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Tag: cu buffs football

  • Keeler: CU Buffs transfers wonder what 2025 under Deion Sanders would’ve looked like if they stayed: ‘They missed out’

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    Noah Fenske had his luggage with him Saturday. It wasn’t Louis.

    “Just Under Armour,” the former CU Buffs offensive lineman texted me from his vacation in Nashville.

    While on the road with his fiancée, Fenske’s also been keeping an eye on an old CU teammate, Alex Harkey. Oregon’s starting right tackle? Yeah, he used to be a Buff.

    Harkey, a 6-foot-6, 327-pound redshirt senior, is prepping for a Friday night showdown with Indiana — and another former CU player, the Hoosiers’ Kahlil Benson — in one College Football Playoff semifinal. The Ducks’ bruiser helped Oregon put up 245 passing yards and convert four fourth-down conversions on The Best Defense Money Can Buy, blanking Texas Tech 23-0 in the Orange Bowl.

    He’d transferred into CU as a 305-pounder out of Tyler (Texas) Junior College, a 3-star who was weighing offers from Middle Tennessee and Old Dominion. After appearing in 12 games, largely as a reserve guard, Harkey was one of the kids from CU’s 2022 recruiting class swept out in the great Deion Sanders roster purge during the spring of 2023.

    Fenske, who played in seven games with the Buffs in ’22, was Harkey’s roommate at CU. He got swept away, too. Under Armour was out, Louis Vuitton luggage was in.

    “(Harkey has) done incredible, man,” Fenske gushed. “Because when he first came in (to CU), he wasn’t what he is now. And just seeing his transformation from being a (backup) guard on a 1-11 team to being a first-round or second-round (NFL) draft pick …”

    Big Alex could play. So could wideout Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State). And cornerback Simeon Harris (Fresno State). And quarterback Owen McCown, once he’d had some more brisket. McCown, who played as a wafer-thin true freshman at CU in ’22, threw for 30 touchdowns at UTSA this past fall — including three in a 57-20 win over Florida International in the First Responder Bowl.

    “We just stay connected, support each other’s success,” Harris, who still belongs to a group chat of former Buffs, told me over the weekend. “You’ve got to expect the unexpected. That (purge) hit us all in the mouth.”

    CU fans talk a lot — a lot — about 1-11 in 2022. About rock bottom. About Coach Prime lighting the candle for the climb out of obscurity.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: Deion Sanders isn’t enough. CU Buffs football needs a sugar daddy for Christmas.

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    Omarion Miller finished Julian Lewis’ passes the way Meg Ryan finished Billy Crystal’s sentences in “When Harry Met Sally.”

    Alas, there won’t be a happy ending. Or a sequel.

    Miller — the CU Buffs’ leading receiver in 2025 — announced Wednesday that he was entering the transfer portal. And apparently Tawfiq Byard will have whatever Miller’s having. The Buffs safety, CU’s best defensive player this past fall despite playing much of it with just one working hand, also plans to transfer out of BoCo next month.

    Pain is a process. The gut says, “If we can go 3-9 with you, we can go 3-9 without you, dude.”

    The head says something else. Something along the lines of, “Man, Deion Sanders could really, really use a sugar daddy this Christmas.”

    Remember when the Buffs hired Coach Prime and finally got out ahead of the college football curve?

    That lasted about 16 to 18 months.

    Celebrity coaches are out.

    Celebrity investors are in.

    Texas Tech, per YahooSports.com, raised about $49 million for student-athletes from July 2024 to July 2025. A new Red Raiders donor group, called the Athletic Donor Circle, had already pledged roughly $35 million as of early November.

    Last week, Utah became the first Power 4 athletic department to formally partner with a private equity firm. ESPN.com reports that Otro Capital out of New York is ready to pump $400 million into the Utes.

    Texas Tech bought the best team on the planet, went 12-1, won the Big 12 title and earned a bye in the College Football Playoff. Utah posted a 10-2 record and beat the Buffs 53-7 in late October.

    CU athletics, meanwhile, is reportedly staring at a potential $27 million deficit for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, according to multiple outlets. Thank players and Prime, primarily.

    Sanders’ salary went up by nearly $5 million for 2025 after his new extension kicked in. The House vs. NCAA settlement required CU to share revenues with student-athletes starting this past July 1, with a cap of $20.5 million for this fiscal cycle. Yet it’s hard to imagine good players such as Miller and Byard taking pay cuts at their next ports of call, isn’t it?

    Buffs officials saw the train coming years ago, even as the bills keep piling up. Which is why the indoor practice facility is now sponsored by Mountain States Ford Stores. And why artificial turf was installed at Folsom Field — so the stadium could be utilized more often as a host to revenue-driving events outside the athletic calendar.

    Concerts and uniform sponsorships — UNLV will reportedly collect about $2.2 million annually over the next five years from Acesso Biologics, its new “Official Jersey Patch Partner” — will only cover so much. The student-athlete revenue sharing pool is expected to increase by 4% next year. Sanders is slated to make $11 million in 2027, $11 million in 2028 and $12 million in 2029.

    The Buffs can’t play at the same poker tables as the Red Raiders and Utes — or retain star players — without a serious influx of cash. Utah is pointing the way now. Not CU.

    College football is so broken. The system? The system — and by that, we mean greedy college presidents and the corporate suits they propped up as conference commissioners — for too long took advantage of student-athletes as a pool of indentured labor, as entertainment contractors on the cheap. A free market for talent was overdue. But the pendulum has swung so hard the other way that roster retention is the stuff of satire now.

    Bowls? Bowls are nothing more than three-hour infomercials for some random chamber of commerce or provincial company you’ve never heard of; exhibitions propped up by Disney stiffs to eat up programming blocks over the holidays. When Iowa State and Kansas State would sooner eat a million bucks in league fines than join in, that ship’s sailed. (Not you, Pop-Tarts Bowl. You’re weirdly perfect. And perfectly weird.)

    Fans? Fans are caught in the crossfire, casualties in the battle of dollars over sense. Ticket prices and point-of-entry fees will skyrocket. Pay-per-view will become more the norm than the exception. Universities will pass the cost to the consumer.

    The Buffs vow that they won’t cut sports — and with only 13 non-football options offered, they don’t have much room on that front to cut, anyway. They’ve vowed that they won’t lop student-athlete services, although outgoing athletic director Rick George laid off two track coaches last spring.

    Something’s gotta give. Of course, if Coach Prime wanted to help retain student-athletes, he could donate half of his $10 million salary to the revenue-sharing pool. That’s not happening.

    In an effort to slow the chaos, FBS scholarships could require a minimum of two years of service at your initial college of choice coming out of high school. But that’s not happening, either.

    As of early Friday morning, at least 11 CU players had expressed interest in transferring out. Among the Big 12 programs that didn’t change coaches (Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State), only West Virginia had seen more defections (19) as of mid-December than the Buffs.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: CU Buffs QB Julian Lewis brought Shedeur Sanders’ juice, deep ball back to Coach Prime’s attack

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    MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — If Saturday in Morgantown was an audition, Julian Lewis passed.

    And passed.

    And passed.

    Ju Ju looked past open receivers. He looked ready to turtle whenever West Virginia sent the house. But he also looked like Shedeur Sanders out there at times, didn’t he?

    Especially when dropping ball after ball in the bucket for CU wide receiver Omarion Miller.

    The Buffs dropped their third game in a row at Milan Puskar Stadium, falling 29-22 against the Mountaineers and slipping to 3-7 on a lost season.

    Yet it was the most fun the Buffs have been in what, a month? For the first time in what feels like forever, we saw snippets of last fall’s passing game. We saw the deep ball and the vertical passing game that scared the Big 12 half to death.

    2024: Shedeur to Travis Hunter.

    2025: Ju Ju to Omarion.

    Sanders said earlier this week that his decision to start Lewis, a true freshman, at quarterback was guided by “common sense.”

    Hindsight is 20/20, especially when a year goes off the rails. But what took so long?

    Coach Prime should’ve listened to his common sense sooner.

    While senior Kaidon Salter offered zero juice and minimal downfield threat at QB1, Lewis walked into coal country and looked the part. The Mountaineers blitzed from the left. They blitzed from the right. At one point, they even pulled out a piece of Ju Ju’s hair. Kid hung tough: 22 completions on 35 attempts for 299 yards and two touchdowns.

    Lewis to Miler was the combo CU has been waiting for all year. The chemistry was undeniable. The combo was almost unguardable: Miller finished with six catches for 131 receiving yards and a score.

    Ju Ju was at his strongest rolling and throwing to his left, hitting Miller for a 43-yard rainbow early, then Sincere Brown (19 yards) and Joseph Williams (13 yards) on CU’s second drive of the second quarter.

    And yes, some context applies here, too. West Virginia’s defense going into the weekend ranked last in the Big 12 in opponent passer rating (160.25) and 14th in the league in passing yards allowed per game (270.8). It was not unlike debuting a rookie hitter against the 2025 Rockies at Coors Field — a soft landing, a chance to build numbers and confidence.

    Still, you could see that confidence growing in real time. On the CU drive that ended the third quarter and opened the fourth, the freshman faced second-and-7 from the West Virginia 20. He scanned quickly, feeling the pocket constricting to his left and his right. It was the kind of bang-bang play that would’ve been a sure-fire sack earlier in the game, never mind earlier in the season. Lewis stepped up in the pocket and took off for a 3-yard gain, giving CU a third-and-4 at the home 17. CU eventually got a 35-yard field goal from Alejandro Mata to pull the Buffs to within 22-19 with 14:51 left to play in the tilt.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Freshman Julian Lewis to get start at QB for Colorado Buffaloes

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    Five-star freshman quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis has been handed the reins to the Colorado offense.

    On Tuesday, CU head coach Deion Sanders confirmed that Lewis will make his first career start when the Buffs play at West Virginia on Saturday (10 a.m. MT, TNT).

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    Brian Howell

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  • Renck: With his salary, CU’s Deion Sanders doesn’t have luxury of rebuilding. This mess is his to fix

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    BOULDER — Leave it to Deion Sanders to refer to a Brazilian butt lift when trying to explain how his team got its (bleep) kicked last weekend.

    He was citing society’s obsession with instant gratification — pizza with a phone call, dinner dashed to our doorstep. You know, how nobody has patience anymore.

    It is fair after watching what unfolded Saturday night if that patience is starting to wear thin with Coach Prime.

    He was the most celebrated hire in school history. He made CU relevant, attracting TV networks to the games, NFL Hall of Famers to the sidelines.

    Three years into this experiment, the reality no longer matches the hype. The Buffs are a laughingstock again.

    And let’s be honest, in the current college landscape, coaches making $10.8 million per year don’t get the luxury of rebuilding seasons or failing to qualify for a bowl — even a bad one. CU requires victories in its final three games at West Virginia, against Arizona State and on the road versus Kansas State to be eligible for the postseason.

    Good luck.

    Arizona mauled the Buffs, 52-17, on a chilly night before 48,223 fans at Folsom Field. The first smattering of boos cascaded down after CU’s second offensive play. Half of those in attendance never wandered back to their seats after halftime.

    It is getting harder to see the whippings as an aberration. When a team gets outscored 81-7 in the first half in back-to-back weeks, it seems like what is happening on the field is a symptom of larger dysfunction. The Buffs have one conference win. Only Oklahoma State, which canned legendary coach Mike Gundy in September, is worse.

    Coach Prime handpicked this coaching staff and this overhauled roster. And the Buffs have done nothing well over the past two games. They fall behind, they miss tackles, they turn the ball over, and they lack discipline, which spawns visible anger and on-field arguments.

    “Don’t attack the players, come at me. Don’t attack the coordinators, come at me,” Sanders said, opening his news conference with a directive and announcing no players would be made available to talk.

    OK? So what went wrong?

    “I have no idea,” Sanders said, before hinting he was holding back his thoughts. “If I knew where the disconnect was, I would tell you.”

    At halftime, CU trailed by 31 and had more penalties (nine) than points (seven).

    A loss like this, it goes looking for people to blame, and it does not go wanting. The only hard part is where to start. A sequence in the second quarter captured problems that go far beyond the personnel to the leadership of the program.

    Quarterback Kaidon Salter, who was mercifully benched, delivered a 75-yard scoring strike to Sincere Brown when CU still had hope. The touchdown, and assumed point after, would have cut the deficit to 24-14. But a scan of the field showed as much yellow as black and gold.
    Omarion Miller was ruled an ineligible receiver downfield, suggesting he lined up wrong since, well, he is a receiver. How does that happen?

    Worse, the Buffs were pushed back another 15 yards for offensive lineman Yahya Attia “brandishing a weapon” while taunting an Arizona player. Finger guns? Really?

    Arizona wide receiver Tre Spivey runs for a touchdown after catching a pass as Colorado defensive end Arden Walker pursues in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

    The offense was terrible, collecting 117 yards in the first half while receiving a Bronx cheer when it made its initial first down.

    Coordinator Pat Shurmur has been something less than competent for years, so we really should not start the finger-pointing there.

    What about Salter? He has been a disappointment since the season opener and stayed true to form. As did backup Ryan Staub, whose first two passes were interceptions.

    Those who stuck around in the second half witnessed five-star prospect Julian Lewis connect on a 59-yard strike to Miller for the first touchdown of his career. But, even that created questions — namely, is he going to play the final three games and burn his redshirt season? If so, why?

    “Common sense,” Sanders said. “I don’t know his thought process or his parents’. I just can control what we can control. I am for the kids. If (a redshirt) is what he wants, that is what he will get.”

    Defensive boss Robert Livingston must be held accountable for his unit’s shortcomings. He lacks beef up front, a trademark of all of the teams under Coach Prime, leaving CU susceptible to any team that likes to run the ball. But the poor tackling, the lack of physicality, the bad angles, the blown assignments, remain jarring.

    All of the improvement Livingston fostered last season seemed like a long time ago when Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita stepped up into a pressure-free pocket and found Javin Whatley streaking wide open for a touchdown with 21 seconds left in the half. The referee on the goal line shrugged and slowly raised his arms in the air, unsure if he was inbounds. It is always best to assume the worst against this defense.

    No, this loss wasn’t the fault of Shurmur, Livingston, Salter, Staub, or any forgettable defender. It is on the man who hired them, recruited them and coaches them.

    Sanders talks about practice more than Allen Iverson. He promised things would change after getting walloped 53-7 by Utah. He was right. The Buffs got worse.

    Sanders brought in the latest gold jacket to campus this week with Ray Lewis questioning the players — “If you guys don’t believe in each other, how do you win?” — and pleading for them to improve communication and take their preparation seriously.

    Lewis was not wrong. But eventually, the message is just background noise in a lost season.

    Colorado safety John Slaughter, left, upends Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita after a short gain in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
    Colorado safety John Slaughter, left, upends Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita after a short gain in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

    The sobering truth is that these are not the good old days — like 2024, when Coach Prime could stack the roster with skill players, notably his son Shedeur and Heisman Trophy-winner Travis Hunter, and deliver a winning record.

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    Troy Renck

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  • Could big win vs. Iowa State turn tide for Deion Sanders’ CU Buffs?

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    With their season seemingly on the line this past weekend, Colorado football players took inspiration from an old saying.

    “Our pastor gave a great message (Friday) night,” CU linebacker Jeremiah Brown said after a 24-17 win against then-No. 22 Iowa State on Saturday at Folsom Field. “He talked about pressure and how you respond to it. He talked about how pressure makes diamonds.

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    Brian Howell

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  • Keeler: CU Buffs coach Deion Sanders hasn’t hesitated to play freshmen. So why is he hesitating to play 5-star QB Julian Lewis?

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    BOULDER — There will be another Ju Ju.

    Lots of them, actually. If we’ve learned anything about CU recruiting in the Deion Sanders Era, it’s that if Coach Prime wants someone — like, really, really, really wants them — he gets them.

    Left tackle Jordan Seaton? Got him.

    Cornerback Cormani McClain? Got him. (Best not look at the young man’s Florida Gators numbers right now if you’re a Buffs fan. Seriously. Don’t.)

    Quarterback Julian Lewis? Got him, too.

    Keeping him? Well …

    At 2-4, 0-3 in Big 12 play, CU football is staring at a crisis/inflection point right now. No. 22 Iowa State (5-1) rolls into town for a Saturday matinee, and a trip to Utah (4-1), which is back to running the ball at will again, looms after that.

    Meanwhile, Coach Prime’s health concerns are mounting. And the Buffs have played three QBs in six games because, as the old adage goes, they don’t really have one. Not one who can sling it consistently at a Big 12 level, at any rate.

    After Kaidon Salter just tossed three interceptions at TCU, Ju Ju is the people’s choice again.

    Build for the future!

    The season’s already lost!

    What’s the difference between 4-8 and 2-10?

    If we don’t play Ju Ju this fall, we’ll lose him to the transfer portal! And that would be a tragedy!

    Would it, though?

    I mean, in terms of Lewis’ value in the open market, you’re absolutely right. Big Ten and SEC football programs, even bad ones, have more money right now than they know what to do with. The Buffs, as with many of their Big 12 peers, have to pick and choose their bidding wars.

    Although CU also, at the moment, has 24 offers out to quarterbacks in the Class of ’26, according to the 247Sports database. They’ve got five out to signal-callers in the Class of ’27, and four in the Class of ’28.

    Recruiting, at its core, is about salesmanship. Nobody sells — themselves, their school, a product, the future — the way Coach Prime sells. Charmers are charmers for life.

    Ask yourself this, too: If Lewis is that hot, why hasn’t he beaten out the two guys who’ve been driving you crazy?

    You’ve watched Salter for five games. You’ve watched backup Ryan Staub for two.

    As Coach Prime points out, he sees what you saw.

    Yet when asked about Ju Ju’s progress on Tuesday, Sanders said this, and bluntly:

    “He’s coming around the mountain when he comes.”

    Will he be driving six white horses?

    We kid, we kid. But the hesitation, given precedent, is more than curious, isn’t it?

    After all, Coach Prime has made a point of playing freshmen who earned his trust early. Seaton. Micah Welch. Omarion Miller. Dre’Lon Miller.

    Lewis, though?

    Not so much. Not yet, anyway.

    “I mean, he’s young, and you can’t throw everything at him,” Sanders explained after playing Lewis for two rocky series vs. Delaware last month. “So you don’t want to do that. You don’t want him to feel like he failed.

    “So you’ve got to proceed with — some guys want you to just throw him in there, and I’m too protective. I mean, I love the kid and I want the kid to be successful, so we’re very protective on what we do with him and what we can do with him and really how we call things with him. We want him to be in a situation to excel.”

    Again, he sees what you see. He sees a young man who only turned 18 two-and-a-half weeks ago. And it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see a QB who isn’t quite ready yet.

    Although …

    “I’ve never sat on the bench and said, ‘Whoa, I learned a lot today.’”

    That quote also came from Sanders, when he was a guest on the Kelce Brothers’ “New Heights” podcast a fortnight ago. He’d said that while explaining why son Shedeur didn’t want to be drafted by Baltimore and become All-Pro QB Lamar Jackson’s understudy

    “Who learns sitting on the bench?” Coach Prime continued. “Who does that?”

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CU Buffs’ Deion Sanders battling more health issues, says he may have blood clots

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    FORT WORTH, Texas – In addition to the pain of another defeat, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders is dealing with more pain physically.

    During CU’s 35-21 loss to TCU on Saturday night at Amon G. Carter Stadium, Sanders took his left shoe off for several minutes in the second half because he said his foot was throbbing. He was also walking with a noticeable limp.

    “I think I got more blood clots,” Sanders said after the game. “That’s out of the bag, right? I think I got more blood clots. It don’t make sense. I’m hurting like crazy.”

    Sanders also complained of a throbbing foot when he sat down for his weekly press conference in Boulder on Tuesday.

    “I’ve got a doctor appointment Monday to see what time it is,” he said Saturday night. “So that’s what’s going on. I’m not getting blood to my leg; that’s why my leg is throbbing. Sorry to get that out, but thank you for noticing.”

    A Pro Football Hall of Famer now in his third season as CU’s head coach, Sanders, 58, has battled through numerous health issues in recent years, including being diagnosed with bladder cancer on April 14.

    Sanders had surgery on May 9 to remove his bladder and the cancer and have a new one created with his small intestine.

    Sanders’ serious health issues go back to his time as Jackson State’s head coach in 2021. He had several surgeries that fall, including having two toes amputated on his left foot.

    In the summer of 2023, prior to his first season at CU, he had two surgeries to fix blood clots, which improved his mobility. He has had 14 surgeries since 2021.

    CU trainer Lauren Askevold, who has been by Sanders’ side since Jackson State, said in July that Sanders has an annual “CT scan of his vascular pattern to make sure blood clots are away,” adding that a scan in the spring “turned out really great from the vascular side.”

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    Brian Howell

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  • Head coach Deion Sanders wants more intensity, passion from CU Buffs

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    At a team meeting on Tuesday morning, Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders had a simple question for his players.

    “Are you underachieving or overachieving?” Sanders asked his players.

    “There’s only one answer or the other,” he said.

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    Brian Howell

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  • Keeler: Coach Prime shouldn’t dream of starting any other CU Buffs QB at Houston than Ryan Staub

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    BOULDER — Julian Lewis couldn’t cross the Delaware.

    Not the Delaware 35-yard line, at any rate.

    Kaidon Salter couldn’t throw on the run.

    Or past the sticks.

    CU’s Big 12 opener is Friday night. Dink and dunk in Houston, under the lights, and the Cougars will have you for brisket.

    Which means the best option head coach Deion Sanders has at QB1, right now, is the guy nobody had on their bingo cards on Saturday morning.

    Welcome to the party, Ryan Staub.

    Sorry.

    “Martin Luther Staub,” Coach Prime called him during a postgame chat with FOX Sports after the sophomore powered CU to a 31-7 rout of Delaware at Folsom Field.

    Staub is one of those O.B.s — “Original Buffs,” Karl Dorrell holdovers who stuck it out while Deion portaled in people to push them off the roster.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: Yo, CU Buffs! Pat Shurmur without Shedeur Sanders was painful to watch

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    BOULDER — Is that Byron Leftwich warming up on the sideline?

    Ralphie, you didn’t miss much. Take away Shedeur Sanders from a Pat Shurmur offense, and you’re left with a CU attack that, at times, looked like a pencil with no lead.

    Friday night’s opener against Georgia Tech had a Baylor 2024 feel. Minus the Baylor ending. After two CU Hail Marys fell incomplete, the Yellow Jackets escaped with a 27-20 win inside a packed Folsom Field.

    New Buffs starting quarterback Kaidon Salter will take some flak, but this wasn’t all his burden. No. 3 was as advertised, at least, in that he isn’t Shedeur. Down 20-13 with 9:23 left in the tilt, the Buffs’ transfer QB stepped up in the pocket to elude pressure (which was good), spotted a wide-open Simeon Price near the front right pylon (also good) … and overthrew him by a yard-and-a-half.

    Yet he can do this, too. As the pocket collapsed again, forcing another step-up, Salter spotted a lane, tucked the rock, and pinballed his way 7 yards into the end zone to pull the hosts to within an extra point.

    As Buffs QB debuts go, No. 3’s was fine, if rough around the edges. Salter sometimes sprinted into danger as often as he ran away from it. Stretching out a play from east to west may buy time against Conference USA defenses. The ones he’s going to see in the Big 12 close too quickly. Pick a lane and get north.

    And to the social media peanut gallery calling for 5-star super freshman Julian Lewis, ask yourself this: How many times did Salter have to create an escape route all by himself?

    Lewis can move, sure. Not like that. Even if “Ju Ju” has taken steps forward this month, it remains to be seen whether this offensive line’s ready to keep him upright for 60 minutes. Delaware awaits on Sept. 6. If we haven’t seen Lewis on the field by Week 3, fire up the flares.

    At the moment, the Buffs have bigger problems. Unfortunately, CU’s run defense was less what was advertised and more what was feared. The elephant in the room still struggles to stop anybody between the hashmarks.

    Yes, the Buffs tightened up late, and thank goodness. Yes, Tech is the Waffle House version of Iowa, a Southern sledgehammer. Yet Georgia Tech also converted on third-and-3-or-less five times in the first three quarters. They converted four of those on the ground, and the other one was a willing surrender on a spiked Haynes King pass to stop the clock.

    If Tech wasn’t busy Nebrasking the heck outta that first half with three consecutive turnovers, the Buffs would’ve been hurting deep.

    The Jackets were outrushing CU two minutes into the second quarter by a count of 112-33. Tech was getting 6.3 yards per pop on its first 18 carries.

    And yet … the hosts somehow still led 7-3, spitting in the face of the football gods and the pop-up showers.

    In hindsight, the Buffs couldn’t have scripted the first five minutes any better, could they? Tech’s Malik Rutherford got loose for a 13-yard gain on the first play of the evening. On the second, King butterfingered the ball to CU linebacker Martavious French at the Buffs’ 38. Five plays and three Micah Welch runs later, Salter found DeKalon Taylor in the end zone for an 8-yard score and a 6-0 CU lead.

    Funny thing? Those two plays were pretty much a harbinger for the rest of the Jackets’ first half. The Ramblin’ Wreck alternated between gashing the Buffs on the ground or putting the ball on the turf.

    Tech drove past midfield on five of its first six cracks on offense. Tries No. 2 and 3 ended on a fumble recovery by French at the Buffs’ 48 and a pick by D.J. McKinney at the CU 34, respectively. The Jackets turned their last three possessions into 13 points, with kicker Aidan Birr’s 32-yard field goal putting the visitors up 13-10 as the dying seconds of the second quarter expired.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • CU Buffs-Arizona quick hits: Take a breather, Travis Hunter. Shedeur Sanders, LaJohntay Wester, CU pass rush got this

    CU Buffs-Arizona quick hits: Take a breather, Travis Hunter. Shedeur Sanders, LaJohntay Wester, CU pass rush got this

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    Initial observations from the CU Buffs’ 34-7 win over the Arizona Wildcats in Big 12 play at Arizona Stadium.

    Paging Sean Payton: An onside kick attempt to start the game? Did Arizona head coach Brent Brennan consult the Broncos’ Sean Payton earlier this week? Bold move, to say the least — if not a very bright one. It was almost as if Brennan knew exactly what was coming down the pike. There was no way the Wildcats’ leaky secondary was coming up with enough stops to win this game … unless special teams could steal an extra possession or two. A weird message to send your team before a ball is even snapped. But at least Brennan is a realist.

    Weapons to spare: Who needs a run game when you have Shedeur Sanders and an endless stream of pass-catchers? Certainly not CU against a defense like Arizona’s. Can’t rush the passer? Have problems covering receivers one-on-one or tackling in space? Shedeur and the Buffs will eat you alive, whether it’s third-and-long, third-and-short, or, in the case of the QB’s 14-yard strike to Travis Hunter in the first half, fourth-and-10. So even if the Buffs average 2.3 yards on 22 attempts, as they did in the first half, it’s plenty. They still converted 8 of 11 third downs and put 28 points on the board. By the time everything was said and done, LaJohntay Wester had eight catches for 127 yards. And he’s, what, CU’s third- or fourth-best receiver? Yikes!

    Livingston’s stock on rise: Stats may not be kind to the Buffs defense — CU entered Saturday 94th in FBS in yards allowed and 73rd in points allowed — but the eye test says Robert Livingston’s unit is trending up. And it’s happening at the line of scrimmage — an area that was a notable issue last season. In two of the last three games, CU has bottled up one of the nation’s top rushing attacks (UCF, 177 yards) and harassed one of its most productive passers (Arizona’s Noah Fifita) to the tune of seven sacks, CU’s most since posting eight against Iowa State in 2010. The Buffs now have 16 sacks in their last three games.

    Heisman watch: This was not a day to worry about Travis Hunter’s Heisman Trophy campaign. With CU’s two-way star clearly not 100% after getting dinged in the Kansas State loss last week, Coach Prime did the smart thing, holding Hunter out over the final two quarters as “preventative measures.” CU already had a 28-7 lead, and Hunter’s mortal stat line (54 snaps, two receptions for 15 yards, one tackle) will soon be a mere footnote as long as he delivers a few more superhuman performances down the stretch. (Spoiler alert: He probably will.)

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    Matt Schubert

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  • CU Buffs vs. Kansas State quick hits: With Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn lost to injury, Buffs fall short vs. Wildcats

    CU Buffs vs. Kansas State quick hits: With Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn lost to injury, Buffs fall short vs. Wildcats

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    Initial observations from Colorado’s 31-28 loss to the Kansas State Wildcats in a Big 12 showdown in Boulder.

    Wildcats gashing: Kansas State’s primary key to victory was running the rock. In the first half alone, junior DJ Giddens trampled the Buffs for 127 yards on 12 carries, good for 10.6 yards a pop. Ex-Buff Dylan Edwards added 17 yards and a TD. Giddens was untacklable at times, and the CU linebackers and secondary had an especially hard time wrapping up in the second and third levels. KSU continued to pound the football and bleed the clock in the second half, starting with nearly an eight-minute TD drive in the third. A Colorado local, Durango graduate and starting right tackle Carver Willis, helped pave the way for an 182-yard rushing night for Giddens.

    Hunter, Horn hurt: CU star wideout/cornerback and Heisman Trophy candidate Travis Hunter, who has been central in the Buffs’ 4-1 start coming into Saturday, left the game midway through the second quarter with what ESPN reported as a shoulder injury. Hunter caught a 14-yard pass, but was crunched by KSU safety Daniel Cobbs, and immediately left the game. He didn’t return, and sophomore Colton Hood came on in Hunter’s place on defense (and later picked off K-State). On offense, CU also lost wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. to injury in the first half and Horn didn’t return, either. The absence of those two playmakers, especially Hunter, took some explosiveness out of CU’s offense, even if the Buffs managed to put 28 on the board.

    Hood in clutch: No Hunter to play lock-down corner in crunch time? No problem, at least for a moment. Hood came up clutch late in the fourth quarter with an interception and runback that set up CU’s go-ahead touchdown with 3:20 left. On fourth-and-6 at the CU 31-yard line, Avery Johnson’s pass was tipped by Preston Hodge and then corralled by Hood. He ran it back to the KSU 17-yard line, tripping himself up on the grass to come up just short of the pick-six. However, the next drive, Jayce Brown burned Hodge for a 50-yard TD catch.

    Shedeur shines: Once again, the CU QB looked like a top draft pick, despite playing without his two top targets in Hunter and Horn. No. 2 completed 16 straight passes across the second and third quarters — a CU record streak — and willed the Buffs back in the game with his arm despite taking some big hits. His lone blemish was an interception on an overthrow, and his final stat line was videogame-esque: 34 of 40 for 338 yards, three touchdowns and a 186.2 rating.

    Big sacks: Both team’s defensive lines made noise in the first half, as the Wildcats tallied four sacks for minus-49 yards, while CU’s defense had three sacks for minus-29 yards. Kansas State’s pressure also forced an intentional grounding on CU’s last possession of the half that effectively killed the drive. In the second half, the Wildcats continued to bring the heat, especially as the Buffs all but abandoned the run. KSU had two sacks for minus-25 yards over the final two quarters, finishing with six sacks overall. On a third-quarter sack, KSU defensive end Ryan Davis celebrated with Shedeur Sanders’ signature wristwatch move, holding the pose for a few seconds toward the CU crowd.

    KSU QB hurt, returns: The Wildcats also had an injury of their own to dual-threat quarterback, but Johnson’s absence was brief. The sophomore suffered what looked like a side injury on KSU’s opening possession of the second half, following an impressive threaded pass that went for 33 yards to Brown. Senior Ta’Quan Roberson spelled Johnson, who returned to the field later in the drive to throw a one-yard TD pass to Brown that made it a two-score lead. That 16-play, 81-yard drive chewed up more than half the third quarter.

    Who’s who: As has become the norm with Buffs games under Coach Prime, an array of stars were on the CU sidelines on Saturday night at Folsom Field. That list included current Nugget Russell Westbrook, retired former Nugget Carmelo Anthony (who rocked a Peter Forsberg Avs jersey), former Wizards star John Wall, current NBA stars Kevin Durant and John Wall, and rapper Cam’ron. Plus, former CU football stars and current NFL receivers Laviska Shenault and Juwann Winfree were also on hand.

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    Kyle Newman

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  • LaJohntay Wester etches name in CU Buffs football history with Hail Mary from Shedeur Sanders: “There’s nothing like it.”

    LaJohntay Wester etches name in CU Buffs football history with Hail Mary from Shedeur Sanders: “There’s nothing like it.”

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    BOULDER — LaJohntay Wester knows college football heartbreak.

    Wester had a fantastic career at Florida Atlantic, but he’s watched his Owls lose on a walk-off field goal in El Paso. He watched another team celebrate bowl eligibility on the final game of a lost season.

    Now Wester knows pure, uncut college football joy.

    Wester was on the receiving end of what instantly becomes one of the most famous passes in Colorado football history Saturday night. He corralled a Hail Mary from Shedeur Sanders after time expired in regulation to force overtime in a 38-31 victory against Baylor at Folsom Field.

    “Me being in college for a while, I’ve always been on the other end of the stick,” Wester said. “They rush the field after they beat us and we’re just trying to hurry off the field. This time I got to enjoy it and actually connect with some of the fans, take pictures. That’s great, man. It was an amazing feeling. There’s nothing like it.”

    On a wild night befitting Colorado’s return to Big 12 play, the Buffs could have tied the game on the play before. Sanders heaved the ball toward the same corner of the Baylor end zone, but it deflected off Will Sheppard’s hands on a contested play.

    The clock still read :02. Colorado had a second chance, and the Buffs didn’t waste it.

    Three wide receivers — Wester, Sheppard and Omarion Miller — lined up to the left of Sanders. Travis Hunter, by design, split out by himself to the right.

    Hunter might be the best college football player in America. On this play, he was the best decoy.

    “I told coach, ‘Let me go to the side by myself,’” Hunter said. “I knew there would be more people on me, and that would give our guys backside a one-on-one opportunity. They did exactly what we thought. They had three people on me. I just know sometimes you got to step back and let the team go ahead and play their role and let them come down with a good play. So I trusted the process.

    “I just wanted us to have a chance. It’s 50-50, but with our receiver corps it’s more like 80-20. I mean, you can’t get any better than our receiver corps.”

    Sanders took the shotgun snap and rolled to his left. The Baylor pass rush hounded Sanders all night, sacking him eight times and pressuring him on dozens of his nearly 60 dropbacks.

    Getting him out of the pocket was also by design, but two Bears nearly converged on him at midfield as Sanders sent the ball toward the front-left corner of the end zone.

    Wester found the ball in the air and reacted, hauling it in just after Baylor defensive back Caden Jenkins fell down and well before the safety help could arrive. It was the fourth catch of the game on seven targets for Wester.

    He wasn’t happy with at least one of the non-catches earlier in the game. Then he atoned.

    “You’re not going to be perfect,” Wester said. “You’re going to have mistakes out there, but it’s just next play man and making up for it. As long as you make up for it, everybody is going to forget about those drops.”

    The improbability of the play was amplified by everything that led up to it. Sanders was sacked on four out of Colorado’s first six plays after Baylor took a 31-24 lead. At one point, it was second-and-24 with 54 seconds to play and 69 yards to the end zone.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • CU Buffs vs. CSU Rams quick hits: Has quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi taken a step back in Year 2?

    CU Buffs vs. CSU Rams quick hits: Has quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi taken a step back in Year 2?

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    Initial observations from the CU Buffs’ 28-9 win over the CSU Rams in the Rocky Mountain Showdown’s return to Fort Collins and Canvas Stadium.

    Changes up front: Coach Prime indicated the Buffs planned on making changes up front to solve their problems on the offensive line. The big moves? Phillip Houston at right tackle, old RT Tyler Brown to left guard and freshman Micah Welch in the backfield. The results? Quite positive. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders was sacked just once (on a slide), while Welch (nine carries, 65 yards) found room to roam off the left side (when the Buffs actually decided to run it). Whether that has more to do with a leaky CSU defense than actual improvement remains to be seen. At the very least, CU saw the general competence it needed to on Saturday. And that’s a good start.

    Total control: It took Shedeur Sanders and the Buffs roughly a quarter to get warmed up, but once they did, they controlled every facet of this game. Travis Hunter (13 catches, 100 yards, two TDs, one interception) remains one-of-one. LaJohntay Wester (five catches, 80 yards) joins CU’s growing list of offensive weapons. And the defense? Let’s just say they’ve figured some things out. Since the start of the second half in Nebraska, the Buffs have allowed just nine points over six quarters. The shallow crosses that tore apart CU in 2023 were shut off from the start. Outside of a couple of long runs, the Buffs did a solid job bottling up CSU’s run game. All in all, there was a lot to like for CU as the Big 12 schedule arrives next week vs. Baylor.

    What’s happened to BFN?: A year ago, this was the game that cemented Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi as the Rams’ quarterback of the future. Twelve months later, CSU fans have to be wondering what happened to that guy. The sophomore was largely ineffective in the first half, sailing a pair of third-down throws and looking indecisive out of the pocket while completing 6 of 10 passes for just 54 yards. Then he opened the second half by throwing an all-too-familiar head-scratching interception across the middle. It didn’t get much better after that. Yes, Tory Horton’s inability to stay on the field changes what CSU can do. But it shouldn’t grind the Rams’ offense to a halt. Three weeks into his second season as a starter, it sure looks like BFN has taken a step back.

    Too. Many. Mistakes: As dominant as the Buffs were for large portions of this game, CSU sure gave them plenty of opportunities to find their footing. Freshman defensive lineman Andrew Laurich was lucky he didn’t get tossed for his late hit on Shedeur Sanders in the second quarter. Instead, it was just a really bad personal foul that gifted CU a first down on an eventual touchdown drive. Graduate defensive lineman James Mitchell’s facemask on second-and-21 did the same thing one Buffs scoring march later. Toss in Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi’s pick, Keegan Holles’ first-and-goal fumble and two botched snaps in CU territory, and the errors were legion. The Rams needed to play near perfect to win this one. They were far from it.

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    Matt Schubert

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  • CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders enters senior season with potential to leave historic legacy

    CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders enters senior season with potential to leave historic legacy

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    For Shedeur Sanders, last year stood as a convincing opening statement.

    The quarterback started with a record-setting performance in an upset road win against TCU. A couple of weeks after that, he led a last-second, 98-yard TD drive to eventually beat rival CSU in double OT. And even when CU’s wheels fell off, he still showed mettle, flashed several well-timed watch-flexes and played hurt, until he couldn’t anymore.

    Now, it’s time for Sanders’ closing arguments in black and gold starting with Thursday’s opener against North Dakota State at Folsom Field. And if the team plays better around the senior this fall, it could be historic.

    “If (the offensive line) can protect him, this young man may put up one of the great seasons in college football history,” predicted CU play-by-play man Mark Johnson. “(Darian) Hagan is at the top as national champ, and Kordell (Stewart) is up there too, but Shedeur is going to put himself in the conversation as the greatest Colorado quarterback if he has another season like he did last year.”

    Sanders, who missed the final six quarters of 2023 with a back fracture, is healthy again. The Buffs retooled their offensive line with transfers and the top high school left tackle in the nation, Jordan Seaton.

    If the big men can block a year after the line allowed 56 sacks, the weapons are there on the outside. Two-way star Travis Hunter, Jimmy Horn Jr., and transfers Will Sheppard and LaJohntay Wester give Sanders the chance to top last year.

    And that’s saying something. Even as the Buffs stumbled to 4-8 and last in the Pac-12, Sanders set CU records for passing yards in a season (3,230), completion percentage (69.3), touchdown-to-interception ratio (9-to-1) and interception percentage (0.7).

    Unsurprisingly, Sanders remains confident. Even before taking a snap this season, No. 2 is projected to be one of the top quarterbacks selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.

    “That’s the difference, I’d say, between me and a lot of other players,” Sanders said at Big 12 media day. “I’m not close to my ceiling at all. I’ve got a long way to go.”

    Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders talks with media during the Big 12 Conference NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

    Sanders’ performance could also be helped by consistency from the play-caller.

    Last year, Sean Lewis called the Buffs offense for the first eight games before Pat Shurmur took over for the final four games. Now with Shurmur as the team’s offensive coordinator, the former Giants head coach and Broncos OC believes the Buffs will be able to establish a consistent run game his QB never had in 2023.

    “It’s hard to cook in somebody else’s kitchen because you can’t really change anything at that point,” Shurmur said. “I don’t know if (the end of 2023) was a springboard, but what I do know, we were able to reset (the offense) the way we wanted to. We went out and got some new players, some more quality big men, then we installed an offense that works for us. I feel like it’s a new start moving forward.”

    But will a revamped offensive line along with Shurmur’s now-permanent role be enough for Sanders to take his game to the next level? Head coach Deion Sanders believes so, especially after the work his son put in with his trainer over the summer.

    “He’s worked on some of the little mechanical things with his quarterback coach (Darrell Colbert Jr) out of Houston,” Deion Sanders said on ESPN last month. “And it’s not just the mechanics of footwork and ball placement and releases, but also just getting to know his players and his receivers and where they want the ball. You can see after 7-on-7s and practice, him grabbing a guy, pulling him to the side and telling him what he wants and what he saw.”

    Whether all of this will result in more wins, and even better stats for the quarterback, remains to be seen.

    What is certain is that even with Sanders’ enormous popularity — he was recently ranked No. 1 on FOX Sports’ list of college football superstars — the QB needs to win to put himself in the discussion for end-of-season national honors such as the Davey O’Brien Award and Heisman Trophy.

    “If he puts up the numbers and CU is winning a good amount of their football games, because of who Prime is and the attention he brings to CU, I think he’ll be in that conversation,” former CU quarterback Bobby Pesavento said. “Now, is he in New York (as a Heisman finalist) and does he truly have a chance to win? That would take the Buffs doing something really special, like playing for a Big 12 championship again.”

    CBS Sports national college football writer Dennis Dodd agrees, noting that after Sanders “was almost a one-man team last year,” the Buffs must capture some magic in their first season back in the Big 12 for Sanders to be in the Heisman race.

    “The Heisman winner almost exclusively plays for a 10-win team that competes for a national championship and does something dramatic in November — if not a Heisman moment, a series of Heisman moments,” Dodd said. “It’s going to be hard for a QB of a 6-6 team to win it.”

    BOULDER, CO - SEPTEMBER 16: Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) shows off his watch to fans before the the Rocky Mountain Showdown against the Colorado State Rams at Folsom Field September 16, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
    Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) shows off his watch to fans before the Rocky Mountain Showdown against the Colorado State Rams at Folsom Field on Sept. 16, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    Originally Published:

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    Kyle Newman

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