After a strong 2024 season with Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter leading the way, Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes are out to prove they’re not just a one-hit wonder. But the start of their 2025 Big 12 run couldn’t have been more heartbreaking.
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In their home opener at Folsom Field, Colorado fell 27-20 to Georgia Tech. The sting was worse because the Yellow Jackets practically gift-wrapped opportunities early, coughing up the ball on each of their first three drives. Still, QB Kaidon Salter and the offense only managed to squeeze seven points out of it, and from there, things went downhill.
Naturally, this performance didn’t sit well with Coach Prime’s old NFL running mate, Michael Irvin. On his YouTube channel, Irvin didn’t hold back, urging Deion to put his new QB in better spots to succeed in his Buffaloes debut.
“The quarterback, God bless him, I know it was his first game, and there might have been some nerves… Great feet, he knows how to move around, but he missed a lot of people easily. I know a lot of people were thinking, ‘If that was Shedeur, they would have won that game.’ Deion has to get his quarterback in better places, and playing better,” the pundit said.
Salter, a transfer who started for Liberty in 2023 and 2024, was making his debut for the Buffaloes, and it was far from ideal. He missed a few easy throws, as Irvin noted, and he only threw for 159 yards overall. Even on the ground, he managed just 43 yards on his 13 carries. However, anyone who watched that game knows that most of the blame for the loss goes to the defense.
Their defensive front seven was a bunch of turnstiles in the running game. All in, they allowed 47 carries for 320 rushing yards and three TDs. That’s over twice the amount they allowed per game last season (151). After the contest, Coach Prime was not mincing words about the unit.
“It’s hard to applaud the defense when we gave up darn near 500 yards, man. That’s kind of tough. It’s a great question. I tried my best to answer it as politely as I could, but it’s hard to applaud the defense right now,” said the head coach.
“You’re not going to win with those statistics. We tried many things. We tried blitzing, we tried to fill every gap, but we didn’t get the job done. They were much more physical than we were. They were much more aggressive at times… There’s no way you can say you’re physical and you got your butt kicked like that,” he added
The loss of Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter is clearly having an impact on Colorado. But perhaps more worrying is the fact that they now have a new issue to contend with in the form of that porous run defense. If you can’t stop the run, you’re not going to have much success in the game of football. No matter what level you’re playing on.
