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You asked. We answered.
With the Buffaloes on bye this Saturday, we know that everyone in Boulder has a football-sized hole in their heart that needs to be filled. With the Buffs in an interesting spot after upsetting 14-point favorites UCF, we’ve been asked a lot of questions about the team. With the extra free time the bye week has afforded us, we figured why not answer them? Let’s open up the mailbag and see what you all want to know!
What does Deion’s future look like in Boulder?
I really wish I knew the answer to this question. I’m just as in the dark as the rest of you all. Like most, I want Prime to stay in Boulder as long as possible. He’s been a force for change for the program and is raking in so much money, which improves Colorado’s entire athletic department.
I know Deion has said numerous times that he’s here to stay and wants to retire as a Buff. I’d love that, but I don’t know if I buy it. His words say that he has no intentions of leaving, but his actions don’t necessarily line up with them. Deion hardly recruits out of high school. His high school recruiting classes for the last two seasons have been tiny compared to other P4 schools. All of CU’s recruiting comes from the transfer portal, bringing in players with one or two players left of eligibility for quick fixes instead of building for the long haul.
To me, all the quick fixes and reluctance to recruit high school looks like he’s only here for the here and now. It looks like he is trying to make the team look as good as possible while Shedeur, Shilo, and Travis are here. There’s nothing wrong with that. Travis Hunter might be the single best football player this program has ever seen, and Colorado has had some REALLY good football players and a Heisman winner. Bolstering around top-end talent isn’t a bad idea, but he hasn’t necessarily laid a foundation for the future.
I’ve been scared of Deion leaving for the Florida job for about a year now. The Gators will fire Billy Napier sometime in the next two months, and perhaps Deion will want to go back to his own state. With his kids in the NFL, maybe he’ll retire from coaching altogether. We just have no idea.
We need to enjoy the present and not worry about what next year looks like. This Colorado is so special. We have probably the best quarterback the school has ever seen and the Shohei Ohtani of college football on our roster. Sit back and enjoy this ride, because things are going to look drastically different next year, regardless of if Deion is still our head coach.
Where are Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders going to get picked in the NFL draft?
At this rate, I’d be shocked if Travis isn’t a top-three pick. Because Travis doesn’t play quarterback, the odds are already stacked against him. NFL teams, especially bad ones, are going to jump at their opportunity to draft a franchise quarterback. Even though Travis isn’t a quarterback, he’s a once-in-a-generation talent and shouldn’t be overshadowed. Right now, most mock drafts have Travis going first overall. That may change later in the season, but we’ll just have to see if any quarterbacks prove themselves more worthy.
He’s Colorado’s best player on both sides of the ball and it’s very evident. NFL scouts have flocked to CU games and practices to see him. Pro teams are clearly very interested in Travis and many are itching to take him. Travis is a unicorn in football. A player of his caliber comes along once in a decade at the bare minimum. You’d have to do some really intense mental gymnastics not to jump at the opportunity to bring him to your team.
As for Shedeur, I think he’ll get picked within the top ten. The quarterback class looks weaker than initially thought this season, which has worked to his benefit. Shedeur is a top-three QB in the class, along with Jalen Milroe and Cam Ward. If I were an NFL GM, which I very much am not, I’d rank Milroe, Ward and Shedeur in that order. With how drafts have gone for the last five years, Shedeur will probably get picked in the top five if he stays in that top-three range.
What happened to 2023 OC Sean Lewis and why did he leave so quietly?
Well, this is a pretty easy one. He got fired midseason. Deion stripped his playcalling duties and gave them to someone else. That can’t be very fun. I would probably assume you wouldn't stick around at your job for longer than you needed to if your boss fired you very publically but gave you the option to stay in the office and do essentially nothing.
As for why he left so quietly, Lewis is a professional. I’m sure he didn’t badmouth the man who gave him the opportunity to call plays for one of the most-watched teams in the nation. Plus, talking bad about your former boss is a one-way ticket to getting blackballed in the coaching world.
Things worked out great for Lewis in the end. He went from coaching a MAC school to coaching one of the better and bigger budget G5 schools in the country at San Diego State in two years.
He used his work in Boulder as a stepping stone, as many have before. His end goal was never to stay in Boulder. He didn’t leave a head coaching job at an FBS school to be an OC for an extended period of time. The plan was probably always to come to Boulder, put his name and tape as a play-caller out there, and move on to a more prestigious school than Kent State. That’s exactly what happened. All’s well that ends well I guess.
Are the Buffs good?
As crazy as it sounds, yep. They’re the real deal. Aside from the offensive line, this team has outperformed nearly every preseason expectation we had for them. Shedeur Sanders hasn’t lost a step. Wide receivers one through six are serious playmakers. Dallan Hayden and Micah Welch are an effective one-two punch out of the backfield.
The part of this team that pushes them into the category of an actually good team is their defense. Those boys can play. Travis Hunter, DJ McKinney, and Preston Hodge are all phenomenal corners, especially in press-man coverage. Cam’ron Salmon-Craig is one of the most underrated safeties in the country, while Shilo Sanders can strike the fear of god in any receiver with his monster hits.
Where that defense pops off the page is with their front seven. Colorado’s defensive line was suspect at best last year and completely transformed itself with the transfer portal, and it worked wonders. Colorado has consistently been one of the better run defenses in the country all season. They shut down NDSU and held UCF, who was the nation’s rushing leader and was averaging 350+ rushing yards per game before last weekend, to half of what they were averaging before. Those guys can clog gaps and shut down the ground game, which is a sign of a good team.
Colorado’s linebackers are some of the best in the country, and that’s not an exaggeration. PFF has the Buffs ranked as the third linebacker core in the nation and for good reason. Lavonta Bently and Nikhai Hill-Green have been gamewreckers so far. Notice how Colorado stopped giving up those crossers across the middle of the field? That’s the doing of Bently and Hill-Green. They’re always at the right place at the right time and have no problem laying the iron.
What’s your record prediction for the rest of the season?
At this rate, I think Colorado finishes with a record of 8-4.
- We beat: Arizona, Cinci, Texas Tech, and Kansas
- We lose to: K-State, Utah, and Oklahoma State
That feels like a pretty conservative estimate at this point too. Colorado could beat K-State if they force Avery Johnson to make bad choices in the pocket and they also could beat Oklahoma State if they can shut down Ollie Gordon. The only game I think that’s probably a guaranteed loss is Utah, but that’s only if Cam Rising plays.
If Colorado wins eight games, Travis Hunter may very well win the Heisman. What he’s doing is something we’ve never seen before and may never see again. Especially with how underwhelming quarterbacks have looked this season, the Heisman is ripe for the taking.
What an exciting time to be a Buff!
Thanks for asking your questions!
I’m very glad we could answer them for you! Be on the lookout for more of these mailbags in the future! We ask for questions on our Twitter/X, so be sure to follow us there!
by RylandScholes
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