Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders has carried plenty of different names, titles and labels over the years.
One of them might as well be “Kalani Sitake superfan.”
The football legend and current Colorado head coach has always been outspoken regarding his love and respect for Sitake, doing so once again Tuesday at his weekly media availability prior to the Buffaloes’ matchup with No. 25 BYU this Saturday in Boulder.
“Coach Sitake, I consider him a friend, I consider him a dear, dear, dear friend and a God-fearing man which I adore, a man of standard and a man of principle, a darn good coach and a good dude,” Sanders told reporters Tuesday.
“He’s going to have his team ready. They’ve been playing superbly this season even with a young quarterback. Defensively, they’ve been shutting things down and doing the doggone thing, offensively they’ve been physical and tough.
“That’s the team I know we’re going to face, a physical, tough team. I admire him so much ... a straight-up winner, he’s a winner.”
Saturday will mark BYU and Colorado’s first regular-season meeting as Big 12 foes, with the Cougars having pummeled the Buffaloes in last year’s Alamo Bowl.
However, Sanders quickly dismissed the idea of Colorado looking for Alamo Bowl “revenge” against BYU this weekend.
“Every game means a lot, a conference game means more. I’m not with the (revenge) stuff, I’m with the ‘let’s get them’ stuff,” Sanders said. “(BYU) played their butts off (in the Alamo Bowl), they kicked our butts in the bowl game. Now we have a whole new team, they have a similar team as well with a new quarterback.
“It’s a good team, a well-coached team, a disciplined team. We’ve got to be a lot more disciplined ... we’ve got to stop all that foolishness and play a consistent game prayerfully and penalty-free.”
Colorado is 2-2 thus far in 2025, having seemingly taken a step back following the departure of superstars Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. The Buffaloes dropped their home opener against Georgia Tech and lost on the road to Houston as well, while defeating Delaware in Week 2 and Wyoming this past weekend.
Though Sanders doesn’t believe revenge will be a factor on Saturday, he said hosting a team such as BYU is the perfect opportunity to earn more program respect and make a national statement with an upset victory.
“We’ve got to win these type of games. We’ve got to be dominant in these type of games,” Sanders said. “But one thing that we want to do, we want to give our best effort. We don’t want to walk away from the game saying, ‘Dang, we could have played better.’
“In Houston, we played like garbage, man. We want to come out there and give you the best that we possibly can give you on every phase of the game.
“And these young men, they want to do the same. They know the whole world is watching. It’s nationally televised game, a night game. It is what it is. We’ve got to play and we want to come out victorious, and we will if we execute the things that we’re capable of doing.”
