After three seasons of Deion Sanders being “all things to all people” at Colorado, one brutal fact stands out from 2025: they were a 3-9 football team, plain and simple. No more, no less. This isn’t just about optics anymore. For all the fanfare and the spotlight Sanders has shone on the program, the Buffs are staring down the barrel of needing to actually be good at football, not just good at grabbing headlines.
The Viral Hype vs. Gridiron Grind
Let’s be real, the Coach Prime era at Colorado has been an absolute spectacle. For three seasons, they’ve been everything from a blueprint for flipping a roster through the transfer portal to a legitimate college football phenomenon for a few weeks in 2024. This program became a social media lightning rod, an early TV ratings darling, even a marketing vehicle for Sanders himself, shilling everything from sunglasses to peanuts. We’ve seen Travis Hunter emerge as a truly unique athletic talent and witnessed that compelling father-son dynamic play out on the field. Celebrity sightings, from Lil Wayne to The Rock to Terrell Owens, became standard. But here’s the kicker: after that 3-9 season in 2025, none of that attention-grabbing stuff mattered because Colorado was “mostly just a bad football team.” Sanders himself admitted he didn’t have “it,” and without Shedeur Sanders, Hunter, or the offensive weapons from the first two years, neither did his players. The hype machine was running full tilt, but the on-field results were a massive reality check.
Time to Go(-Go) Ground and Pound
So, how do you fix a team that ranks last and second-to-last nationally in yards per rush in Sanders’ first two seasons, and then bottoms out at 123rd in 2025? You bring in Brennan Marion as offensive coordinator. This guy isn’t messing around. In his 2019 book, Marion spelled it out: “We are a running team. We want everyone in the country to know that we are going to run the ball right at you.” He’s not interested in screens or fancy downfield throws. “We’re going to run the ball right at you, right over you,” he declared, believing that stopping the dive is the number one thing defenses have to do. Colorado has sorely lacked physicality in the run game, and Marion’s philosophy sounds like a direct answer to that weakness. His “unusual formations” are designed to make life hell for defenses, which should also take some pressure off a defense that’s been on the wrong side of “uncomplimentary football” way too often. Yeah, they lost left tackle Jordan Seaton to LSU in the portal, but Sanders claims his line is eight or nine deep with starting-caliber players. Let’s see it, Coach.
A New Voice Under Center
All that new run-heavy philosophy is going to fall on a new signal-caller: Julian Lewis. Last year, the quarterback position was a revolving door with three different guys, which is never a recipe for success. Lewis steps in with high hopes, but the real challenge for this Colorado team is clear: turn the page on the 3-9 reality, get themselves back in contention for a bowl game, and claw their way out of the bottom of the Big 12. It’s time for the Buffs to put the sizzle aside and actually deliver some steak.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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