Standing alone in a mostly vacant Folsom Field, Fernando Lovo got a preview of what he wants Boulder to feel like again.
As Colorado’s athletic director, Lovo has made the fan experience a priority since arriving last winter, and the sound system was part of the test. With the music turned up and the stadium otherwise empty, he could picture what the place looks and sounds like when it’s full of life.
“When the music was cranked up and I was looking around the stadium, I imagined it packed full - 50,000 Buffs fans screaming - and I got chills,” Lovo said. “This to me is one of the most iconic venues in all of college football, and I’ve been really fortunate enough to be at many of them. Fans travel from across the state, across the country, to come out and support.
“I watched it from afar when I was at the University of Texas, the year with Travis (Hunter) and Shedeur (Sanders). That’s why I’m working so hard to get our fans to come out and support. Because I think when this stadium is full and everybody’s yelling and screaming, this really is one of the hardest venues to play in, in one of the most iconic settings.”
That kind of atmosphere, though, starts with something more basic: wins. And those have been hard to stack up for Colorado across Deion Sanders’ first three seasons.
Sanders enters Year Four with a 16-21 record, including 9-18 in conference play, and the Buffaloes are coming off a 2025 season that produced very little momentum after a few flashes in 2024. He’s still only in the second year of a five-year, $54 million extension signed after the 9-4 run in 2024, the best season CU has had under him so far.
But this year feels built around a reset.
Sanders, who battled bladder cancer before the 2025 season, has his energy back and has reclaimed the offseason duties he had to hand off a year ago, especially when it comes to evaluating transfers. Colorado also has new coordinators on both sides: Brennan Marion on offense, bringing his Go-Go system, and Chris Marve on defense.
Those changes have brought a different edge to the program. The 2025 team struggled with leadership and toughness, and the new group spent part of the preseason in Colorado Springs with phones left in the dorms, part of the push for better intensity and more togetherness.
“It did change,” said offensive lineman Yahya Attia, a three-year Buff, of the team’s attitude. “We’re more rough now.
Character. Pride.
And straight-up coaches. It’s always hard when you bring in people from different places and experience.
It don’t really matter if they’re experienced or not. That’s why we’ve got coaches that are going to hold us together and make sure we’re on the same page.
We want to win, that’s the reason. We know how it was last year.
We gotta change it this year.”
Sanders says this is the best staff he’s had at Colorado, and both Marion and Marve are stepping into familiar pressure. Marion is the third full-time offensive coordinator Sanders has used in four seasons, and Marve makes it the same story on defense.
The need for change is easy to see in how last season unfolded. Colorado dropped early games to Houston, BYU and TCU, and in each of those losses the Buffs were outscored after halftime. A win over ranked Iowa State briefly kept the season afloat, but after the bye week came a 53-7 loss at Utah, and the team never found its footing again, closing with five straight defeats.
Now the hope is that a more energized Sanders, backed by a staff he trusts, can guide the Buffs through what should be a chaotic Big 12 race. If Colorado can stay steady in that kind of weekly grind, maybe Lovo’s vision of a packed and roaring Folsom Field becomes the real thing.
“Not only experience, but understanding the group of young men that we have,” Sanders said of his staff. “We’re not just speaking to the football guy.
We’re speaking to the young man that’s maybe has just broken up with his girlfriend. That is mismanaging his money.
Who wants to be that guy but doesn’t understand the work ethic that comes along with being that guy. They understand how to communicate with the young men that we have.
“These men on the staff. And they love this game.”
In Other News...
Georgia Tech Opener Turns On One Unsettling QB Unknown
Colorados season opener against Georgia Tech brings a quarterback matchup with more uncertainty than polish, and both sides are leaning on players who have not yet had much time to settle in. The Buffaloes will turn to redshirt freshman Julian Lewis in their new Go-Go offense, a scheme built to put the quarterback on the move, while Georgia Tech counters with sophomore Alberto Mendoza, a transfer from Indiana who is stepping into his first start with the Yellow Jackets.
The intrigue is not just who can make the cleaner throws, but who can survive the chaos that comes with so little proven game tape. Lewis enters with limited college experience, and Mendoza arrives after spending a season behind his brother Fernando Mendoza, so both offenses are asking a lot from quarterbacks still trying to define themselves. For Colorado, the question hanging over the opener is whether that youth helps the Buffaloes unlock something fresh or leaves them exposed against a Georgia Tech team built to make quarterbacks work for everything. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Added A Quiet Offensive Weapon For Its Young Quarterbacks
Colorado quietly added another layer to its offensive staff in January when AJ Smith arrived as an offensive analyst, giving the Buffaloes a veteran voice with a background that stretches from high school football to college, the XFL and the UFL. For a program still shaping the future around young quarterbacks, Smith brings more than just coaching reps. He has spent years building tools designed to help signal-callers learn faster and process more efficiently.
Deion Sanders has already pointed to Smiths professional play-calling experience and his work in quarterback development technology as part of what makes him useful in Boulder. Smith has helped develop a virtual reality system and a quarterback analytics platform called Modern Football, the kind of behind-the-scenes work that can matter most when a young QB room is trying to speed up its growth. The full impact may take time to show, but Colorado clearly sees value in adding a mind built for both teaching and innovation. [Read more 🡒]
Julian Lewis Now Carries Colorados Biggest 2026 Question
Danny Scuderos move to Boulder gives Colorado another piece for an offense that badly needed more help after last seasons struggles. Under Deion Sanders and offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, the Buffaloes have been trying to reshape the receiver room with transfers, and Scudero joins a group that will be judged not just on talent, but on how quickly it can mesh in Marions Go-Go offense.
Julian Lewis is the name that hangs over all of it. The young quarterbacks development will go a long way toward determining whether Colorados offense can take a real step forward in 2026, and the additions around him are meant to make that path smoother. Scudero and the other newcomers raise the ceiling, but the bigger question remains how much Lewis can grow into the job once the ball is in his hands. [Read more 🡒]