BOULDER — Maybe someday Deion Sanders will say what he wants to say about the 2025 Colorado football season.

For now, Coach Prime is holding his tongue.

“If I say what I want to say, you’re gonna find fault,” Sanders said. “It all starts with me, it ends with me.”

As the Buffaloes (3-8, 1-7 Big 12) get set to take on Kansas State (5-6, 4-4 Big 12) on Saturday (10 a.m. FS1) in Manhattan, Kansas, the third season of the Coach Prime era will officially come to an end without a bowl game for the second time. Another loss would cement CU’s worst record since Sanders took over. 

For now, he’s owning all of it.

“This is what I’m called to do and to take a (loss), take a (loss), take a (loss), you have no idea how hard that it is (for) a winner,” Sanders said. “Nobody wanna hear you’re winning academically. Nobody’s going to jail; these kids are really good kids, but they don’t give a darn about that. They want to win games. That’s what we’re here for: to win games. That’s my only thought. That’s what I want to do.”

After last season’s rousing success — a nine-win season, a trip to the Alamo Bowl, and the Heisman Trophy for Travis Hunter — it felt like the Buffs were officially back and that the 4-8 season in 2023 was only a blip for the upward ride that CU was on with Sanders. 

Coach Prime boldly claimed all offseason that he believed his 2025 team was deeper and more talented than the 2024 version, but somewhere along the way, what he saw from the incoming players out on the practice field never quite translated to Saturdays.

“The strategy (last offseason) was the same strategy as (the one prior) and you hit on your portal guys (and) you hit on your freshman guys,” Sanders said plainly. “This year, you hit on your freshmen, some of them, and you missed on your portal (class), so that’s why we’re sitting where we’re sitting. It’s not like you didn’t have a strategic plan. You missed. Sometimes that happens, and I’m gonna take responsibility.”

Well, that’s about as close as Sanders is going to get to placing blame on someone else. Sure, last offseason’s transfer portal class hasn’t delivered in any meaningful way, aside from a few solid contributors like safety Tawfiq Byard. Still, Coach Prime is also the one who signed off on bringing them to Boulder.

He’s looking forward to getting it right this time around.

“Meeting with those guys, interviewing those guys, making sure their countenance, their desire, their wants, that fire matches with what we have here or can enhance what we have here. It’s like a dating game, man,” Sanders said. “You gotta sit there and make sure. Just because a guy’s a dog, that don’t mean you bring him in because a dog can mess up your yard, and you just gotta make sure that person is the right guy and they really want this to want this and not want this for a check. I think every coach is dealing with that. One thing we don’t have in life is measurables for the heart.”

That’s the conundrum for Coach Prime at a place like CU. It’s impossible for the Buffs to simply go out and spend the necessary money to fix the roster. They can do some of that, but the large majority is trying to find the players who want to be in Boulder for the right reasons.

After an offseason where he admittedly missed, Sanders believes he knows how to find the target once again.

“I know how to get it right. I’ll get it right,” Sanders said. “We’re headed in the right direction. Some things happened, and we took a quick left instead of staying right, but I know how to get it right and we will. We’ve got some key pieces that’s there that you can work with and I’m happy with that. 

“Sometimes you just need to recalibrate, you need to reset, you need to get a redo. We need a reset right now.”

King’s Prediction

Kansas State 38, Colorado 17
A miserable season finally comes to an end for the Buffs this Saturday — and it will conclude with another defeat and the worst record of the Coach Prime era. If the Wildcats were capable of putting up nearly 50 points and nearly 500 rushing yards last week at Utah, what do you think they’ll be capable of doing against a bad CU defense? Even with Kaidon Salter back at quarterback, too, don’t expect many fireworks from the offense, either.