CU Buffs’ Shilo Sanders bounces back against Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. – Shilo Sanders would have preferred playing a great game against Kansas State on Oct. 12 at Folsom Field, but he didn’t.

Colorado’s senior safety had a miserable game that night, but the real trial came after. He spent a week hearing about it from every corner of social media. It made for a tough week, but he ultimately took some gratitude for the experience.

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On Saturday at Arizona Stadium, Sanders posted four tackles and a pass breakup and was a big part of a dominating defensive effort as CU throttled Arizona, 34-7.

“God is going to test you, and God tested me last week just to see how I’d respond,” Sanders said Saturday after the game, while sitting next to his father and head coach, Deion Sanders. “Everybody goes through ups and downs, and it’s better for me that I went through the down. It made me lock in more, made me watch all my film, made me just prepare to the highest level that I could to come and contribute to this win.”

Shilo gave a shout out to the defensive line and edge rushers, as well as the linebackers, saying he’s planning to buy steak dinners for the linebackers on Sunday. But, for him, there was a measure of satisfaction in bouncing back personally.

“That’s just how life goes,” he said. “You’re going to go through it. You just gotta keep going, keep working and see it through.”

Coach Prime then said to his son, “Proud of you. We weren’t worried about you. You know we weren’t worried about you. That’s the first time they ever saw you vulnerable, so they attacked you like vultures. That’s just how America is.”

Maybe so, but Shilo clearly needed some encouragement as he went throughout his week after the Kansas State game. It was his first game back after missing nearly four full games with a broken forearm. Against K-State, he missed numerous tackles was CU’s lowest graded defender by Pro Football Focus. In fact, he had the lowest single-game grade of any CU defender during Coach Prime’s two seasons in Boulder.

On Saturday, he helped set the tone early, blitzing Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita on the second defensive play of the game and hitting him to force an incomplete pass. Having defensive coordinator Robert Livingston send him on a blitz “filled my confidence up,” Shilo said.

“Just watching film and seeing what I did wrong and critiquing myself the most,” he said of his process to get better last week. “I was calling my dad, like once a day after practice, just talking about the day, how I’m feeling, how I’m seeing things. Just everything. It just made me lock in and be like, ‘Alright, I’m the free safety, everything should be in front of me, and I gotta put the zip lock on the defense.’”