Colorado enters preseason camp with the same big-name coach, a new athletic director, and a fresh round of questions that will define the Buffaloes’ 2026 season.
Deion Sanders is healthy again after his battle with bladder cancer, and this fall gives him a chance to show that the rough 3-9 finish last year was more about circumstance than coaching. A year ago, Sanders was working through recovery while CU’s recruiting and transfer-portal work slipped, and the results showed up on Saturdays.
Now the Buffs are back in the spotlight, with Sanders preparing for his fourth preseason camp in Colorado Springs on Aug. 2 and a season opener at Georgia Tech on Sept. 3.
The most obvious test is whether Sanders’ latest staff can actually deliver on the hype. At Big 12 media days, Sanders said, “I keep saying this is the best staff I’ve ever had in my life.”
That kind of praise has become a familiar Sanders move, even if the results have been uneven. In 2023, he said, “I think the best thing we’ve put together has been our staff.
These guys are really good from top to bottom. The coordinators, it speaks volumes.
The staff is really good.”
That group didn’t hold together for long. Sean Lewis was gone before the season ended, and Charles Kelly departed after the year.
In 2024, Sanders sounded even more confident, saying, “I feel so much better about the team, not only because of the young men we’ve accumulated inside this locker room, but also the staff and how they’re working together. The coordinators are phenomenal.”
That team went 9-4 and reached the Alamo Bowl. Last season, though, Pat Shurmur and Robert Livingston didn’t have the same kind of talent to work with, and the whole thing unraveled.
Now Brennan Marion is running the offense and Chris Marve is in charge of the defense. Colorado does have some continuity around them, and staff stability may matter less in a roster era that changes every year. Even so, Sanders needs this group to stay aligned for 12 games if the Buffs are going to get the kind of production they expect from their transfers.
The biggest piece of that puzzle is second-year quarterback Julian Lewis. Colorado’s offense will go only as far as he can take it in Marion’s Go-Go system.
Lewis flashed enough last year to remind people why he arrived as a five-star recruit, but his numbers were modest: 52-for-94, 589 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He has not been named the starter, and he split much of the spring with Utah transfer Isaac Wilson. Still, if Wilson doesn’t suddenly make a run at all-Big 12 honors, anything short of Lewis taking the first snap against Georgia Tech would feel like a letdown.
Lewis drew attention at Big 12 media days when he said he was basically told last year to just go out and play rather than deal with a heavy load of complicated reads. That made sense at the time, since he was young and was thrown into the job after Kaidon Salter struggled.
This year is different. Marion’s offense asks the quarterback to handle run-pass options cleanly and make good decisions in a vertical passing game. Colorado should again have skill talent to work with, but the system will only hum if Lewis is sharp enough to run it.
Then there’s the defense, which doesn’t need to become a juggernaut so much as it needs to stop bleeding. Last year’s Big 12 numbers were brutal: 14th in total defense at 433.6 yards, 15th in scoring defense at 34.7 points, 14th in sacks with nine, and last in rushing defense at 233.4.
Marve, who did not coach in 2025, brings a track record from his three seasons as defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, where his teams allowed an average of 25 points in each season. He’ll be working with a completely new personnel group, and the challenge now is finding the right combinations and making the right calls to pull Colorado out of last year’s defensive mess.
In Other News...
Tad Boyle Just Said What Buffs Fans Fear About Building Now
Colorado basketball has spent the last couple of years trying to build in a world that barely resembles the one Tad Boyle entered. The transfer portal and NIL have changed how rosters are assembled, and Boyle said the recruiting market now has a financial layer that can shape decisions as much as fit, development or opportunity. For a program trying to stay competitive, that has made every offseason feel less like a reset and more like a race to keep up.
Boyle also made clear he wants college basketball to be more open about what programs are actually spending, from budgets to player payments, a stance that still feels rare in a sport built on secrecy. His frustration is part of a larger concern around how NIL is being used, with the rules still murky and the incentives increasingly obvious. For Colorado fans, the unsettling part is not just that the system has changed, but that it may be changing in ways no one is fully willing to explain. [Read more 🡒]
Deion Sanders Just Sparked Another Colorado Circus With One Suggestion
Deion Sanders has a knack for turning even a passing thought into a talking point, and his latest social media suggestion did exactly that. The Colorado coach floated the idea of a sports talk show built around Ryan Clark, Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III, a trio that would certainly guarantee attention if it ever got off the ground.
The reaction online was swift and largely dismissive, with fans treating it more like another Sanders-driven spectacle than a serious media pitch. There is also some real baggage in the mix, since Griffin has recently moved on from ESPN amid broader talent changes, and the current temperature around the personalities Sanders named makes the whole idea feel a lot messier than a simple lineup suggestion. [Read more 🡒]