Deion Sanders changes staff but Colorado loses to Oregon State

BOULDER, Colo. – Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders did what he thought was necessary this week even if it seemed a little desperate. After losing four of his previous five games, he reorganized his coaching staff and promoted a former NFL head coach to play-calling duties in a bid to bring out the best in his star quarterback son.

But it didn’t work. In fact, the Buffaloes got even worse Saturday against No. 19 Oregon State until the very end, when they scored their only two touchdowns of the game before falling short, 26-19.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders even needed another painkiller injection to finish the game as the Buffs dropped to 4-5 this season after capturing the nation’s attention with a 3-0 start.

“This is hard,” Deion Sanders said afterward. “The reason it’s so hard is because you know you’re capable of doing better − playing better, performing better, calling better games, coaching better on my behalf. And you are coming up short when you have enough to get the job done. And it’s painful. It hurts myself, the team and all the coaches and fans.”

As it turned out, a coaching blunder right before halftime ended up being the difference in the game. Deion Sanders blamed himself for it. But the Buffs still struggled to protect their quarterback in the first three quarters before he went to the locker room to get his painkiller shot. After that, he said he “got mad” and nearly brought his team back from a 23-5 fourth-quarter deficit in front of a sold-out homecoming crowd at Folsom Field (52,725).

What else did Deion Sanders say?

He explained why he promoted former New York Giants and Cleveland Browns head coach Pat Shurmur to call plays on offense instead of offensive coordinator Sean Lewis.

Shurmur had been making an annual salary of $50,000 as an analyst at Colorado behind the scenes, according to a copy of his appointment letter obtained by USA TODAY Sports. But after this big change, he’s now one of the team’s 10 full-time assistant coaches and has the title of co-offensive coordinator with Lewis, who gave up his job as head coach at Kent State last year to run the offense at Colorado for $850,000 this year.

“We’re not gonna demean Sean Lewis,” Deion Sanders said when asked about making Shurmur the play-caller instead of Lewis. “We’re not gonna do that. We’re not gonna take that tone. Sean is a good man.  I think he’s a good play-caller. We just needed change at the time. We just needed to try something else at the time,  and that’s what we did. I don’t look back on it. I don’t second-guess myself whatsoever, because it’s more to it than what you may know.”

Deion Sanders said the play-calling system is “still a group effort” and both Lewis and Shurmur are “really talented.”

“It’s not one guy doing good, or one guy doing bad,” he said.

Before Saturday, the Buffs ranked second in the nation with the most sacks allowed with 42, one year after they…