Travis HunterAndrew Wevers/Getty Images
The moment Deion Sanders accepted the job at Colorado, attention was inevitable. The smooth-operating former NFL star talked a big game immediately, overhauled a roster like nobody had ever done in college football history and turned heads on the recruiting trail.
But on-field results had to follow.
Saturday afternoon, the Buffaloes jumped to 8-2 with a 49-24 triumph over Utah. Colorado took a valuable step toward the 2024 Big 12 Championship Game, where a victory would send CU to the College Football Playoff.
This is a legitimate contender.
Even a month ago, however, it’s one we didn’t expect—not after a full calendar year of uninspiring play.
In the 2023 campaign, the Buffs started 3-0. Each win intensified the buzz around a program that had trudged to 1-11 in the previous year and ultimately been a disaster for the better part of 15 seasons.
They smoked TCU, the national runner-up from a year earlier, as two-way phenom Travis Hunter exploded onto the FBS stage. They soared into the AP Top 25 and wrecked rival Nebraska before navigating a double-overtime scare from in-state foe Colorado State. Behind that perfect start, CU climbed as high as 18th in the country.
That spotlight grew brighter. The noise became much louder, and sports media—B/R certainly included—latched onto the Sanders-led hysteria and would not let go.
If I’m allowed to be honest, it was pretty tiresome.
Oregon slammed the brakes on CU’s click-fueled hype train, and everyone else but a rebuilding Arizona State team piled on. Colorado lost eight of its final nine contests in 2023, dealing with a porous offensive line and disastrous defense that ranked 124th or worse nationally in both sacks allowed and points allowed per game, respectively.
The 2024 campaign did not begin wonderfully for the Buffs, either. They squeaked past North Dakota State, looked overwhelmed in a lopsided loss at Nebraska and needed a last-second miracle catch in regulation to escape Baylor in overtime.
Steven Branscombe/Getty Images
Yet every week, it seemed, there was a Colorado update. Look at what the mediocre team did, folks! Mediocre again!
Tiring. Exhausting, really.
In the following weeks, however, that spotlight dimmed. The noise quieted. Sanders’ team blasted UCF on the road, but a loss to Kansas State put Colorado in the backseat of a Big 12 race featuring a breakout BYU squad, then-unbeaten Iowa State and key contender K-State.
The hype faded. Those on-field results were not happening in marquee games. It wasn’t that CU would never be worthy of that attention; it was that, through then, the headlines felt empty. Interest levels dropped.
And that may be the exact moment everything truly changed.
Since falling to 4-2, the Buffs have become a well-rounded group. Pick a position, and Colorado has improved. The most important spots, of course, are a product of the transfers and other additions up front. The offensive line is no longer an absolute sieve, and the defense is a full 10 points and nearly 100 yards better per game this season.
Shedeur Sanders will occasionally throw a bad ball, as any QB would, but he remains a highly efficient passer. Hunter has made himself the clear favorite in the Heisman Trophy race, and CU’s receiving corps boasts a deeper cast of regular contributors in 2024.
What’s happening on the sideline matters an awful lot, too.
New offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur has successfully hidden a nearly nonexistent rushing attack—one of CU’s few remaining weaknesses. Defensive coordinator Robert Livingston is a strong contender for the Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant coach.
The phrase “changing the culture” can be overused, but there’s no question Sanders has done so. This roster plays hard, and there’s a confidence that simply has not existed in Boulder for many years.
Deion Sanders and Shedeur SandersAndrew Wevers/Getty Images
Saturday’s rout of Utah extended the winning streak to four; CU previously beat Arizona 34-7, Cincinnati 34-23 and Texas Tech 41-27.
Now 6-1 in conference play, the Buffs—and thanks to a little help from Houston and Kansas in earlier November games—are on the verge of heading to the Big 12 title game. Colorado travels to Kansas in Week 13 before hosting Oklahoma State to wrap up the regular season.
Win both matchups, and CU will lock in a shot at making the first-ever 12-team Playoff in only Sanders’ second year.
As the 2023 season ended, that prospect felt inconceivable. One month into the 2024 campaign, it looked implausible. Now in mid-November, that Playoff path is impossible to deny.
Colorado, with no hesitation, is a genuine contender to make the CFP.
And somehow—after almost two years of attention disproportionate to results—the Buffs managed to get here quietly.
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