Former Colorado Buffaloes linebacker and longtime NFL veteran Chad Brown joined Bailey Price and ex-Buffs/NFL offensive lineman Matt McChesney on the Zero 2 Sixty Podcast and did not hold back when discussing Deion Sanders’ late-game clock management.
McChesney opened with a blistering critique. “You ever seen anybody screw up the end of a game like that before with two timeouts and like then have the excuse…I thought we had the first down, clock stops, we don’t have the first down,” he said. “I played under Bill Belichick coaches my entire career and it was the situational football…was like the most important thing or just each situation that you’re in and understanding what you’re doing number one and it just drove me up the wall, I don't know what to do with myself...how are you not losing your mind up there going, please God, call a timeout!”
Brown, who works as a national broadcaster, admitted the balance between professionalism and fandom was difficult. “Well, I’m on a national broadcast, so I have to play it down the middle…but there’s that heart inside of me that’s for the Colorado Buffaloes. So yes, it is difficult with that…someone is not responsible for clock management, that blows me away.”
30 minutes until kick here in Boulder. Year 3 for Coach Prime….new year, new team, less stars, more depth. Listen in at @CompassMediaNet pic.twitter.com/vtHR66pq6f
— Chad Brown (@chadbrown94) August 29, 2025
Brown then zeroed in on what looked like a lack of preparation. “For Coach Prime in that critical situation late in the game to not give his team the best chance for success by proper use of timeouts, that fits into that same category,” he said. “These are things that should have been worked over and over and over again during training camp. The last two minutes of the first half, the last two minutes of the second half. We need to work on every freaking scenario possible.”
McChesney pressed the urgency angle, questioning why no assistant stepped in. “Why didn’t one of the coaches on the sideline erupt and make sure that the timeout was called?…I understand Coach Prime is in charge…where’s the guy sprinting down the field going, ‘Coach, why are we not calling a timeout? We just had a negative play on first down. Every second we’re burning, we’re f—ked. Call a timeout. Timeout. Timeout.’”
Sanders defended his decision after the game. “I think we got out of bounds a couple times so we didn’t have to take them,” he said. “We were just really trying to preserve [the timeouts] till we certainly needed them. So I mean I don’t want to go home with timeouts. They don’t do me no good. But you've got to be strategic as well.”
The “out of bounds” answer is most puzzling. While Kaidon Salter did scramble on a slow-developing third-down play and ran out of bounds, the clock management damage had already been done. The Buffs used up almost 50 seconds to go next to nowhere and had to settle for a couple of Hail Marys from their own side of the field. Meanwhile, the first two time-consuming plays on the drive concluded nowhere near the sidelines.
Brown made it clear that the coaching in the final drive was unacceptable. “It hurts my heart to see bad football. It hurts my football soul when I see bad football from the Buffaloes. And so that sequence was bad football…to come out in the press conference and defend it, that means that either you didn’t get it as we get it or you thought you could fool us, and either one is some bulls—t.”
More NCAA Football News
- Hoosiers start 1-0, but Cignetti leaves win over ODU frustrated
- CBS college football analysts criticize Deion Sanders
- “It was rocking tonight” Norvell praises FSU crowd
- LaNorris Sellers on win “it felt good”
- Shane Beamer says win over Virginia Tech was extra special