BOULDER – If CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders isn’t the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, NFL scouts are doing it wrong.

Throwing for 445 yards and four touchdowns in a game the Buffaloes would’ve lost without him, Sanders not only made mincemeat of the North Dakota State Bison, but wrote the opening lines of the script for commissioner Roger Goodell when the draft is staged next April at historic Lambeau Field:

“With the first pick in the NFL draft …”

Oh, there will be arguments made on behalf of Tennessee edge rusher Jimmy Pearce Jr. or Georgia quarterback Carson Beck as the first overall pick, but they aren’t Sanders, who can make magic that an elite quarterback conjures when teammates need it most.

If we learned anything Thursday from Colorado’s’ 31-26 victory against the no-quit-in-’em Bison, it’s this piece of gospel truth:

For all the bombast and bluster of Coach Prime, the Buffs ain’t nothing to write home about without his son at controls of the CU offense.

“You ever feel like you won but you didn’t win?” Sanders said.

As a God-fearing man, the CU coach doesn’t use profanity. But he was tempted to curse a not-ready-for-Prime-time effort of his Buffaloes.

On a warm summer night for the season-opener, CU looked like conference championship contenders … in the Big Sky or the Missouri Valley, but definitely not the Big 12.

“Let’s move on,” Sanders said. “I’ll try my best to hold back the anger, but we got the dub.”

His son was the best player on the field. But Colorado resembled the team that lost eight of its final nine games last season.

So with so much weight on Shedeur’s shoulders, what happens next?

Bowl game or bust?

Beats me. We’re all guessing here. And that includes Coach Prime.

What makes this season so intriguing is the range of possible outcomes could cover CU in football glory or leave Prime blaming everybody except himself for a failure to meet his lofty expectations.

With a little help from his friends, receivers Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn, it’s no sin to dream that Sanders could win the Heisman Trophy and secure Colorado a spot in the final top 25 rankings for the first time since 2016.

But if the CU defense doesn’t learn to tackle and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur can’t develop a rushing attack, as Thanksgiving approaches, the Buffs could be doomed to a losing record.

And at that point, in a CU program where everything is transactional, young Sanders would have to make a business decision and decide whether to risk injury or turn in his uniform to the Buffs equipment manager and sit out the final snaps of a disappointing season to preserve his health for the NFL draft.

Although sacked only once, he repeatedly stood bravely and delivered as pass protection collapsed around him.

“You never want to see your son get hit,” the elder Sanders said, “let alone the quarterback.”

Would it be possible for Prime to find room next to that spiffy cowboy hat in his Louis Vuitton to pack a whole new lineup of defensive players before the Buffs hit the road for their next game in Nebraska?

In this revolutionary new age of college football, the Buffs live and die by the transfer portal. But one thing that will never change about a sport with 11 moving parts from both sides of the line of scrimmage?

Cohesion. One missed assignment and everybody looks lost. Teamwork can’t be bought with name, image and likeness money.

Among the 39 transfers welcomed to a roster that’s nearly impossible to know the names without a scorecard, 14 were linemen or linebackers targeted to fix a defense that finished 130th among 133 major-college teams a year ago in yards allowed per game (453.3).

While North Dakota State senior quarterback Cam Miller might well go to camp with some NFL team next summer, CU defenders looked disorganized, so poorly coached that they appeared a step slow, as if carrying boulders on their shoulder.

The Buffs surrendered 449 yards to North Dakota State, which saw the clock run out in the fourth quarter with the Bison only four yards short of the end zone and a major upset.

Coach Prime grabbed a wireless microphone after the victory, thanked the crowd and declared: “One step closer to getting to a bowl game. God bless.”

CU scored more points than North Dakota State. But it didn’t feel as if the Buffs won.

That’s not my assessment. That’s how the head coach felt walking off Folsom Field.

What Prime has assembled in Colorado is a collection of talent, not a team.

And if the Buffs don’t figure out that it takes a team to win in football?

Heaven help them.