BOULDER, Colo. – A year ago, Deion Sanders made the matchup with fellow coach Matt Rhule and Nebraska personal.
This season, there’s nothing but praise.
The Colorado coach commended his rival days before the Buffaloes travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the final meeting between the teams for the foreseeable future. Sanders said he feels like the two are part of the same coaching fraternity since they arrived around the same time and both were tasked with turning around programs.
Both coaches hit rocky patches along the way in Year 1 — Sanders and the Buffaloes finishing 4-8, while Rhule and the Cornhuskers went 5-7.
“I have a ton of respect for Matt Rhule,” Sanders said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “He’s in, I call it, our class of coaches. … So I root for that class of head coaches that came in that year. He was a professional, did a phenomenal job, maybe not the job that he aspired to do, but he has a ton of experience, and I love what he’s accomplished in his college coaching career.”
That’s quite a contrast from last season, when the Buffaloes’ theme for Nebraska week was, “This is personal.” It was an ode to the history of the rivalry and of the Buffaloes taking note of some critical comments out of Lincoln that spring. What drew the Buffaloes’ ire, in particular, was Rhule speaking about how excited he was to coach the players he inherited when he took over the program while others appeared more anxious about players arriving through the transfer portal.
Things heated up early last September as Shedeur Sanders led Colorado to a 36-14 win over Nebraska. Before the game, Shedeur Sanders took offense when Rhule gathered his players during pregame warmups on the Buffaloes’ midfield logo. Sanders went over and broke up the huddle.
On Monday, Rhule deflected a question about whether this game was any sort of culture clash.
“I think they’re a competitive culture,” said Rhule, whose team beat UTEP 40-7 behind prized recruit Dylan Raiola’s big afternoon. “They go recruit and get the best players they can get. They do well in school. They don’t get in trouble off the field and they compete. I respect that with what they do.”
Colorado and Nebraska were longtime rivals when both were in some version of the Big 12. The Cornhuskers moved to the Big Ten in 2011 and the Buffaloes bolted to the Pac-12. But Colorado returned to the Big 12 this season.
Deion Sanders has already started preparing his team for the noise that awaits from the sea of red inside the stadium. He also said Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis addressed the team.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not going to see anybody on the team wearing red anywhere this week, because he politely allowed us to know that’s a ‘no-no,’” said Sanders, whose team beat North Dakota State 31-26 in the season opener. “I love it. I think that’s what college football is all about, whether we’re in the same conferences or not. This is a tremendous rivalry, and I look forward to it.”
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AP College Football Writer Eric Olson contributed to this report.
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