Colorado’s margin for error is gone, and that’s exactly why the freshmen matter now.
At 3-5, the Buffaloes need three wins in their final four games against Arizona State, Houston, Cincinnati and UCF to reach a bowl. Fall short, and the season ends the weekend after Thanksgiving. Colorado’s offense sits last in the Big 12 at 21 points per game, and the team also leads the league in penalties, so Deion Sanders doesn’t have the luxury of waiting around for development to happen on its own.
That’s where the younger players come in. Because of the NCAA redshirt rule, a player can appear in up to four games without burning a year of eligibility, and Colorado has several freshmen who can still be used without losing that flexibility. A few of them may wind up shaping how November looks.
The quarterback situation already showed that at Oklahoma State. With the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, Sanders pulled starter Isaac Wilson and turned to Sweetwyne before redshirt freshman Julian Lewis, who started the first four games and has not played since halftime at Baylor.
Sweetwyne completed 3 of 5 passes for 63 yards, including a 51-yard throw that stood as Colorado’s longest pass of the night. It also made him the fifth different quarterback Sanders has used since former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders left for the NFL.
Sweetwyne, a 6-3, 195-pound dual-threat from Skyridge High School in Lehi, Utah, threw for 3,050 yards and 32 touchdowns and ran for 907 more as a senior. He gave up the final months of his senior year to enroll in January, a sign of how eager he was to get to Colorado early.
He has played in three games, so he can still appear once more and keep his redshirt intact. Wilson remains the starter, but the backup job appears to belong to Sweetwyne, and Colorado’s offense has already needed a relief pitcher twice this season.
Up front, true freshman Payne has already become too important to keep off the field. He has been Colorado’s left tackle since his first start against Texas Tech in early October, and his role only got bigger against Kansas State, when the Buffaloes used just five offensive linemen for the first time this season. Leon Bell moved from right tackle to right guard, Sean Kinney handled the middle, and Payne played every snap through regulation and overtime.
That workload matters because protection has been a problem all year. Colorado has given up 17 sacks through eight games, and the 6-7, 320-pound early enrollee from Orlando is the one protecting the quarterback’s blind side.
A consensus three-star prospect coming out of high school, Payne has outplayed that label. With three seasons of eligibility left after this one, he looks like Colorado’s best long-term answer at one of the most important spots on the roster.
The defensive side has its own freshman opening. Middle linebacker Tyler Martinez, who wears the green-dot signal-caller role, suffered a potentially season-ending injury against Baylor, and Colton has rotated in behind Gage Goldberg since then.
The 6-1, 225-pound freshman from Newnan, Georgia, came in with offers from Ohio State, LSU, Oregon and Georgia, and ESPN ranked him the No. 23 linebacker in his class. As a senior at Newnan High School, he posted 57 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, four sacks and three defensive touchdowns.
He also has a strong setup around him. Colton is learning next to Gideon Lampron, who leads the Big 12 in tackles for loss in conference play, and under defensive coordinator Chris Marve, who coaches the linebackers as well. Colorado doesn’t need Colton to carry the defense; it needs him to be steady.
Another freshman linebacker, Carson Crawford, had only played in two games as of mid-October, which leaves him available for spot duty over the final month without burning his redshirt.
None of that changes the basic math. Colorado still needs its veterans to do most of the heavy lifting if it’s going to reach six wins. Sanders still thinks the best version of this team is out there somewhere.
“One day, this season, we’re going to put it all together,” Sanders said Tuesday.
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The biggest concern for Colorado may be how its defense holds up after Naeten Mitchell was added to the injury report, a development that puts more pressure on a secondary already facing a tricky road test. Colorado is also monitoring Danny Scudero, while Arizona State has its own health questions with running back Jason Brown Jr. out of the mix, and the Buffaloes will have to sort through a few more availability issues before they can fully settle on how they want to attack this one. [Read more 🡒]