Today’s article is about the Colorado Buffaloes’ football program and whether or not they are for real entering the 2024 collegiate offseason.
Colorado already had one of the nation’s top QBs in Shedeur Sanders (QB – Colorado) and one of the NCAA’s most prolific playmakers in offensive/defensive star Travis Hunter (WR/CB – Colorado).
The team finished only 4-8 in 2023 in Neon Deion Sanders’ first season at the helm. They made some waves early on by upsetting TCU in their first game of the season, but things went bad as they entered conference play.
A big reason Colorado was so bad in 2023 was their offensive and defensive lines. Both were massively undersized and were dominated at the point of attack. Shedeur and Hunter can only do so much by themselves when their offensive line can’t block and their defensive line can’t put pressure on the opposing team’s QB or stop anyone.
While on its face, Colorado’s recruiting for this cycle was poor (ranked by 247Sports as the 99th best recruiting class, right behind Eastern Michigan University), but you have to delve deeper into how active Colorado was in the transfer portal to get a holistic look at the Buffaloes’ prospects in 2024.
Their transfer class ranks tops in the nation with 16 new commits from the portal. Those commits included four offensive linemen, so it’s clear Colorado recognized their deficiencies last season and took steps to address them.
The Devy implications of what Colorado has done in the offseason are monumental. With more time in the pocket, Sanders should be able to take the next step to be even more of an elite college QB. More time for him to throw means more time for Travis Hunter to get open down the field. Both are huge devy targets for me moving forward and they’re both guys that you can get later on in devy drafts, as most won’t be thinking of targeting anyone from the 4-8 Buffaloes.
Shedeur has one year of eligibility left and Hunter is a guy who can play both WR and CB successfully, the likes we haven’t seen since his old ball coach was lacing them up. With a beefed-up offensive line, the new-look offense should excel and more bodies on the defensive line means they’ll be much more effective on the other side of the ball as well.
Colorado lost several games last year by seven points or less; coming into 2024 I expect them to make huge waves in the Pac-12 and maybe even go from the basement to the top as far as conference ranks. They only have to compete with the likes of Arizona, Utah, Oregon State, and Cal to earn the crown. With Washington, Oregon, and USC set to join the Big Ten, the path forward for Colorado dominance is set. With beefed-up offensive and defensive lines and one of the top QBs in the NCAA at the helm, the sky is the limit for this group.
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