Deion 'dumbfounded' by Buffs' historic Utah loss

Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he was "dumbfounded" when trying to evaluate the Buffaloes' blowout loss Saturday night against Utah.

The 53-7 loss in Salt Lake City marked Colorado's worst defeat since Sanders started coaching the Buffaloes in the 2023 season.

The 46-point margin also was the largest in the 72-game history of the "Rumble in the Rockies" rivalry between Colorado and Utah.

"This is bad. This is probably the worst beating I've ever had except when my momma whooped me as a kid," Sanders said.

The Buffaloes (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) yielded 422 rushing yards to the Utes while finishing with just 140 yards of total offense, averaging 2.1 yards per play.

Utah (6-2, 3-2) led 43-0 at halftime, which was the largest halftime lead without allowing a point by a Big 12 team in a conference game since 2011.

"Sometimes you just are dumbfounded, man," Sanders said. "You just look at this day and say, 'Wow, what happened?' There's no way."

When asked what went wrong Saturday night for the Buffaloes, Sanders said he was "trying to figure that out" and added that any evaluation of the team's performance "starts with me."

Sanders, who fell to 16-17 in his two-plus seasons at Colorado, also acknowledged that he was outcoached by Utah's Kyle Whittingham.

"He kicked my butt today," Sanders said. "It was one-on-one with me and him, and he won by a significant margin."

Colorado needs to win three of its four remaining regular-season games to become bowl-eligible.

"We gotta figure this out, like now," Sanders said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.