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Deion Sanders' first season with the Colorado Buffaloes football team has come to an end after losing to Utah last weekend, 23-17. The Buffaloes fell to a final 4-8 record and were out of bowl contention two weeks ago.
It seemed as quickly as this year's Colorado football team rose from the ashes of their 1-11 record from the previous season, they quickly burned out once again. After a swagger-infused arrival that epitomized their never-loss-for-words head coach, the Buffaloes were off to a 3-0 start, which got Colorado to their highest ranking since 2020 (No. 21), all the way up to No. 18 in the country by Week 2.
After a midnight, two-overtime showdown against in-state rival Colorado State, the Buffaloes fell one spot to No. 19. That would be their last appearance in the polls, winning just one game the entire rest of the season after that.
Deion Sanders and Colorado football were a mystery in 2023, not impostors
Oregon and Dan Lanning looked like they were out to make a statement towards Colorado, which they did by clobbering the Buffaloes 42-6. By that point, it was clear that the legitimacy of this year's Colorado football team being a real contender had misguided everyone who believed in Sanders' over-confidence. However, it wasn't that they were necessarily impostors, more than they were shrouded with mystery.
Only 10 scholarship players remained from Colorado football's 2022 roster that lost 11 games after Sanders arrived. The overhaul brought a total of 86 new players to the roster, with 53 of those being transfers. No one had used the transfer portal with the amount of excess the way that Sanders had coming into the 2023 season. Which meant that no one could have possibly predicted the outcome of the 2023 Colorado Buffaloes.
That's probably why every fan and pundit alike was so bipolar on Colorado in 2023. No one would have guessed they would have beaten last year's runner-up to the national championship in TCU in the season opener, on the road in Fort Worth no less. Better yet, that they would take the entire country by storm after winning their next two to go 3-0 to start the season. Sanders quickly changed the narrative in Boulder, but it didn't last as long as he would have hoped, proving there's still much work to be done.
Sanders and Colorado's four wins all came from teams with losing records with only one of those wins coming from within the Pac-12 against Arizona State. With only one conference win, the Buffaloes finished their Pac-12 career in last place, which is exactly where they finished last season. So that begs the question of whether this season was a success or not.
Colorado has seen a plethora of hurdles this season, the likes that Sanders himself said he's never gone through in his entire career. For one, he entered into the Pac-12 in arguably its best and most competitive season in conference history, albeit in its swan song. But he also suffered through things like a 29-point halftime lead dissipating against Stanford, horrendous offensive line play, and his star quarterback son Shedeur Sanders suffering a season-ending injury. And that has now led to the appeal starting to dwindle, most notably in recruiting, where Colorado football has lost three commits in 24 hours.
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Deion Sanders may have to change his approach moving forward
Sanders is now seeing the real war in college football. That is the war of waning interest — and that's one that flows down from the fan base to the players. While it's unlikely that fans in Boulder have lost hope in Sanders, the fact of the matter is if the belief isn't there in the players, and better yet, the future players, then little progress can be made.
Perhaps the NFL Hall of Famer's alternative approach to building a program needs to be tweaked. Sanders is the most unique head coach in college football, and that's a huge part of his appeal. Believe it or not, that shouldn't change. His methods have been highly criticized — but that's just who Sanders is. He's always going to be highly outspoken and will handle situations with an old-school disciplinary, action-result-oriented approach that reaches everyone from his players, his staff, and even the media.
But coaching requires amending. Sanders is currently in a sport that continues to amend itself by the year nearly, which makes it difficult for any head coach to keep up. He doesn't have to change who he is; he just has to adjust and adapt.
Colorado football, Deion Sanders enter a new era next season in the Big 12 Conference
What will make Colorado further interesting heading into 2024 now will be how they adjust and adapt to what will be a new era in college football. Sanders will be re-entering the Buffaloes back into the Big 12 Conference next season, where the competition could be much more favorable, making for better results. . Like this season, no one quite knows what to expect not only from Colorado but any other team. The transfer portal will reopen on Dec. 4, and it's likely that Sanders and the Buffaloes will be highly active.
