Back in March, Deion Sanders drew a hard line for Colorado’s offense. The Buffaloes had just gone through a sputtering 2025 season, and Sanders made it plain what he wanted from a new coordinator: points. Lots of them.
“Everybody interviewed, they averaged over 30 points per game (at previous stops),” Sanders said in March. “And 30 points per game is our threshold.
When we score 30 points per game, we win. When we don’t, we lose.”
That benchmark has turned into a problem Colorado can’t ignore. The Buffs are nowhere near 30 points a game under Brennan Marion and his Go-Go offense. Against power conference opponents, they’ve barely managed 30 points total in four games.
Saturday night brought another rough chapter. Colorado got a strong defensive effort and answered it with just seven points, plus four second-half turnovers, in a 29-7 loss to No. 12 Texas Tech.
“We’ve been horrible,” Sanders said afterward. “Don’t sugarcoat it. We’ve been horrible.”
He wasn’t wrong. The obvious trouble at quarterback keeps getting in the way - Isaac Wilson’s encouraging showing against Baylor a week earlier gave way to a second-half collapse against the Red Raiders - but the issues run deeper than one player.
At the season’s midpoint, next week’s bye arrives at a useful time. It also arrives with the offense looking less like the Go-Go and more like the No-Go.
Colorado’s attack has no real identity right now, which is a stunning place for this team to be after the early signs suggested the plan had already taken shape. The Buffs were supposed to be tougher, more committed to the run, and more willing to lean on an offense built to impose itself.
That version showed up against Georgia Tech, when CU ran for 183 yards and pulled out a dramatic win in the final seconds. It surfaced again against Weber State, when Julian Lewis settled in and the Buffs piled up another 180 rushing yards.
Since then, it’s disappeared.
The losing streak reached three games with the loss to Texas Tech, and the offense looked stuck in place while the defense kept doing its job. Colorado may be a better running team than it was before, but it still doesn’t play like one. A real run-first identity usually comes with patience and stubbornness - the kind of approach that keeps hammering away until the defense wears down late.
That’s not how the Buffs have operated under Sanders. If the early run game doesn’t pop, it tends to fade from the plan. Against Texas Tech, that showed up in a lopsided script that made little sense: 48 pass attempts, Wilson leading the team in rushing attempts, and the running backs getting only 14 carries.
That kind of imbalance doesn’t add up, and it helped turn a potential upset into another loss.
The search for answers started early, too. Colorado opened with an ill-advised fake punt - “l’m gonna take the blame for that foolishness,” Sanders said - and also leaned on reverse passes three times.
That part at least had a trace of logic. Joseph Williams had delivered the longest pass play in last week’s loss at Baylor, so the Buffs were reaching for anything that had shown life. But three passes thrown by receivers, or by No. 3 quarterback Kaneal Sweetwyne while lined up as a receiver, is less innovation than a sign of panic.
The bubble burst when Williams threw an interception early in the second half, the first of four CU turnovers after halftime.
The longer this goes on, the harder it becomes to keep frustration from spilling inside the locker room. If the losses keep piling up, the finger-pointing won’t be far behind.
The bye week also raises another question. Sanders has changed play-callers midseason twice in his three years at CU, and he also did it at Jackson State.
Making a switch now would be awkward, especially with an offense built specifically for Marion’s system. But Colorado has already tried changing quarterbacks, and awkward is hardly the issue when the team is averaging 10.3 points against four FBS-level opponents.
For the Buffs, this might be exactly the right time for a bye. There’s plenty to sort through, and the search for points has become increasingly futile.
In Other News...
Texas Tech Fans Stumbled Onto A Colorado Mystery Before Kickoff
Before kickoff in Lubbock, Texas Tech fans reportedly stumbled onto something that looked a lot more useful than a souvenir: a 25-page Colorado game plan playbook found at the Buffaloes team hotel. The document appeared authentic and, to outsiders watching the game unfold, it matched plays Colorado actually used on the field.
For a team already trying to steady itself, the timing could not have been worse. Colorado was beaten 29-7 by Texas Tech in a game defined by turnovers and interceptions, then headed into a bye week with a three-game losing streak hanging over it. Deion Sanders acknowledged the issues and opened up a quarterback competition, leaving the Buffaloes with plenty to sort out and a strange pregame mystery still hanging in the background. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Heads Into Bye Week With A Frustrating New Debate
Colorados trip to Texas Tech offered a little of everything except a complete performance, and that left the Buffaloes heading into the bye week with more questions than answers. Isaac Wilson took the start at quarterback and threw for a career-high 292 yards with a touchdown, but the offense never found enough rhythm to offset the three interceptions, while a defense that held Texas Tech to three first-half points and racked up 11 tackles for loss still watched the game slip away.
Special teams and penalties made the gap too wide to close, from missed field goals to a failed fake punt that short-circuited any chance at momentum. For a team that needed cleaner execution to build on its defensive work, the frustrating part is not just the loss itself but the debate it leaves behind as Colorado gets a week to sort out how to turn the offenses flashes into something more dependable. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Celebrity Sideline Moment Had Buffs Fans Reading One NBA Star
Colorados home game against Texas Tech brought a familiar mix of football and celebrity watching, with several high-profile guests taking in the scene from the sideline. Among the biggest names in the building were Nikola Jokic, DeMar DeRozan and Cam Johnson, and the attention around them quickly became part of the atmosphere as much as the matchup itself.
DeRozan was the one who seemed to embrace the moment most, engaging with fans and giving the sideline the kind of energy Buffaloes supporters have come to expect when a star rolls through Boulder. Jokic, by contrast, drew a different reaction, appearing more reserved and keeping his interactions with attendees to a minimum, a contrast that stood out during a season in which the celebrity turnout around Colorado games has already felt lighter than it has in past years. [Read more 🡒]