Shedeur Sanders missed Colorado loss vs. Utah with broken back, Buffaloes QB reveals

After lighting up scoreboards for the better part of the 2023 college football season, Shedeur Sanders ended his first year at Colorado on the sideline, missing the Buffaloes’ 23-17 loss at Utah Saturday.

Though the nature of his injury was unspecified when Colorado announced he wouldn’t play, Sanders has since revealed what led to his first absence of the season.

In a video posted Sunday by Well Off Media — a YouTube channel run by Sanders’ older brother, Deion Sanders Jr. — the Buffaloes quarterback and former Jackson State star discussed the pain he was experiencing and what was keeping him from playing, with a caption in the video later stating that Sanders has a fracture in his back.

“It’s crazy because I feel good, bro,” Shedeur said to Deion Jr. in the video while walking out on to the field at Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium. “But when I start running for real, it’s like the idea is like, ‘Ah, I feel good,’ but realistically … you can’t. I can’t even throw right now.”

Playing behind an ineffective offensive line, Sanders was the sacked 52 times this season, the most for any FBS quarterback. The 52 sacks were also the most ever by a Colorado quarterback in a single season, surpassing the previous high of 39, and were tied for the fourth-most by an FBS quarterback in a single season in the past 20 years, per ESPN Stats and Information.

The cumulative toll of hit after hit was evident for Sanders, who took a pain-killing injection at halftime of Colorado’s Oct. 28 loss at UCLA and left the Buffaloes’ 56-14 loss at Washington State on Nov. 17 in the second quarter after taking a hard hit.

Sanders’ father, first-year Colorado coach Deion Sanders, said after the Utah loss that Shedeur has “been hurting for a while.”

“Are they gonna say what happened to you when the game’s done?” Deion Jr. asked in the video.

“I don’t think so,” Shedeur said.

“Because I want people to know,” Deion Jr. said.

Despite the injury and ineffective O-line play, Sanders was excellent for much of the 2023 season.

He completed 69.3% of his passes for 3,230 yards — a Colorado single-season record — 27 touchdowns and just three interceptions, while also rushing for four touchdowns. His 293.6 passing yards per game rank him ninth among all FBS quarterbacks.