What a difference a year and a few good transfers make for a football program. The Buffs finished 4-8 last season but now into Deion Sanders’s second season, they are 8-2, bowl-bound, and very much in running for the Big 12 championship. Their latest win came against the Utah Utes, whom they routed 24-49.
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However, HC Deion Sanders still thinks there’s room for improvement. During the post-game presser, he highlighted the one thing the team needs to do better to become invincible – consistency in the running game:
“We showed flashes of having a running game but we got to be more consistent with that. Sky would be the limit if we could really have consistency. “
Coach Prime wants consistency in their run game and wants the team to have passion and desire to run the ball. He believes that would open up more attacking avenues for them and make the offense even better balanced.
The team put up a season-high 49 points against the best defense in the conference. Imagine the damage they could’ve done with a better run game.
Sanders added that the team did show a semblance of the ground game today, with Isiah Augustave doing a fine job. Augustave carried the ball seven times for 59 yards.
But other than that, no other rusher surpassed 10 yards. They had a total of only 65 yards on the ground compared to 340 yards in the air. They have passed the 100-yard mark in the running game only thrice this season.
But as long as they keep on winning, Deion’s bid for Coach of the Year becomes more strengthened.
Coach Prime’s case for Coach of the Year
Even before the win over Utah, Coach Prime was a candidate for Coach of the Year. But a win over the Utes takes him and the Buffs to eight wins for the season. They are Bowl-eligible and still have a great chance to enter the playoffs.
What a turnaround by Deion and his team, that finished with more losses than wins last season. It’s not surprising that the Hall of Famer appears in Joel Klatt’s top five candidates for end-of-the-season awards.
Klatt named Curt Cignetti of Indiana Hosiers, Deion Sanders of Colorado, Kalani Sitake of BYU, Rhett Lashlee( SMU), and Jeff Monken of Army Balck Knights as his top five candidates, in no particular order.
However, Cignetti is most likely the favorite for COTY. Under him, the Hoosiers haven’t lost a single game this season(10-0). This achievement is even more special as the Hoosiers went 3-9 last year, even worse than the Buffs.
As for Big 12, Sitake is the favorite because, like Indiana, BYU is undefeated and leads the conference.
Whether Coach Prime wins the top award or not, the turnaround for Colorado under him has been remarkable. The Buffs take on Kansas Jayhawks next week before finishing the season at home against Oklahoma State.
