Deion Sanders has proved to be a master motivator over the first four weeks of the 2023 college football season. Each and every week, without fail, he has found a way to make the upcoming matchup “personal” for him and his program.
Sonny Dykes made it personal.
Matt Rhule made it personal.
Jay Norvell made it personal.
Dan Lanning made it personal.
It did not go well for Dykes, Rhule or Norvell. Lanning had the better team and flipped the script to hand Colorado its first loss over the weekend, but Sanders continued to make it personal.
After getting blown out in Eugene, the Buffaloes will return to Boulder for a matchup against the No. 8 USC Trojans. Lincoln Riley will play his first (and likely only, because of conference realignment) game against Sanders on Saturday.
Although there are still a few days left in the week for things to change, Riley is not going the way of coaches who came before him. He is not making things personal.
Lincoln Riley is not giving Deion Sanders and Colorado any bulletin board material.
In fact, Riley was overly amicable during an appearance on Trojans Live. He offered a lot of praise for Coach Prime’s program overhaul, which he finds similar to his own approach in Los Angeles.
The improvement’s drastic, you know, you got to give their staff a lot of credit. You got to give all the different players that came in there a lot of credit. We kind of know how that feels. Right?
And you know, we’re all smiling about it right now. They’ve undergone you know, something that’s a lot more similar than it is different and so you gotta give them credit and, you know, they battled and obviously, playing them at home and all that will be a great challenge and it should be a lot of fun.
— Lincoln Riley
USC is 21.5-point favorites. It is the largest spread that Colorado has seen this year.
Riley knows that his team is expected to win. He’s all business.
There is no reason to give the Buffaloes any extra motivation. Maybe it will change throughout the week, but as of right now, it is not personal.