Everyone buried Deion Sanders, but there's reasons for hope with Colorado

The obituaries were written during the bye week. 

ESPN’s Matt Barrie declared Deion Sanders “done” with the Colorado Buffaloes. Paul Finebaum nodded along and said it would end “gracefully or spectacularly badly.” Joel Klatt questioned the $54 million extension as too much, too early. Former Buff Christian Fauria called the man “insufferable.”

Then on Saturday night, Colorado took the Utah Utes, the 11th-ranked team in the country, to the final play.

Utah beat Colorado 27-24 in a game that ended with a failed Buffs Hail Mary attempt. The Buffaloes trailed 13-0 at halftime, then ripped off 17 unanswered points in the third quarter to take the lead against a team that improved to 6-0 with the eventual win and now has a 12-game winning streak.

Colorado lost, but the Buffs fought ... which is more than anyone expected from a program that was supposedly dead.

"I did something I never do after a loss," Sanders said after Saturday's loss. "I stood up there on the podium and told those kids, 'I'm really proud of y'all man.' Because they fought. They didn't give up. They had a chance."

Struggles don't tell entire story with Deion Sanders' Colorado 

Now let's be honest about the other side, because the critics aren't making it up. Colorado is 2-14 against Power Five schools since the end of the 2024 season. Sanders has beaten just two ranked teams since arriving in Boulder before the 2023 campaign. The Buffaloes have now lost four straight after a 2-0 start.

There are also plenty of issues that need to be addresses. Quarterback Isaac Wilson (part of a quarterback carousel this season) threw three interceptions against Texas Tech, and Coach Prime's idea of coaching him up was telling reporters he advised Wilson to "throw the ball to the guys on our team." The program has left its play scripts in a hotel lobby, and at one point this season, Colorado sent eight men out for a field goal block.

That's all real. But here's the context the eulogies left out ... those four straight losses came against teams with a combined record of 21-3. That's not a collapse. That's a tough schedule.

The laziest narrative in sports is that a coach has “lost the team.” If Sanders had lost this team, they wouldn't have come out of halftime down 13-0 to Utah and punch back with 17 straight points. Checked-out teams don’t do that. They fold, the way Colorado folded in the second half against Texas Tech in a 29-7 loss in Boulder. Saturday night was the opposite of that.

None of this means the $54 million extension was smart. Klatt is right that schools hand out guaranteed money too early, and Colorado absolutely did that. It doesn’t mean the quarterback carousel isn’t a problem, or that 2-12 against ranked teams is acceptable. The standard at Colorado can’t just be “played Utah close.”

But “done?” After a bye week in which some of the loudest voices in the sport took turns dancing on Colorado's grave, Sanders' team went out and nearly knocked off a top-15 team.

College football's obituary writers might want to hold the presses as Colorado's gauntlet of a schedule gets comparatively easier from this point forward, with the Buffs facing six more Big 12 foes with a combined 24-13 record.

If the Buffs can continue to show the energy they did after halftime against Utah, it's a much-needed sign of growth in Boulder.