Watch: First drive of Deion Sanders era at Colorado shows just how improved team is

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion's son, was 7-of-9 for 41 yards and threw a four-yard touchdown to cap the smooth first offensive series.

Deion's approach to building his first roster at Colorado received some criticism for the unprecedented turnover. It's a fascinating experiment that perhaps best defines this new era of college football with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.

Detractors argue it's a step too far in the professionalization of college football. Instead of developing players, the transfer portal and NIL collectives have made college football's offseason resemble NFL free agency.

But even they can't argue with the results based on Colorado's first drive. The Buffaloes averaged 15.4 points per game (127th out of 131) last season and only scored one opening-drive touchdown (Week 5 at Arizona).

Colorado led TCU 7-0 after one, a drastic improvement over last season when it was outscored 119-16 overall in the first quarter. Interestingly, it also led after 15 minutes in 2022's game versus TCU. In that one, Colorado led 3-0 before being outscored 38-10 over the final three quarters in a 38-13 defeat.

The Horned Frogs tied this year's game early in the second and could still replicate last year's performance with a dominant finish. That doesn't seem likely, though, based purely on how improved Colorado looks. 

Deion brought in a lot of talent this offseason and almost as many critics. At least early in his first game, the talent is making more noise.