As I’m sure most of you know Colorado, as well as all the teams we follow, is in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) which is the highest group of Division I teams. The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) is also in Division I but those teams compete among themselves for their own national championship in a 24 team playoff. It’s very common for FBS schools to start their season with non-conference match-ups against FCS programs. That said, it doesn’t mean that the game is always going to be easy or that you can’t loose or that you’ll be playing against rosters that lack talent. Take North Dakota State for example—Colorado’s Week’s 1 opponent—who jumped from Division II into the FCS in 2004. It took them six years to make it into the playoffs, but once they did they won nine FCS Championships from 2011-2021 including five in a row with three of those teams led by QB’s Carson Wentz and Trey Lance—now NFL signal callers.
I happened to tune into the very first televised game of the season which took place in Dublin—yes, that Dublin—on Saturday the 24th between No. 10 Florida State and unranked Georgia Tech, ACC conference rivals. And wow—what a start to the college season with Georgia Tech pulling off the upset on an Aidan Birr 44-yard field goal as time expired. And then the following Thursday on the 29th I tuned in to watch Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes who were playing at home in this game against North Dakota State and man-oh-man it was yet another edge of your seat affair. It reminded me so much of the game between the Buffaloes and Colorado State last year, an FBS school out of the Mountain West. I mean Colorado probably has two of the top five players in all of college football in QB Shedeur Sanders and two-way player Travis Hunter and it took everything those guys had to put this one away. Even though they supposedly strengthened both lines from last year the change wasn’t really that apparent through the first half, especially on the defensive side. Of course, like I mentioned above North Dakota State has a great program, so that could have had something to do with it. We’ll find out more next week as Colorado takes on a much improved Big Ten opponent in Nebraska on the road. If the Buffalo line can protect Sanders it should be quite a shoot-out between him and 19 year old Dylan Raiola who withdrew his commitment to Georgia to sign and play for Nebraska.
As far as this one goes Colorado was down at the half 20-to-17 but held the Bison to just six points after the break while scoring fourteen of their own to win it 31-26. I think if you’re a Buffalo fan you have to be encouraged with the fact that Shedeur was only sacked one time after being sacked 52 times last year—an average of 4+ per game. The disappointing part for the Buffaloes in this one was how many total yards and points their defense gave up in the first half and their lack of a running game which, if not improved, will lead to increased pressure on Shedeur and a return to multiple sacks per game.
Sanders was his usual efficient self completing over 75% of his throws for 445 yards and 4 TD’s with just one freak interception down in the red zone on a 3rd and goal off the back of a defender’s foot that had slipped. And as good as Shedeur was in this game it was the other worldly receptions by Travis Hunter that ensured a victory—one that Sports Illustrated called jaw-dropping and described this way; “Leading 24-20 with just under eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Buffaloes had a third-and-goal inside the five when Sanders fired a pass to Hunter, who somehow got his hands in position to make the catch with a North Dakota State defender draped all over him.” I might add that not only was the defender all over Sanders he was pretty much in front of Hunter who somehow contorted his body to get a hand on the ball and reel it in from behind. It was crazy amazing. I’m sure all 31 NFL scouts who came to watch Shedeur and Travis Hunter play were impressed with that one. As SI pointed out in their article; “ESPN NFL analyst and Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark declared Hunter the best player in college football, a sentiment many fans and pundits seemed to agree with.” Colorado’s two main WR’s Jimmy Horn Jr. and Travis Hunter both caught seven for an amazing 332 yards collectively and all four of Sheduer’s TD’s with Horn picking up 198 of the yards and Hunter picking up 3 of the 4 TD’s.
Where the Buffaloes really need to improve is their ground game which was dismal—59 yards on 23 attempts—with Shedeur accounting for over 25% of those. On the defensive side of the ball there was definitely improvement in the 2nd half for Colorado while picking up two sacks and seven tackles for loss against just one-and-one for North Dakota State. On the offensive side for the Bison, their starting QB Cam Miller connected on 18-of-22 for 277 of their total 292 total yards to go along with one TD and no interceptions. Miller was also their leading rusher, picking up 81 of their 157 total yards on the ground and both of their TD’s. As I mentioned above, Colorado hits the road Week-2 to take on Nebraska at 4:30pm on NBC.