BOULDER — As Ben Finneseth watched Indiana do what the college football world thought for decades was unthinkable — win a national championship — a thought popped into his head.

“Why can’t that happen here?”

The unequivocal leader of the Colorado football team, Finneseth is entering his sixth season as a former walk-on safety out of the Durango area.

For the majority of his time with the Buffaloes, particularly the four years spent under coach Deion Sanders, he’s been one of the few Colorado natives on the roster. The program just means more to him and he took its lack of success in 2025 (a 3-9 record and second-last finish in the Big 12 standings) as hard as anyone.

Almost all of the standouts the team did have (left tackle Jordan Seaton, wide receiver Omarion Miller, safety Tawfiq Byard and others) left for bigger paychecks elsewhere.

Finneseth watched as Coach Prime and the rest of the staff rebuilt the roster, mostly with players who had excellent seasons not at the Power 4 level. That didn’t bother him one bit.

“I think there’s a lot to learn from the way that Indiana built their team last year,” Finneseth said this spring. “They had zero four- and five-star recruits and you don’t need four- and five-star recruits to win. You look at what Indiana did, they had a player-led team and they had a culture that everyone wanted to buy into. 

“That’s been our focus as a leadership group and as a team. Let’s build a culture that everyone wants to buy into. It’s not about you, it’s not about me, it’s not about ‘I’ — it’s about the team and how we can make the team better.”

In Finneseth’s eyes, the only way for the Buffs to become a better team on the field is by being around each other more off of it.

If the last few months are any indication, this new-look Buffs team, still shaken by the death of quarterback Dominiq Ponder on the eve of spring practices in March, understands the importance of camaraderie.

Just earlier this month, Finneseth and some of the other team leaders planned a team barbecue for after their Easter church service. Even Finneseth couldn’t believe the turnout.

“There was like 50 guys that pulled up and we were like, ‘Well, I guess we’re gonna start doing this.’” Finneseth said. 

“Making all the freshmen pay, maybe,” he added with a smile.

It started with corralling those who share similar religious beliefs to attend the same church and that’s also been a success, but now Finneseth has compiled a list of offseason activities for the entire team when they reconvene in Boulder for summer workouts ahead of training camp in late July.

Fishing, camping, team Wiffle ball and softball games are already on the list. Finneseth and fellow Durango native Tagert Bardin are planning on opening up their parents’ homes to whoever on the team wants to come for the weekend of the Fourth of July holiday. 

It’s all in an effort to get this year’s team to buy into a common goal — one that Finneseth saw helped Indiana overcome the odds and crash the party of traditional powers dominating the sport for the last decade.

“Everyone that’s here — we don’t have a lot of guys that came from Power 4 schools,” Finneseth said. “A lot of guys just came from a Group of 5 school or a smaller school and they just wanna prove that they can play at this level. That just makes guys hungry and that’s what I’ve been super happy about with our team. We’ve got guys who aren’t willing to leave the field with a loss and that’s the most important thing. 

“You’ve gotta hate losing above all else. You gotta have a mentality that we’re not leaving the field until we win. That’s the kind of team we’re gonna be. We’re not leaving the field with a loss. That’s just not the mentality we’re gonna have.”