Why Deion Sanders opted not to use timeouts in final minute of Colorado's Week 1 loss to Georgia Tech

Colorado decided not to use its remaining two timeouts in the final minute of Friday night's 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech, leading to a bevy of questions for coach Deion Sanders following the season-opening setback. The Buffaloes managed six plays for just 25 yards over the final 1:07 after Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King raced his way to a go-ahead, 45-yard touchdown.

Sanders addressed the clock management issues after the game, but he did not see a problem with keeping both of Colorado's timeouts in his back pocket.

"I think we got out of bounds a couple times, so we didn't have to take them," Sanders said. "So, that's what transpired. We got out of bounds on both sidelines and that's what happened. After the first, we got a good play. We caught the ball for nine yards, we had one yard to go. If you get the first down, the clock stops. So, it don't make sense to really use your timeout in that sense."

Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur called consecutive passing plays that spanned 39 seconds of game clock before the Buffaloes faced a third-and-1 at their own 34-yard line with 28 seconds left. Quarterback Kaidon Salter hurried to the line without a huddle and moved the chains with a five-yard scramble out of bounds ... but it bled 10 more valuable seconds off the clock. 

An 11-yard pass from Salter to Isaiah Hardge also stopped the clock at three seconds with Hardge going out of bounds, but the game ended the next play at midfield after Salter's Hail Mary attempt was batted down in the end zone. 

"We were just really trying to preserve them to when we really needed them," Sanders continued. "I don't want to go home with timeouts, they don't do me no good, but you've got to be strategic. Burning timeouts just to burn them just so you guys [media] don't say nothing, that don't make sense, at all. But I think we got out of bounds a couple times and we had incompletions."

King finished with 156 yards rushing and three touchdowns, overcoming three turnovers on Georgia Tech's first three possessions of the contest to lead the Yellow Jackets to a win.

"The quarterback is looking like a Heisman candidate right now," Sanders said. "We made that happen for him."

It was Colorado's first game in two years without captains Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, last season's Heisman winner. Georgia Tech piled up 463 yards of total offense, including 320 on the ground.

"We could've won the game. It's not like we had our butts kicked," Sanders said. "They ran the heck out of the ball. If we take advantage of the opportunities, I have a whole different mood up here right now."