The “Dark Horse” of Big 12. This is how Joel Klatt had described the Buffs. Deion Sanders and his boy didn’t have a good run last year. With three consecutive wins and then six consecutive losses, the Buffs ended the season with a 4-8 run. However, after the season, we saw one of the greatest QBs slowly rising out of Colorado and one of the best WR/CB (two-way) making his mark. Deion Sanders has the vision and talent to transform the Buffs into one of the leading teams this season, and that is probably why he moved on from PAC 12 to Big 12 this year.

Klatt joined Matt McChesney on Zero 2 Sixty on August 31 to explain Deion and Colorado’s hidden agenda behind their historic Big 12 move. “The Pac-12 was crumbling. The Pac-12 killed themselves because of their greed and lack of vision,” Klatt mentioned. One hundred eight years of college athletics and the league will be closing shop after the spring games. Pac-12 marked itself as some sort of champion, but it has not managed to walk the walk. The league’s reputation started to come undone, ultimately leading to its demise. “Colorado had some vision and some foresight and found a place to go,” Klatt noted. The sole reason for the shift from Pac-12 to Big 12 is the change in vision and the team’s growth. Over time, we have seen Deion Sanders rebuild the program and turn it into a multi-million dollar camp. He also managed to cultivate a strong QB and a 2-way star who both showed their greatness during the match against NDSU.

However, Klatt did have a warning. “It’s going to be a very difficult conference,” Klatt said. Following the shift, the Buffs will go up against giants like Oklahoma State, Utah, and TCU. However, Klatt is sure that Deion could pull the team through. The Pac-12 schedule was brutal for Deion, and through that, the team still managed to secure three major wins and had some neck-to-neck losses. The matches the Buffs couldn’t salvage were under their control until the 4th quarter. “They were in one-possession games in the fourth quarter,” Klatt noted. However, there are still some issues that Deion needs to work on if he wants his team to grab a solid run this year. The game against the Bisons exposed some fatal flaws in the team.

Deion Sanders’ team could come undone

The run game for the Buffs was pretty much nonexistent on August 30. The boys only managed to pull in around 59 rushing yards. This is not a lot; winning games based on this would be a major challenge. Following this, the run defense was also not up to the mark. Before the CU vs. NDSU match, we had said that Deion has to make his boys focus on stopping the rushes. The Bisons had two elite rushers, Cam Miller and Cole Payton, and the Buffs failed to lock in both. NDSU managed to pull in around 43 rushes combined throughout the game.

This led to CU having the ball for only around 23 minutes. The O-line also failed when it came down to the red zone offense. The Buffs only managed to pull in two TDs during their four red zone visits. Deion Sanders still has time. With the Buffs in the Big 12 now and Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter leaving next year, Coach Prime has to focus on building the team up even more.