Colorado is back at the point where nobody really knows what to expect from Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes went from 1-11 before Sanders arrived to 4-8 in his first season, then 9-4 in 2024. That second year changed the conversation around the program. Then came 2025. Colorado fell all the way to 3-9, including an 1-8 mark in conference play. As for this year, Rece Davis has a clear prediction for Deion Sanders.
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“I don’t expect them to go to a bowl game this year,” Rece Davis said on his August 25 ESPN podcast. “I don’t think that this has been some type of massive failure as an experiment or as a chance at Deion Sanders kind of using his celebrity to build awareness and build attraction to his program. …He’s invested in trying to impact his players the best way he possibly can, both on and off the field.”
It is not that he has done nothing at Colorado. He clearly has. The problem is that the best version of Colorado still feels tied to one particular group of players. The 2024 season is getting harder to repeat. Sanders inherited a mess. Then he arrived and, almost immediately, made the Buffs one of the sport’s biggest stories. The team had two players who were almost impossible to replace. Hunter was the best two-way player in the country. Shedeur Sanders was the QB everything ran through. Both are gone now.
“I mean, they had one really good year with Shedeur and Travis Hunter,” Davis said. “But at some point, you’ve got to continue the production. And I think they’ll be competitive. I’ll be surprised if they get to a bowl game this year. I think that would constitute a really, really good season for them.”
The 2026 roster looks nothing like it did two years ago. There are intriguing players on the roster. Colorado added Texas receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. and Tennessee safety Boo Carter, among others. The Buffs also landed Danny Scudero, who led the FBS in receiving yards in 2025, although he has dealt with an injury during camp. Not just that, Sanders also made changes to his staff. Brennan Marion is now the offensive coordinator after taking over the role in December.
So this is not a team with no talent. It is a team that has to figure out what all that talent looks like together. That is the tricky part. The schedule will not make it easy. Colorado opens the season on Sept. 3 at Georgia Tech, then faces Weber State before starting Big 12 play. The conference slate includes trips to Arizona State and games against Texas Tech and Houston. There is not much room for a slow start if Colorado wants to get back to six wins.
And the opening game is particularly interesting because Georgia Tech already beat Colorado 27-20 in Boulder last season. Considering the schedule, many would consider the less than six wins that Rece Davis predicted to be a realistic fate for Sanders’ CU.