Going into Saturday’s matchup with the Ducks, the University of Colorado Buffaloes have been one of the most exciting stories in college football this season. This is largely due to the high profile of their head coach Deion Sanders, or “coach Prime”, an NFL hall of famer who has completely turned the program around after a dismal 1-11 record last season.
His tenure at Colorado was flawless until the Buffs traveled to Eugene. This can be attributed to Sanders’ ability to recruit top talent to play for him, no matter the school he’s at. Take Travis Hunter for example, the top recruit in the 2022 class, who was committed to Sanders’ alma mater Florida State University before decommitting and joining Coach Prime at Jackson State University, a subdivision school in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and then following him to Colorado.
Sanders works hard to promote his players and lets them be themselves and their personalities shine. He also makes sure that his media availability, along with high profile players like Hunter and his son and starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, are carefully crafted by his oldest son Deion Sanders Jr.
With one of the most vibrant personalities in college sports, Coach Prime makes sure that he and his squad are featured on all of the most important sports publications in the country. Throughout the season, media giants like ESPN and Bleacher Report have been constantly promoting Colorado through an extensive amount of highlights and many media bites from Sanders.
On the field, the Buffaloes showed that the best that college football has to offer is just too much for them, as much as they would like to say otherwise. There seemed to be no change in game plan against a top-10 team from what was planned for the more pedestrian teams they played in the first three weeks.
There were a lot of longer progressing pass plays that ran far too early in the game to be effective. Colorado never established a presence on the line of scrimmage, getting beat on both sides of the ball in the trenches. The offensive line looked extremely subpar, allowing seven sacks to a much better, NFL-caliber defensive line.
The Buffs’ defensive line didn’t cut it either, rarely breaking through and getting pressure on either quarterback Bo Nix or the running backs. The secondary was also very lackluster this weekend, with Troy Franklin finishing with eight receptions for 126 yards and two touchdowns.
It didn’t seem like there was a ton of commitment from coach Sanders to adjust anything in the second half, as his Buffaloes came out just as flat-footed as they were in the beginning. Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, on the other hand, seemed to push the Ducks to keep their foot on the gas.
Lanning crafted the perfect game plan to curb Colorado’s explosive offense and at times suffocating defense. Throughout the game, Oregon’s bread and butter were quick runs and throws outside of the tackles, as all the offensive weapons knew that they were much faster and skilled than anyone the Buffaloes could put against them. The Ducks came out firing on offense, scoring on their first three drives of the game while dominating every phase of the game, even special teams.
This domination was highlighted at the beginning of the second quarter when the Ducks successfully converted on a fourth down fake punt from their own 17-yard line. From this point on, it seemed that Coach Prime knew he was being out-coached. After the Ducks went up three scores, the Buffs seemed to throw in the white flag and showed no fight for the rest of the game.
All the while, Lanning made sure his guys were relentless. During the third quarter, Oregon took out most of their starters, and only then did it seem like Colorado could even share the field with the Ducks.
Even the confidence and swagger of Coach Prime couldn’t overcome the relentless nature of a Lanning-coached team. Lanning prioritized effort, grit and playing the Oregon way, while Sanders seemed to focus on his postgame press conference and getting clicks.
