Colorado Buffaloes and quarterback Shedeur Sanders have dominated the news cycle with their upstart season.
However, according to one anonymous Pac-12 assistant coach, Sanders’ stats may not be as dominant as they appear.
“I think they want to rack up some stats for Shedeur. He really holds on to the ball a long time. I think he takes sacks because he doesn’t want to affect his completion percentage,” the coach told The Athletic.
However the speculation cannot truly be taken into consideration without looking at the stats themselves.
The Buffaloes signal-caller, the son of coach Deion Sanders, has completed 74.8% of his passes, throwing 15 touchdown passes against two interceptions.
That passing percentage leaves him with the eighth-highest in college football to go with the 1,800 passing yards he’s racked up so far this season.
Compare that completion rate to his 214 passing attempts, the fifth-most in the country.
But Sanders has an issue.
He’s been sacked 25 times in five games.
“He’s playing a little different than he did earlier in the season,” the assistant said. “Before he showed that, he was willing to step up and escape through the B-gaps. Now, he’s retreating more.”
Scouting out a specific team’s player and his stats is a normal procedure for coaches before a game.
However, publicly addressing a discrepancy means there may be some serious issues, especially when it comes to intentionally taking a sack and risking injury.
The influx of sacks could be due in part to the difficulty level of Buffaloes’ schedule.
After opening with wins over TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State, Colorado was throttled by No. 8 Oregon and fell to No. 9 USC by a touchdown.
The fast-paced start had Sanders included in Heisman Trophy conversations, though getting back on track against Arizona State on Saturday would go a long way for the QB and his team.
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