BOULDER, Colo. — Deion Sanders ran onto the field with his Colorado team Friday night, just months removed from having surgery to replace and reconstruct his bladder after a tumor was found this spring.

Sanders, 58, jogged past a portable toilet placed next to Colorado’s bench area for him to use during the game, which was sponsored by Depend, the adult incontinence undergarment company. He slowed near the South end zone and gently tapped his players who were kneeling in prayer.

After the most serious health issue in a series of them the past five years, Sanders said he “felt good,” adding, “I don’t feel good right now, but I felt darn good during the game.”

Sanders was miffed that his team didn’t capitalize on early takeaways, convert several big-play opportunities on offense or make nearly enough run stops against Georgia Tech, falling 27-20 in the season opener at Folsom Field.

Sanders coached his first game for Colorado since undergoing surgery in May. He was away from the team for much of late spring and early summer before rejoining the squad for preseason camp. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, said in a news conference in July that Sanders is cured of cancer.

Upon returning, Sanders focused on getting his third Colorado team, and the first without his sons Shedeur and Shilo and 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, to employ a different play style, based on being more physical at the line of scrimmage. Colorado made some strides Friday, as a rushing offense that had been last in the FBS during Sanders’ tenure generated 146 yards on 31 attempts.

But Colorado allowed 320 rushing yards and three touchdowns to Georgia Tech, including the tiebreaking, game-winning 45-yard dash by quarterback Haynes King with 1:07 left.

“Defensively, no, there’s no way you can say you’re physical when you got your butt kicked like that,” Sanders said. “But offensively, you probably were sitting out there saying, ‘Dang, they should keep running the ball’ because you saw the physicality we’ve been talking about.”

Although Georgia Tech committed turnovers on its first three possessions — becoming the first team to do so in a season opener since Florida International in 2010 — and didn’t reach the end zone until late in the first half, Sanders said, “It’s hard to applaud the defense right now.”

After the three early turnovers, Georgia Tech had three drives of 75 yards or more and a 61-yarder in the closing minutes. Colorado linebacker Reginald Hughes said Georgia Tech’s gap scheme “messed with our eyes a little bit” and caused the Buffaloes not to properly fill several holes in the run game.

“We’re at a good pace, inclining to be the defense that we want,” Hughes said. “We’re not quite there yet. It’s really more so execution with us. We play fast, we get after it. It’s just executing situations. Stuff like that, it shows up later in the game.”

Quarterback Kaidon Salter, a transfer from Liberty making his first start for Colorado and replacing the record-setting Shedeur Sanders, had an early passing touchdown and finished with 159 passing yards and 43 rushing yards on 13 attempts. Deion Sanders noted that Salter could have run even more and been more of a true dual threat.

“Most definitely, I feel like I had those opportunities,” Salter said, “but me being a dual-threat quarterback, keeping my eyes down the field, I felt like I had chances to throw the ball downfield and make some plays.”

Despite Colorado’s significant personnel losses at quarterback and wide receiver, Sanders said the offense doesn’t need time to come together, adding, “We’ve got to go get it and do it right now.”

He said he saw enough good things overall to still expect a strong season.

“We’re definitely going to be fine, I’m not concerned about that,” Sanders said. “We could have won that game. It’s not like we got our butts kicked. They ran the heck out of the ball, they did that, but we had opportunities.”

They demolished most of the “blue wall” at the general election, and now the Lib Dems are eyeing up Labour voters.

Strategists see an opportunity in younger people who, over the course of this parliament, may be priced out of cities and into commuter belt areas as they seek to get on the housing ladder or start a family.

Insiders say the plan is to focus more on the cost of living to shift the party’s appeal beyond the traditional southern heartlands.

“There’s a key opportunity to target people who were 30 at the last election who over the next five years might find themselves moving out of London, to areas like Surrey, Guildford,” a senior party source told Sky News.

“We also need to be better at making a case for a liberal voice in urban areas. We have not told enough of a story on the cost of living.

“We need a liberal voice back in the cities – areas like Liverpool, where there is strong support at a council level that we can use as a base to build on.”

Liverpool is a traditional Labour heartland but in January lost its first local authority by-election there in 27 years to the Lib Dems.

Carl Cashman, the leader of the Lib Dems on the city council, says it’s a result that shows the potential to make gains in areas where the party came third and fourth at the general election.

“One of the cases I have been making to the national party is that Liverpool should be a number one target.

“We are almost at the end of the road when it comes to the Conservatives, so we need to start looking at areas like Liverpool,” he said, adding that Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle could also be ripe for the taking.

However, the party faces a challenge of making a case for liberalism against the rising tide of populism.

Sir Ed Davey, the party leader, is trying to position himself as the only politician who is not afraid of holding Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to account.

He has recently unveiled a plan to cut energy bills by changing how renewable projects are paid for and says he will boycott Donald Trump’s state dinner. It is these green, internationalist policies that insiders hope can hoover up support of remaining Tory moderates unhappy with the direction of Kemi Badenoch’s party and progressive voters who think Labour is more of the same.

However, strategists admit it is difficult to cut through on these issues in a changing media landscape, “when you’re either viral or you’re not”.

‘Silly stunts’ here to stay

Farage has no such problem, which Davey has blamed on a national media weighted too heavily in favour of the Reform UK leader, given the size of his party (he has just four MPs compared to the Liberal Democrats’ 72).

But the two parties have very different media strategies. This week, on the same day Farage held a Trump-style press conference to announce his immigration deportation plans, with a Q&A for journalists after, the Liberal Democrat leader went to pick strawberries in Somerset to highlight the plight of farmers facing increased inheritance tax.

Some Lib Dems have questioned whether the “silly stunts” that proved successful during the general election are past their shelf life, but strategists say there will be no fundamental change to that, insisting Sir Ed is the “genuine nice guy” he comes across as and that offers something different.

The Lib Dems ultimately see their strength as lying not in the “airwaves war” but the “ground war” – building support on the doorstep at a local level and then turning that into seats.

“Our strategy is seats, not votes. Theirs is votes, not seats,” said the party source, suggesting Farage’s divisiveness might backfire under a first past the post system where people typically vote against the party they disklike the most.

“The next election won’t be about who is saying the meanest things.”

‘Don’t underestimate us’

There is broad support within the party behind that strategy. Cllr Cashman said a greater use of social media could help attract a younger demographic, along with putting forward “really fundamental, powerful liberal ideas” on issues such as housing.

But he said Davey is “never going to do the controversial things Farage does”.

“The way we reach people, the traditional campaigning, is what makes us strong. Just because we are not always on the airwaves, do not underestimate us.”

For Liberal Democrat peer and pollster Dr Mark Pack, there are reasons to be confident. On Friday, the party won a local council by-election in Camden, north London – “Sir Keir Starmer’s backyard” – with a swing from Labour to the Lib Dems of 19%.

It is these statistics that the party is far more focused on than national vote share – with Labour’s misfortunes opening an opportunity to strategically target areas where voters are more likely to switch.

“One of the lessons we have learned from the past is that riding high in opinion polls doesn’t translate into seats.

“We are really focused on winning seats with the system in front of us. There is a route to success by concentrating on and expanding on what we have been good at.”

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner should face an ethics inquiry over her tax affairs, the Conservatives have said.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph claimed Ms Rayner, who is also housing secretary, avoided £40,000 in stamp duty on a second home in East Sussex by removing her name from the deeds of another property in Greater Manchester.

Stamp duty is a tax paid in England and Northern Ireland when someone buys a property over a certain price.

The newspaper also claimed Ms Rayner previously suggested the Greater Manchester home remained her primary residence, saving around £2,000 in council tax on her grace and favour home in central London.

Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake has written to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, requesting he investigate whether Ms Rayner broke ministerial rules.

In a letter to Sir Laurie, Mr Hollinrake described Ms Rayner’s arrangements as “hypocritical tax avoidance, by a minister who supports higher taxes on family homes, high-value homes and second homes”.

As housing secretary, Ms Rayner is responsible for overseeing council tax and housing policy.

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Lib Dems eye Labour-held cities as they target ‘seats not votes’
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Mr Hollinrake said the statements she had given on her residency were “contradictory”, but conceded she had broken no laws.

A spokesperson for Ms Rayner has said she “paid the correct duty” on the purchase “entirely properly” – and “any suggestion otherwise is entirely without basis”.

A Cabinet Office spokesman added that Ms Rayner “has followed advice on the allocation of her official residence at all times”.