BOULDER, Colo. — The Coach Prime Era at Colorado is off to a 2–0 start, via two very different games.
The No. 22-ranked Buffaloes won an offensive shootout in their opener against TCU, 45–42. Their second victory was powered by defense and special teams, with Colorado taking advantage of four Nebraska turnovers, two short punts and a missed field goal to record a 36–14 victory over an old rival.
The victory came before a raucous, sellout crowd in Deion Sanders’s home debut at Folsom Field — the attendance of 53,241 was the school’s largest in 15 years. Sanders’s swift remake of the roster has spurred a rapid rejuvenation of the fan base, which showed up loud and proud well in advance of the 10 a.m. local time kickoff. A year after a 1–11 season finished Colorado’s slide into irrelevance, it is now one of the biggest shows in college football.
With Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” show live on campus and Coach Prime gear flying off the shelves at the bookstore, Colorado had its first legitimate, big-game atmosphere in more than 20 years. Program historian and former sports information director David Plati deemed this the school’s biggest home game since 2001, when the opponent also was Nebraska. This 0–2 Cornhuskers team bears a scant resemblance to that one, which came to Boulder ranked No. 1.
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Colorado fans of all ages were walking campus wearing Coach Prime shirts. There were enough cowboy hats in the student section to outfit a year’s worth of Nashville bachelorette parties, an ode to Sanders’s preferred headwear since becoming the coach here. Students who in years past would have been late for a morning kickoff — if they arrived at all — trash talked visiting Nebraska fans. One held up a sign reading, “The alphabet has more Ws than Nebraska.”
As always, Sanders was perfectly comfortable on the big stage. Before the game he walked the field with his head cloaked in a white hoodie, as the jammed student section roared at the sight of their first-year savior coach. The atmosphere built to a crescendo when Colorado let loose its mascot buffalo, Ralphie, for its traditional pregame lap on the field.
A week after rolling up 565 yards total offense and 6.98 yards per play, the Buffs had to play a different game against the stout Cornhuskers defense. Protecting quarterback Shedeur Sanders — Deion’s son — was a challenge, and the Colorado receivers had a harder time breaking tackles and getting separation on routes. The Buffs also struggled finishing drives in the red zone, kicking field goals of 30, 31 and 32 yards when drives stalled, and were flagged for far more penalties than in the season opener.
But the Buffaloes’ high-powered passing game eventually got untracked, with Sanders hitting Tar’Varish Dawson for a 30-yard touchdown after one Nebraska turnover and then finding Travis Hunter for 22 yards to set up a field goal before the half. In the second half, Sanders completed several big throws on his way to another 300-yard passing game. Hunter, meanwhile, again went both ways at wide receiver and cornerback, rarely leaving the field one week after logging an exhausting 129 snaps against TCU.
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As the game tilted in Colorado’s favor, the Buffaloes let their emotions get away from them several times. They were flagged three times for personal fouls in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, with two of penalties on Sanders’s sons, Shedeur and safety Shilo.
So there are things to clean up heading into a Week 3 home game against in-state rival Colorado State. The Buffaloes will be a big favorite in that game, but then the schedule ramps up with the start of Pac-12 play. Colorado visits No. 13 Oregon Sept. 23 and hosts No. 6 USC Sept. 30.
