Colorado Is A Good Football Team.
Yes, please be aware that this post will come with some bias. I feel like, as a Colorado Alum, I’m owed that a tiny bit.
I want people to understand where this team truly was two years ago. Colorado football was honestly unwatchable. Colorado fans, students, and alumni went into every game knowing they would lose. In the first game of the 2022 season, Minnesota beat Colorado by forty-two and scored forty-nine points total. Since then, they have been destroyed two other times, three if you want to include the Western Illinois game the week before the Colorado game in 2022. My point is that Colorado was getting annihilated by everyone. Faith in the program, as well as fan interest, were at an all-time low, and as a student at Colorado, it was hard to get excited about game days knowing we were just going to lose.
I remember sitting in Lake Tahoe the day it was first reported that Deion was considering the job at Colorado. My parents were both working, and our family pug, Sabi, was sitting by the fire. “No shot,” I thought. I remember being excited that even a name of Deion’s caliber was interested in being the head coach for a 1-11 team who lost ten of their eleven games by twenty-one points or more. I tried not to get my hopes up… but as I got back into Boulder, with my cat on my chest one day, waiting for the semester to start, the notification flashed on my screen: “Deion Sanders has agreed to become the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes.”
It was hard to pin down an emotion at first. I knew that it was a program-changing move, and I knew whatever overhaul Coach Sanders was going to do was going to be drastic... but what was drastic? In my eyes, and with as much respect as I can say this with to the 2022 Colorado team, we didn’t have a ton of pieces that were viable to be back without being seen as weak links. We knew what Coach Sanders was going to bring in at least in a few spots was going to be some of the best players in the country. In his first team meeting, he said, “We’ve got some positions already taken care of because I’m bringing my baggage with me... and it’s Louie” (via Well Off Media). This was about players like Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Shilo Sanders (we’ll talk about him at some point, trust me), and honestly, yes, that is valid. They are some of the best, or most physical, players at their positions that fit the mold that Coach Sanders was bringing to Colorado (those three are the core to the whole thing essentially). From then on, a vast majority of the 2022 Colorado Football team hit the transfer portal, while Coach Sanders did everything he could, in the little time he had, to prepare for the 2023 season in the same way. He brought in premier skill talent to try and compete with the best skill-position teams in the country, at one point even flipping who was the #1 cornerback in the 2023 class, Cormani McClain, to come and play for him in Boulder... however, this left the offensive and defensive lines mostly unprepared.
In the 2023 season, Colorado finished 4-8. It was an improvement from the year before, but still a mark that many fans in college football felt warranted criticism for the way Coach Sanders handled the offseason before. While Coach Sanders did pick up a couple of huge recruits in the season, like five-star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton (who has been phenomenal for Colorado this season), during the 2023 season, Shedeur was sacked more times than any other college quarterback by far. Colorado also struggled to contain their opponent’s run game and could not generate much of a pass rush against any team. While teams did not have much film on this Colorado team to start the season, as the season went on, it became clear where the holes in this team were.
So, in the 2023 offseason, Coach Sanders fixed those holes. On the offensive line, he brought in Khalil Benson, Jordan Seaton, Tyler Brown, who came back from his NCAA-mandated year out due to transfer, and Justin Mayer from UTEP, who was a very good prospect out of the portal. To this point in the season, the offensive line has still had some bad games. Their games against Nebraska and Baylor stick out to me in particular, but besides that, this unit has been stout and able to keep Shedeur upright when he stays in the pocket, which is a huge difference from last year. Colorado had Jimmy Horn Jr., Travis Hunter, and Omarion Miller coming back as their wideouts but also went out and grabbed Lajohntay Wester and Will Sheppard from the portal, both highly touted wide receivers. On top of that, at running back, they were able to grab Dallan Hayden and Isiah Augustave out of the transfer portal, as well as Micah Welch, who is a true freshman and is running very well for Colorado so far.
On the defensive side of the ball, I will give credit to the players, as well as a couple of defensive hires. First, in terms of the players who were either brought on or made leaps, it’s been noticeable how much better this unit is. Starting with the two starting linebackers, Lavonta Bentley and Nikai Hill-Green. As mentioned earlier, in 2022, one of the biggest struggles for Colorado was stopping their opponent’s run game. Through nine weeks, Bentley and Hill-Green are two of the best linebackers in the country at stopping the run, according to PFF. They both can run downhill and hit any gap that the defensive linemen don’t fill, which on its own hasn’t been a problem either. Starters Chidozie Nwankwo, Shane Cokes, and BJ Green have consistently been able to control offensive lines they have played against this year and have consistently shown they can not only stop the run but pressure opposing quarterbacks as well. Through nine weeks, Colorado has the most sacks in the Big 12. This isn’t even mentioning that they brought in a five-star cornerback in Preston Hodge, as well as pieces like Dj Mickinney, Colton Hood, and Amari Stoutmire to strengthen their secondary.
The defense has completely turned around, and if you don’t want to look at the players, you need to look at the coaches. Defensive Coordinator Robert Livingston and Quality Control Specialist Warren Sapp have installed the scheme and confidence in their players to have this defense flying around every Saturday. Livingston was highly respected among NFL coaches. He coached the safeties for the Cincinnati Bengals for six years and spent eight years on the staff in total. He did spend some time at the college level with Furman and Vanderbilt in 2010-2011, respectively, but never as a defensive coordinator. His ability to adapt to whatever offenses are throwing at him has been eye-opening, as Colorado’s defense, in the second half, has given up seven points or fewer in every game but two.
When talking about Warren Sapp, he needs no introduction. He is an NFL Hall of Famer, a Super Bowl champion, a 7x Pro Bowler, and the 1999 Defensive Player of the Year. He has instilled confidence within Colorado’s defensive line that they can play with anybody on the field. The fire and passion he brings to the game can motivate anyone to run through a brick wall, and the influence it can have on these kids hoping to get to the highest level cannot be understated. Having Sapp around to influence the defensive line adds to an already stacked coaching staff full of NFL Hall of Fame talent, which has contributed greatly to Colorado’s success this season.
Through nine weeks, Colorado is 6-2 going into their second bye. They are bowl-eligible for the first time since 2020 (but the world forgets that year happened, so 2016), have clinched six wins for the first time since 2016, and for only the third time since 2007. More importantly, they are now the favorite in all of their upcoming games after their bye week this week, including a huge game next week in Lubbock against Texas Tech. After that game, their next three games are against teams that will struggle to become bowl-eligible or that will not be a challenge for the University of Kansas. Whether people like it or not, this is a good football team. The hard part of their schedule is over, and although they will need help—and they need to handle their own business too—we may be talking about a 10-2 Colorado football team competing for the Big 12 Championship on Championship Weekend.
