COLORADO:...Buffaloes Hanging With Deion...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It is perhaps the most intriguing part of the coming college football season. How will NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders work out as head coach of the University of Colorado?

The Buffalos were 1-11 last year.

Sanders, the greatest Dallas Cowboys defensive back ever, is starting his first year in Boulder, Colorado - a spectacularly-cool city at the front-range base of the Rocky Mountains. To say that an entire state's expectations are sky-high is to downplay the mood in bars, living rooms and fan clubs.

Deion can beat 1-11, goes the conversation line. Easily.

This from espn.com: [ The Buffs weren't just one of the worst teams in college football last season, they were one of the worst teams in recent memory. Coach Karl Dorrell was fired after an 0-5 start in just his third season, and the team finished 1-11. Colorado lost games by an average margin of 29.1 points last year, the worst in the country and the fourth-worst among Power 5 programs in the past 30 years.

When the Buffaloes take the field in Fort Worth, Texas, against No. 17 TCU on Saturday (noon, Fox), the only resemblance to last year's team will be the uniforms. Only 10 scholarship players from the 2022 roster remain with the team. The team's 86 new players come from all over - from high school to junior college to the SEC - including nine who followed Sanders from Jackson State, led by Shedeur Sanders, Deion's son and CU's starting QB, and Travis Hunter, the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2022 class. According to ESPN Stats & Information data, it's the most incoming players to an FBS roster since the inception of the transfer portal in 2018.

"I know it's a huge overhaul," Sanders said. "But it had to be done." ]

TCU will not be an easy game. The Horned Frogs made it to the NCAA championship game, where, yeah, they were blown out by Number 1 Georgia.

All of Deion's ways are under a microscope. Will the team get off to a good start or a bad one, and how will the players and fans react to either of those possibilities?

Colorado is a slacker state where few issues ever really rile-up the population. I mean, the Buffs were 1-11 last year! Plus, this year the pro team in town - Denver Broncos - also have a new coach and new dreams under Sean Payton, the former field guru of the New Orleans Saints.

When I wrote for the Associated Press in Denver, the football season opened and closed with the Broncos. This year, with Prime Time Deion in town, it's the Colorado Buffalos drawing attention like little else.

Beat #14 TCU on its home field, always a tough task for any team, and the sky's the limit for Coach Sanders. Up after TCU for the Buffs is Nebraska, which lost its opener yesterday to the Minnesota Gophers.

The two other ranked teams on Colorado's 2023 schedule are #18 Oregon State on Nov. 4 and #14 Utah on Nov. 25.

Deion is not used to losing. But lose a few for the Boulder faithful and it's back to the drawing board.

That, too, is Big Time college ball...

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