Coach Prime's Buffs Begin Prep For Saturday's Matchup Vs. Rival CSU
September 12, 2023 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Anyone who thinks Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes are ready to rest on their laurels for even a minute … think again.
The 2-0 and 18th-ranked Buffs play host to 0-1 Colorado State on Saturday, with the rivalry game set to begin at 8 p.m. at Folsom Field in front of a national ESPN audience. A sell-out crowd will be on hand as the Buffs take aim at a 3-0 start in their final non-conference game before heading into Pac-12 play next week at Oregon.
Already this season, the Buffs have been the surprise team of the nation. More people have tuned into their games on television — wins over TCU and Nebraska — than any other team in the country. Their offense has been unstoppable, they have legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates and they are featured almost daily in the national media (never mind the social media attention that is virtually off the charts).
But, Coach Prime said at his Tuesday press conference, this is no time to sit back and enjoy the moment. Not for him, his coaching staff and certainly not the players.
"We want to exceed expectations," Sanders said. "If the expectation is to win, we may understand that — so let's exceed that. Whatever the expectation is, let's exceed that individually and combined as a team."
It could be argued that the Buffaloes have already exceeded expectations. Picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12 and predicted to not win more than four games, Colorado is already halfway to that win total and ranked 18th in the nation. What was seen as an "experiment" in roster revamping just a few months ago is now rapidly becoming a blueprint.
But there is more — far more — to come for the Buffs. While they have set the college football world on its ear after just two games, Sanders believes they have yet to even come close to tapping their full potential.
"We're winning but we're not playing our best football," Sanders said. "That's a tremendous sign and we can't wait to build off that. We want to show you a game that we put it together offensively, defensively as well as special teams. We want to show our fan base that game and that's what we're chasing."
That is obviously not good news for a CSU team that opened the year with a 50-24 loss to Washington State. Rams head coach Jay Norvell announced Monday that he will make a quarterback change, giving redshirt freshman Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi the start in place of veteran Clay Millen, who struggled in the opener.
"The bottom line is we have to score touchdowns and we have to score points offensively," Norvell said. "When you play against good football teams, you have to sustain drives and you have to make plays. We're going to give Brayden an opportunity."
Fowler-Nicolosi replaced Millen in the third quarter of CSU's opening loss and he responded with a pair of touchdown passes, including a 75-yard scoring toss to Justus Ross-Simmons. Saturday will be the second start of his career, as he made one start last season and led CSU to a win over Nevada.
Norvell also noted in his weekly press conference that Saturday's game will be a matchup featuring Black head coaches on both sidelines. He expressed nothing but respect for Sanders and his staff and CU's coach returned the favor Tuesday.
"I haven't met this gentleman, but I hear he's a good, good man," Coach Prime said. " I know he's a great coach. He has those guys playing hard. I'm glad he said that … Unfortunately, one of the brothers has to lose when you face another black coach. But it's just tremendous getting this opportunity and allowing the nation to see that we are more than capable of doing a great job. I'm happy he pointed that out."
PROTECTING QB1: One area of focus this week will definitely be the protection for CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders. While the star junior has thrust himself into the Heisman conversation with 903 yards passing, six touchdowns and a 77.5 percent completion rate in two games, Colorado has also yielded 12 quarterback sacks.
The younger Sanders last week shouldered the blame for those sacks, saying he had to get rid of the ball quicker and not absorb losses.
But Coach Prime said there are a multitude of factors involved.
"It's not just the line," he said. "It could be what we called that particular play. It could be if the receiver ran the right route, it could be check offs … But we hope to get the ball out his hands a little quicker so he can protect himself."
But there's no doubt the head coach has full confidence in his No. 1 QB.
"I don't really get upset with him but I know for a fact he's not wanting to hold the ball," he said. "His pre-snap reads are excellent and he knows where he's going with the ball normally. So when something happens and he's getting sacked, something tremendous was supposed to happen. It didn't go the way we wanted it to go. I trust him."
WELLS UPDATE: Sanders said starting center Van Wells, who left last week's game late with an injury, is "healing."
Wells was replaced by freshman Hank Zilinskas, who played nine snaps and could be back in the lineup this week.
"The thing about this game is it's next man up," Sanders said.
DEVELOPING DEPTH: The Buffs are quickly developing a steady rotation of fresh legs on the defensive line and on the edge.
Against Nebraska, nine different Buffs played at least 16 snaps at nose tackle, defensive end and defensive tackle. Shane Cokes and Leonard Payne Jr. led the way with 29 each up front, but others seeing significant work there included Chazz Wallace, Bishop Thomas, Amari McNeill, J.J. Hawkins, Sav'ell Smalls, Derrick McLendon and Taijh Alston.
"The defensive line has a tremendous rotation and we're trying to find those two linebackers that we feel are suitable," Sanders said. "We have rotations in some of the dime packages and the nickel packages as well. So we have the depth that we need. We could always use more. But I feel like we were OK."
Four Buffs — Marvin Ham II (42 snaps), LaVonta Bentley (23), Juwan Mitchell (31) and Jeremiah Brown (17) saw action at inside backer. Mitchell made his first start and Sanders liked what he saw of the grad transfer from Tennessee by way of Texas.
"He's really an intelligent player," Sanders said. "He really knows the game of football. Not only that, he's instinctive. He's way more instinctive than other linebackers. He's very physical and his aptitude for the game … he knows football."
THE SERIES: Saturday's game will be the 92nd meeting between the two programs, with Colorado holding a dominant 67-22-2 edge … The two teams haven't met since 2019, when the Buffs collected their fifth straight win in the series, a 52-31 victory in Denver … The two teams last met in Boulder in 2009, with CSU taking a 23-17 win …
And, here is perhaps the biggest oddity in the recent series: in the past five meetings where one of the teams is ranked, the ranked team lost.
