Deion Sanders has kept Colorado in the national conversation since the day he arrived in Boulder. But after three seasons, ESPN’s Jordan Rodgers isn’t convinced the Buffaloes have shown enough substance behind the spotlight.
Rodgers, speaking last week on ESPN’s Get Up after Big 12 Media Days, used one word to describe Sanders’ Colorado tenure: “mirage.”
“A mirage,” Rodgers said. “You’re driving down the highway.
The road is hot. You feel like you see something.
It’s a little blurry. It’s Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter and Deion Sanders.”
That was the heart of Rodgers’ argument: Colorado looked like a program on the rise while Sanders had two of the sport’s most recognizable stars on the roster. Once those pieces were gone, Rodgers said the illusion faded.
“You’re like, ‘Wait, that’s a program on the rise. That’s a program that’s going to be competing for national championships,’” Rodgers said. “The closer you get, Travis Hunter disappears, Shedeur Sanders disappears.”
Rodgers said the problem now is what remains underneath the headline names. In his view, Colorado still hasn’t built enough depth or overall talent to hang with the top teams in the Big 12.
“What you’re left with is a roster and a team that, frankly, just hasn’t been able to have the talent, outside of those two guys, to compete,” Rodgers said.
That criticism has followed Sanders throughout his time at Colorado. The Buffaloes have generated plenty of attention, but turning that attention into steady success has been a different story. Colorado went 9-4 in 2024 before falling to 3-9 last fall, a drop that only intensified the questions around where the program really stands.
Rodgers also suggested Sanders may have landed in Boulder at a tough moment for roster building. In the NIL era, he said, reputation and coaching presence only go so far.
He still credited Sanders’ appeal, but pointed out that Colorado can’t always keep up financially with programs that can offer more.
“Everyone would love to play for Deion,” Rodgers said. “He’s just not able to accumulate the same type of talent because they’re not able to stroke the same kind of checks that everybody else is.”
Sanders, for his part, has shown little interest in wrestling with the outside noise. At Big 12 Media Days, he sounded confident that Colorado can turn things around in 2026.
“Oh, we better win,” Sanders said. “That’s going to be the surprise.
That’s the surprise. We better win.
We’re going to win. I love what I got.
I love what I see.”
He also brushed off preseason chatter as something that doesn’t carry much weight inside his program.
“We don’t care about what people say,” Sanders said. “People are always going to have an opinion … Our kids know who, what, when, where, and how they are.”
That kind of certainty has defined Sanders’ approach in Boulder, even after a rough 2025 season. He continues to talk like a coach who believes the breakthrough is right there.
Colorado opens the 2026 season on the road against Georgia Tech, an early test that should reveal plenty about the roster Sanders has assembled and the quarterback situation behind it. After that comes a Big 12 schedule that will only add to the pressure - and the chances to prove Rodgers wrong.
For now, the conversation around Colorado is still the same one that has followed Sanders since he arrived: the attention is real, the expectations are real, and the next step is still waiting to show whether the Buffaloes can win without Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter.
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The appeal here is less about splash and more about projection, which is often where programs like Colorado can find value if they develop the right players. From productive defenders to a handful of offensive prospects with traits that translate, the class has the look of one that could age well, especially if a few of these recruits turn into the kind of difference-makers that are easy to miss on signing day and much harder to overlook once they get on the field. [Read more 🡒]
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For Colorado, the challenge is bigger than replacing bodies. These exits come on top of other notable losses across the roster, even as the staff has worked to plug some holes with incoming transfers. The result is a familiar offseason balancing act: keep the cupboard from thinning too much while trying to preserve enough continuity for the next step forward. [Read more 🡒]