After the bye week, Deion Sanders had a lot on his mind, from rankings to tortillas

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – Deion Sanders imitated the high-pitched sound of a four-wheeled vehicle revving at top speed.

His noise was a reference to standout Travis Hunter hanging around Colorado coach’s Texas mansion over the weekend. In reality, nevertheless, it could have represented the sound of his buffaloes buzzing.

From four-wheelers to rankings and tortilla throwing, Sanders had a lot on his mind as his team returned fresh from a bye week. Buffaloes in twenty first place (6-2, 4-1 Big 12) were so smart and effective in Tuesday’s practice that Sanders rallied the team mid-game to praise them. They thought they were in trouble.

No, only voters. Sanders asked voters not to put his team in the polls, preferring to fly under the radar. Anyway, they’ve.

“Starting is a joke,” Sanders said at his weekly news conference as his team prepares for Saturday’s game at Texas Tech (6-3, 4-2). “Rankings can idiot you. This can get you into a situation where you begin to think that is who you might be – and we do not buy it. We know who we’re.

“If you don’t know who you are yet, something is wrong. If you don’t know who the players are by now, something is wrong. We cannot be fooled by this stupidity.”

For Hunter, his break from football was full of fishing and four-wheeling at night. Sanders heard the roar of an engine in his room and hoped it would not wake his mother or cause something to occur to certainly one of his star players.

“I just hear that and I’m like, ‘I better not fall off the damn thing. The whole country will be at my throat if you fall off that four-wheeler,” Sanders recalled. “But the four-wheeler just makes the sound of going faster than before because it knows better. Then I see a deer flashing on one side of the property and he’s chasing the deer.”

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Hunter is currently chasing the Heisman Trophy, so he barely had time to park his four-wheeler before boarding a plane to University Park, Pennsylvania. There, he competed for faculty football’s top prize, appearing on ESPN’s “GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.”

Virtually no sleep.

“I get up, see him on TV and just burst out laughing. I’m like, ‘You just left,'” Sanders said. “I didn’t even know he would make his rounds so early. …I believe only Travis has the type of energy that he could walk from town to town all day.

“He is a lovely, likeable young man and I am proud of him.”

The Buffaloes are rolling toward Texas Tech, having won three in a row for the first time since the 2001-02 season. A season ago, they had a record of 2-4 on the road.

When asked if his team learned anything from the defeat, Sanders didn’t take the bait.

“I’m talking to you from the perspective of a winner. “I’m speaking to you as someone who has experienced setbacks, trials and tribulations, but I don’t rest in failure,” Sanders said. “I’m not complacent. I do not rest in such areas because I do know who I’m, what I’m like, where I’m going and the way to get there.

With a month left in the season, the Buffaloes still have every part in front of them – a shot at a conference title and maybe a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Not that this was a surprise to Sanders.

“That’s what we train for. I mean, this is one of the only teams in the country that has been lied to, cheated on, talked about and abused – that’s the song, right?” Sanders snapped. “We have been through a lot and we are prepared for this moment. We are not afraid of what we expect. We expect to be in it. We expect to be where we are.”

Red Raiders win a great victory in Ames, Iowa No. 17 Iowa State. Sanders knows the Buffaloes have a lot of labor ahead of them as they travel to Lubbock, Texas.

“A daunting challenge,” Sanders said. “We like it. We will probably be booed. I heard they were throwing. Are these tacos?

Tortillas, with a tradition of throwing tortillas amongst Texas Tech students during games.

“Is this legal?” Sanders said jokingly. “But yes, we will try to get them to empty these things.”