CU football notes: Shilo Sanders’ heads-up play at Texas Tech big for Buffs, himself

While everyone else on the field thought the play was over, Colorado’s Shilo Sanders didn’t hear a whistle, so he kept going.

Picking up a loose ball at the 6-yard line with less than a minute to play, Sanders waltzed untouched into the end zone for touchdown that put a cap on CU’s 41-27 win at Texas Tech on Saturday.

CU’s Arden Walker had knocked the ball away from Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton and most of the players thought it was an incomplete pass. As it turned out, it was a fumble.

“We play until we hear the whistle,”  CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “That’s what we practice and (Shilo) does that in practice quite a bit. He really does. He plays to the whistle, scooping the ball, or these guys picking the ball off, getting to the sideline. Big play; it put the game out of reach. Great play.”

The game-sealing play by Shilo helped the Buffs (7-2, 5-1 Big 12) vault to No. 18 in the Associated Press rankings ahead of this Saturday’s matchup with Utah (4-5, 1-5) at Folsom Field (10 a.m., Fox).

It was also a big play for Shilo, who has had a roller-coaster season that included missing three games with an injury.

“It was really exciting, because we’ve had a lot of talks overall, just on anything, and I feel like he got the attitude back,” CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders said of his brother. “I think the injury set him back a little bit mentally and everything. I think it did a little bit, whether he admitted or not, but I think so. So then knowing that he’s going out there, he’s hitting how he’s supposed to, he’s doing everything how he was back (before), it’s happy, and it shows that he’s on the right track.”