BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Deion Sanders imitated the high-pitch hum of a four-wheeler revving along at top speed.
His noise was in reference to two-way standout Travis Hunter zooming around the Colorado coach’s property in Texas over the weekend. Really, though, it could’ve represented the sound of his Buffaloes buzzing along.
From 4-wheelers to rankings to tortilla tossing, Sanders had plenty on his mind as his team returned fresh off a bye week. The 21st-ranked Buffaloes (6-2, 4-1 Big 12) were so sharp and efficient at practice Tuesday that Sanders brought the team together midway through just to commend them. They thought they were in trouble.
Nope, just the voters. Sanders asked voters not to put his team in the polls, preferring to fly under the radar. They have anyway.
“Rankings are like a tease, man,” Sanders said at his weekly news conference as his team prepares for a game at Texas Tech (6-3, 4-2) on Saturday. “Rankings can fool you. It can get you in a situation where you start thinking that you are that — and we don’t buy into that. We know who we are.
“If you don’t know who you are by now, something’s wrong. If you don’t know who the players are by now, something’s wrong. We can’t be fooled for that foolishness.”
For Hunter, the break from football was filled with fishing and some late-night four-wheeling. Sanders heard the roar of the motor from his room and hoped it wouldn’t wake up his mom — or result in anything happening to one of his star players.
“I’m just hearing this and thinking to myself, ‘You better not fall off this darn thing. The whole country is going to be at my throat if you fall off this four-wheeler,’” Sanders recounted. “But four-wheelers just give off the sound that he’s going faster than he was because he knows better. Then, I see deer flashing from one side of the property, and he’s chasing the deer.”
These days, Hunter’s chasing after the Heisman Trophy, which is why he barely had time to park the four-wheeler before he was boarding a plane bound for University Park, Pennsylvania. There, he campaigned for college football’s top award by appearing on ESPN’s “GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.”
On virtually no sleep, too.
“I wake up and see him on television, and I just bust out laughing. I’m like, ‘You just left,’” Sanders said. “I didn’t even know he was going to make the rounds that early. … I’m thinking only Travis has that type of energy that he could go all day like that from city-to-city.
“He’s a lovable, likable young man, and I’m proud of him.”
The Buffaloes are riding high heading into Texas Tech having won three straight road games for the first time since 2001-02. They were 2-4 on the road a season ago.
Asked if his team learned something through failure, Sanders didn’t take the bait.
“I’m talking to you from a winner’s perspective. I’m talking to you from a person who had setbacks, trials and tribulations, but I don’t rest in failure,” Sanders said. “I don’t rest in complacency. I don’t rest in areas like that, because I know who I am, what I am, how I am, where I’m going and how to get there.”
With a month left in the season, the Buffaloes still have everything in front of them — a chance at a conference title and possibly a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Not that it’s a surprise to Sanders.
“That’s what we train for. I mean, this is one of the few teams in the country that’s been lied on, cheated, talked about, mistreated — that’s a song, isn’t it?” Sanders cracked. “We’ve been through a lot, and we’re prepared for the moment. We’re not shying away from what we expect. We expect to be in this. We expect to be where we are.”
The Red Raiders are coming off a big win in Ames, Iowa, over No. 17 Iowa State. Sanders knows the Buffaloes have their work cut out for them traveling to Lubbock, Texas.
“Daunting challenge,” Sanders said. “We love it. We’re going to get booed. I heard they throw, is it tacos?”
Tortillas, with the tossing of tortillas a tradition among Texas Tech students during games.
“Is that legal?” Sanders playfully said. “But, yeah, we’re going to try to make them empty those things.”