if my receivers win against him, he's going to work on his game. It's just an ongoing chess match.
Q. What makes Colorado different from Jackson State?
SANDERS: I've been here before. I always did the same thing, just on a different level. This is the first time actually able with all the cameras out, on a bigger stage, that I'm able to perform and be myself.Everything in this nature is 360 to me. We did it in Jackson. We just come to Colorado and do it again.
Q. Travis, if you had to pick right now offense or defense, what are you going to play?
HUNTER: No, I'm not picking at all (smiling). I got to play both.
SANDERS: If he picked defense, I would have been mad at him. He wouldn't have gotten a ride home tonight.
Q. You're big names in this massive sport. I'm sure you see other people's expectations. Heisman candidate, one of the best two-way players in the last 20 years. How do you deal with other people's expectations versus your own realities?
HUNTER: I mean, you just got to block that type of stuff out. You know what you're here to do, what you're here to contribute. Me, I don't even really pay attention to what everybody else have the standard set for me. I just go out to play my game, get to the next step.
SANDERS: Everybody's opinion doesn't really matter. We won't let that negative energy in the building, around us, social media. We don't pay it no mind because that's the expectation. Without any negative energy, how will we ever be successful? If they hating, feel some type of way we're not going to do this or that, that's fine, that's good, because whenever we do it, it's going to be bigger than ever.
Q. Travis, a new opportunity in Boulder. Where are you right now in terms of your health and the excitement?
HUNTER: Right now I'm good. I'm ready to go out there and play, go out and perform how I'm supposed to perform. What everybody else is saying they want me to do, I'm out there to exceed and just be great.
Q. For nobody that's watched you play before, how would you describe your game?
HUNTER: Freakish athlete that can play both of the sides of the ball.
SANDERS: He is, though. He definitely is. I feel like this is the first time he's actually fully healthy. It's just different. The things, like, we're able to see and know the same -- even whenever we get different coverages, we're able to think the same way, know the same thing simultaneously. It's just amazing. That's why I love him whenever he at receiver. When he's at DB, though, I got to see it.
Q. So many new faces since spring ball in this roster. How have you made sure they get up to speed football-wise?
HUNTER: We pretty much just throw them in the fire. They got to join the loop. Play with us, move everything fast. You got to catch on quickly with us.
SANDERS: They know my dad. They know Coach Prime, the rest of the staff. They know they're not playing around about that. They already got a great idea how things is before they came. We're going to do research before we go anywhere.
My brother's YouTube channel and everything like that, they're going to tune in and see what it's like. They get there, it's authentic, nothing is fabricated, everything is going to be pretty natural. When everybody gets around, understands we're humans, too, everybody is the same.
As my dad, the coach, the guy that had the gold jacket and everything like that, whenever he's getting on to you, they're going to take it different. He's seen greatness, he still is, but he expect the same thing out of us.
Deion Sanders via PR Newswire
Q. On YouTube, the thing that kept me watching all of them was the real bond and the joy that you have with your family -- your mom, sister, brother, dad. How would you describe that family unit?
SANDERS: The family bond is real. I recognize that just sitting back looking at it from a different point of view. That's why I use the word 'legendary'. Everything we done so far has been legendary. The journey we've been on is legendary. That's why the word means so much to me.
Just thinking back three years ago, if we knew we was going to be in this position, we wouldn't have imagined we'd be right here right now. It's just surreal. We thankful.
We just documenting and show it for everybody else to see.
Q. Shedeur and Mr. Hunter, you all played with authentic joy at Jackson State. How are you going to take that joy and bring that to Colorado?
SANDERS: To bring the joy, just playing loose and being yourself. A lot of people don't want to be their self and be uptight and so serious. The reason I love how Travis play, him and Shilo is the same in a sense, they going to play around, but when it's time to lock in, they're going to lock in and still be human.
Everybody's focused, but it's just not overly to where it's not good for you. So that's just how everybody just be their self. If somebody is getting bombed in practice or anything like that, we're going to tell them during it, shoot them straight on how it is.
They going to respond to it or they're not. Everybody that's at Colorado now, they're going to respond to it the right way and challenge each other.
Q. A question about what life is like now in Boulder, Colorado. On campus, are you fully integrated into on-campus life? What is a day in the life on campus for you guys?
SANDERS: Well, when it's sunny outside, it's amazing. You see everybody laying on the nice green grass, just sunbathing and stuff like that. I ain't never seen this before. It's just a different moment, just seeing the mountains and stuff in the background. It's just different. Food is amazing each and every day. It's great.
Campus is just cool. I'm just happy we're in a location to where we're separated from the world to where we have a little bit of everything, but we don't have too much of everything to where it would be a distraction. That's why I love being in Boulder.
Q. Who are some of the teammates you have seen in practice that have excited you?
SANDERS: For sure Xavier. I'll say the receivers. Like me personally, I'm biased, I only speak on the receivers. Of course, the O-linemen. But I speak on the receivers because those are the guys I spend the most time with 'cause that's the hardest position to really get like a cool, genuine connection with.
I'll say Xavier Weaver, Jimmy Horn, Javon Antonio. Omarion Miller, Adam Hopkins. It's a lot. It's just hard to name everybody. Those guys, it's just different being able -- with Travis on offense, Jimmy, so many options. What car I want to drive today? Who I want to throw it to?
Especially when everybody is up there at the same time. I'm just real excited. That's it. And Coach Lewis out there calling it up, too. Just really excited for it.
Q. Travis, see any guys that have stood out?
HUNTER: Haven't been on the defensive side for real. I'm really with Shedeur. The offense, the receivers, doing a nice job. The defense is gelling a lot faster because they getting their plays down fast, so...
SANDERS: Defense is different. Our offense, everybody in here, you know how coach Sean Lewis offense is. That type of offense is a trial-and-error thing. You have to work the kinks out. Everybody got to see everything through the same lens. That's why I feel like offensively that's why I got to have a better relationship with all the receivers and stuff so we actually spend more time and be able to see things at the same exact lens.
Q. You guys come back here next year potentially, what do you hope we said about Colorado's 2023 team?
HUNTER: They did what they said they was going to do.
Q. Are you really not going to do a music collaboration with your dad?
SANDERS: See, I don't know, because I'm going to drop a song soon. I don't really know if I'm going to drop one with him or without him. Just depends on how he is on a song. If it's not my speed, I'm like the management, I manage everything. If I feel like it's not my speed, then I ain't going to let him get on it, though.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
