Colorado coach Deion Sanders questioned the honesty of Big 12 pregame injury reporting.
The Big 12 implemented injury reports this season to increase transparency and deter insider gambling.
Sanders stated he provides a full, truthful injury list to avoid having his name slandered for lying.
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders questioned whether other Big 12 Conference teams are accurately reporting pregame injuries after a new injury report this week showed Colorado with 20 players on the list compared to only one for Arizona.
Colorado hosts Arizona in a homecoming game Saturday at Folsom Field. Big 12 teams are required by the league to report “any uncertainties” regarding a player’s participation in a coming game.
“Let’s tell the truth, and we do,” Sanders said on the Colorado Football Coaches Show Thursday, Oct. 30. “I guess everybody else is lying because there’s no way nobody’s that healthy.”
The Big 12 discloses injury reports before each game this season in the interest of transparency, hoping it prevents injury information from being traded in the shadows with gamblers. In Colorado’s case, Sanders’ pregame injury list sometimes has been quite long compared to opponents. It includes backup players or players who haven’t played much this season, if at all.
Deion Sanders notes the disparity in Big 12 injury reports
Last week, before the Buffaloes suffered a 53-7 loss at Utah, Colorado listed more than 25 players on its initial injury report compared to only three for Utah. One of those Utah players was starting quarterback Devon Dampier, who was initially listed as questionable to play against Colorado. Dampier then was upgraded to “probable” to play in a subsequent injury report before the game. On game day, he wasn’t listed on the injury report at all, meaning he apparently was available to play against Colorado. But he didn’t play against Colorado, raising questions about transparency and gamesmanship with the injury report.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham later said Dampier “wasn’t feeling it” before the game and was available as an emergency backup.
Sanders didn’t accuse any coach in particular of being dishonest.
“Why do we always like, we always have 100 guys (on the injury report) and the other team, I look over and they have two guys?” Sanders asked. “Are we the only ones being honest?”
Sanders said he promotes publishing a full injury report because “the last thing I want is my name slandered for lying,’
“I don’t lie,” Sanders told the show’s host, Mark Johnson. “I don’t. I’m not gonna placate nothing. Let’s tell the truth. And we do.”
Sanders said that “we’re tripling our opponents” in number of injured players reported before games. That is not always the case. The initial injury report for the week before Colorado beat Iowa State on Oct. 11 showed 21 players on the list for Colorado and 17 for Iowa State. Sanders said his team goes over the list every day with his training staff to issue a comprehensive report.
Deion Sanders said he finally went home this week
On Tuesday, Sanders said he hadn’t returned to his home in Colorado after suffering the worst loss of his college coaching career at Utah on Saturday. He stayed at the Colorado team facilities instead hoping to get his team back on track. He said Thursday he finally went home Wednesday.
“I’m a perfectionist,” he said. “I want to win. And then, if you don’t, I want to figure out why.”
World Series could affect Colorado’s television channel
Colorado’s game against Arizona on Saturday is set for 7 p.m. ET on FS1. But if the Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Arizona-Colorado game will be moved to Fox, the network confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. If the Dodgers force a Game 7, that decisive game will be on Fox and Colorado will play Arizona on FS1.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com