The Coach Prime era is just getting started in Boulder.
Head coach Deion Sanders spent the last nine months doing a complete overhaul of the Colorado Buffaloes' roster to restore the glory of a once-elite program, telling the team, "We comin'."
His revamped roster delivered the message out with a statement win over no. 17 TCU, the reigning runners-up of last year's college football season.
The Buffaloes rallied for a 45-42 win to stun a packed crowd at Amon G. Carter Stadium, getting their first road win since 2021 and snapped a streak of 24 consecutive losses as an underdog of 21 points or more. They also got their first win over a ranked team since 2019, and beat a ranked team this high for the first time since 2009.
Coach Prime arrived at Boulder with 86 new Colorado players, whether it be from high school, junior college, the SEC, or the nine players who followed him from Jackson State. The 86 players were the most incoming players to an FBS roster since the inception of the transfer portal in 2018.
Among those include his son, Shedeur Sanders, who completed 38 of 47 passes for a school-record 510 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions, including the game-winner on a 46-yard catch-and-run by true freshman Dylan Edwards with 4:25 left in the game. He is also the first Buffaloes quarterback to eclipse 500 passing yards.
The winner came on a fourth down, where he took a pass on a flat route, made slight hesitation, and then he was off to the races down the sideline past the TCU defense.
Edwards finished with four touchdowns, three receiving and one rushing, including a 75-yarder at the opening minute of the second half where he turned a short pass into a big play. He led Colorado with 135 receiving yards on five receptions.
Two-way star Travis Hunter, a former five-star recruit, totaled 119 receiving yards on 11 receptions on offense, and had three tackles and an interception on defense, and even made several outstanding catches.
His third quarter pick ended the second of two potential scoring drives that ended with interceptions in the red zone for TCU, on a night where he played 129 total snaps.
Edwards and Hunter were two of four receivers to notch 100-yard days, a first in Colorado football history. The other two were Xavier Weaver (six catches for 118 yards) and Jimmy Horn Jr. (11 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown).
Colorado didn't trail in the game until Chandler Morris, who finished 24 of 42 for 279 yards and two touchdowns, threw a 23-yard touchdown to Dylan Wright to put TCU up 28-24 with two-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter. It would wound up being the first of six straight possessions where the two teams traded touchdowns until Edwards' final touchdown.
TCU's final drive ended with a fourth down stop as Jared Wiley got tackles two yards shy of a first down on a 4th & 9 catch and run.
The Horned Frogs went undefeated in last year's regular season in Sonny Dykes' first year as their head coach, reaching the College Football Playoff, where they went the defeated the Michigan Wolverines in the semifinals, 51-45, before a blowout loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, 65-7.
They now have lost three of their last four games dating back to their Big 12 championship loss to the Kansas State Wildcats.
Much of the talk was about how the Buffaloes wouldn't win a lot of games, how the roster had a lot of holes, and how the transfers from Jackson State, and HBCU FBS team in the SWAC, to college football's top level.
"For real? Shedeur Sanders? From an HBCU? The one that played at Jackson last year? The one that you asked me, 'Why would I give him the starting job?'" asked Deion Sanders mockingly about his son, who he coached at Jackson State before heading to Colorado. "I've got receipts. I know who they are."
He named his son the starting quarterback ahead of the opening of the transfer portal, and was almost as uncomfortably open about telling last year's Colorado players that they should probably jump in on the portal.
The rebuild, to go with a packed house during their spring football game at Folsom Field, was the talk of the college football offseason.
Colorado finished last season 1-11, fired head coach Karl Dorrell after five games on the year, and let go of interim coach Mike Sanford Jr. before hiring Prime Time on December 3rd after the season ended.
He coached Edwards in youth football when the freshman was 7 years old, leading to the four-star recruit picking Colorado over other schools like Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. He actually came over to the Buffaloes after he decommitted from Notre Dame.
Hunter was one of the first to buy into Sanders' vision at Jackson State, wearing a shirt with all the images from his coach's NFL Hall of Fame playing career, having won two Super Bowls.
Entering this game, Colorado was held to fewer than 400 yards in 26 straight games, which at that time was the longest active streak in the FBS, per ESPN Stats & Information. They were also one of three FBS teams that were without a 300-yard passer in the last two seasons, and they didn't have a player record multiple touchdowns from scrimmage in any game last season.
The game turned out to be a Big 12 shootout, with both teams going over 500 scrimmage yards. The Horned Frogs finished with 542, while the Buffaloes finished with 565, the latter holding the ball for 34 minutes and 33 seconds on 81 plays.
Sanders, who underwent multiple surgeries for circulatory issues on a foot during the offseason, ran onto the field with his players and he stood the entire game, saying that his foot was "not good" but added that he's "thankful that God gave me what I needed to finish."
"These young men in there right now, they believe," he said. "Not all of them believed before. But right now, they came up one by one, two by two, and said, 'Coach, we believe.' Now they believe. Now Boulder believes, people in the front office, people in the building, the fans, the students, now everybody wants to believe. I'm good with that. We got room."
TCU will stay at home next Saturday against FCS team Nicholls (0-1), while Colorado will head home for their home opener against Nebraska (0-1), coached by new head coach and ex-Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule.
Colorado has sold out season tickets, the ninth time in school history and the first time before August of the college football season, and the first time in 27 years. Their upcoming match against the Cornhuskers will be just their third meeting since 2010, the last season the two teams were in the Big 12 together.
Scoring
Colorado, 8:58 1st: Dylan Edwards 4-yard TD pass from Shedeur Sanders (Alejandro Mata kick); 7-0 Colorado
TCU, 13:57 2nd: Trey Sanders 7-yard TD run (Griffin Kell kick); 7-7 Tie
Colorado, 9:28 2nd: Sy'veon Wilkerson 2-yard TD run (Jace Feely kick); 14-7 Colorado
TCU, 1:53 2nd: Trey Sanders 4-yard TD run (Griffin Kell kick); 14-14 Tie
Colorado, 0:00 2nd: Jace Feely 49-yard field goal; 17-14 Colorado
Colorado, 14:24 3rd: Dylan Edwards 75-yard TD pass from Shedeur Sanders (Jace Feely kick); 24-14 Colorado
TCU, 13:29 3rd: Jared Wiley 21-yard TD pass from Chandler Morris (Griffin Kell kick); 24-21 Colorado
TCU, 2:32 3rd: Dylan Wright 23-yard TD pass from Chandler Morris (Griffin Kell kick); 28-24 TCU
Colorado, 0:27 3rd: Dylan Edwards 7-yard TD run (Jace Feely kick); 31-28 Colorado
TCU, 10:49 4th: Chandler Morris 19-yard TD run (Griffin Kell kick); 35-31 TCU
Colorado, 7:36 4th: Jimmy Horn Jr. 26-yard TD pass from Shedeur Sanders (Jace Feely kick); 38-35 Colorado
TCU, 7:00 4th: Trey Sanders 1-yard TD run (Griffin Kell kick); 42-38 TCU
Colorado, 4:25 4th: Dylan Edwards 46-yard TD pass from Shedeur Sanders (Jace Feely kick); 45-42 Colorado
Passing
COLORADO BUFFALOES
Shedeur Sanders: 38/47, 510 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
TCU HORNED FROGS
Chandler Morris: 24/42, 279 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT
Rushing
COLORADO BUFFALOES
Sy'veon Wilkerson: 13 attempts, 45 yards, 1 TD
Dylan Edwards: 6 attempts, 24 yards, 1 TD
Anthony Hankerson: 9 attempts, 21 yards, 0 TD
TCU HORNED FROGS
Emani Bailey: 14 attempts, 164 yards, 0 TD
Trey Sanders: 15 attempts, 46 yards, 3 TD
Chandler Morris: 5 attempts, 30 yards, 1 TD
Receiving
COLORADO BUFFALOES
Dylan Edwards: 5 receptions, 135 yards, 3 TD
Travis Hunter: 11 receptions, 119 yards, 0 TD
Xavier Weaver: 6 receptions, 118 yards, 0 TD
Jimmy Horn Jr.: 11 receptions, 117 yards, 1 TD
TCU HORNED FROGS
Jared Wiley: 6 receptions, 69 yards, 1 TD
JP Richardson: 6 receptions, 63 yards, 0 TD
Dylan Wright: 2 receptions, 44 yards, 1 TD
Defensive
COLORADO BUFFALOES
Shilo Sanders: 10 tackles (9 solo)
Marvin Ham II: 10 tackles (7 solo)
Trevor Woods: 9 tackles (7 solo), 1 pass defended, 1 interception
Travis Hunter: 3 tackles (1 solo), 1 pass defended, 1 interception
TCU HORNED FROGS
Johnny Hodges: 9 tackles (5 solo), 1 TFL, 1 sack
Bud Clark: 9 tackles (4 solo)
Jamoi Hodge: 8 tackles (5 solo), 2 TFL, 1 sack
Avery Helm: 5 tackles (4 solo), 1 pass defended
Millard Bradford: 5 tackles (3 solo), 1 pass defended
Caleb Fox: 4 tackles (3 solo), 1 TFL, 1 sack
Paul Oyewale: 3 tackles (3 solo), 1 TFL, 1 sack
Team Stats
First Downs: Colorado 30, TCU 27
3rd Downs: Colorado 9/15, TCU 10/17
4th Downs: Colorado 2/2, TCU 1/2
Total Yards: Colorado 565, TCU 541
Passing Yards: Colorado 510, TCU 279
Team Passing: Colorado 38/47, TCU 24/42
Yards Per Pass: Colorado 10.9, TCU 6.6
Rushing Yards: Colorado 55, TCU 262
Rushing Attempts: Colorado 34, TCU 37
Yards Per Rush: Colorado 1.6, TCU 7.1
Penalties: Colorado 6—35 yards, TCU 10—78 yards
Turnovers: Colorado 1, TCU 2
Fumbles Lost: Colorado 1, TCU 0
Interceptions Thrown: Colorado 0, TCU 2
Possession: Colorado 34:33, TCU 25:27
Miscellaneous
Venue: Amon G. Carter Stadium
Location: Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
Attendance: 53,294 (Capacity: 46,000)
Weather: Sunny, 98°F
Winds: E 5 mph
Broadcast: FOX
Commentators: Gus Johnson (PxP), Joel Klatt (color), Jenny Taft (reporter)
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