Colorado coach Deion Sanders enjoys the spoof of Deion Sanders on ‘Saturday Night Live’
by PAT GRAHAM
AP Sports Writer
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Deion Sanders certainly enjoyed the spoof of Deion Sanders in a recent skit on “ Saturday Night Live.”
Actor Kenan Thompson’s parody of the Colorado coach was spot-on, from the attire — Colorado sweatshirt pulled over his CU hat, shades and whistle dangling from his neck — to the larger-than-life attitude.
Still, Sanders said he has seen better impersonations. Football player-turned-comedian Lou Young does a mean Coach Prime imitation. So does someone closer to home: his son, CU defensive back Shilo Sanders.
“But I’m a fan of Kenan, let’s get that straight,” Sanders said Tuesday at his weekly news conference of the “SNL” comedy sketch. “It was good.”
Not so good was being off last week. Or the timing of the bye week.
The Buffaloes (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12) have had a long time to stew over blowing a 29-0 lead to Stanford in a 46-43 double-overtime home loss. Sanders hasn’t stopped reflecting on it — or the season or everything else, which might explain why he showed up Tuesday with a new beard, complete with gray whiskers, to go with his cowboy hat.
“I don’t stop thinking. That’s my darn problem,” Sanders said. “That’s why we can’t rest as humans sometimes. We’ve got to learn how to turn our mind off. It’s hard for me to shut this off because I enjoy it so much and I want to dominate it.”
Then again, can’t win ’em all, right?
Thompson, playing the role of Sanders in the “SNL” skit that aired the night after the Stanford loss, imitated the confidence of Sanders by saying, “We just keep winning, man. Every game. Every minute. We’re winning at life.”
To which anchor Colin Jost replied, “Well, yeah, you’re also 4-3. So you have lost a few.” Jost also mentioned the loss to Stanford.
“Wasn’t that crazy? We went up 29-nothing at the half,” Thompson said in the character of Sanders. “So I went home and fell asleep. I woke up this morning shocked as anyone. But come on, man, nobody’s perfect. Name one team that’s undefeated.”
Around these parts, No. 19 Air Force is 7-0 as the Falcons get ready to play at Colorado State this weekend.
Sanders and the Buffaloes face No. 23 UCLA (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday at sold-out Rose Bowl Stadium. He’s a big fan of Bruins coach Chip Kelly after he and his quarterback son, Shedeur, once met with Kelly.
“I really admire his accomplishments thus far in the game of football,” Deion Sanders said. “Not just college but pros as well.”
As for whether his team has met expectations in Sanders’ first season at Colorado, well, those are awfully difficult expectations to meet.
“My expectations are lofty,” Sanders said. “I know where I feel like we should be record-wise and I know what we can accomplish. I just want to put it all together.”
There was some good news over the bye week as Sanders saw class of 2025 quarterback Antwann Hill Jr. announce his commitment to Colorado. Colorado could be set up at QB for quite some time. This season, Shedeur Sanders is among the nation’s passing leaders in yards (2,420) and touchdowns (21).
“You want to get a young guy that could preferably learn from your stud. So he could emulate and imitate that and go on and carry us to places that we hadn’t gone before,” Deion Sanders said in addressing a question about Hill. “I can’t wait to get him in house and let’s get to work with him. He’s going to change the game in several aspects.”
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AP freelance writer Monica Costello contributed to this report.
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