BOULDER - Colorado’s opener sends the Buffaloes straight back into the same matchup that left them one play short a year ago, only this time the setting is Atlanta and the stakes feel built into the night itself.
When the Buffs face Georgia Tech on Thursday, it will be a rematch of last season’s 27-20 loss at Folsom Field, a game that was tied at 20 in the fourth quarter before the Yellow Jackets broke it open with a 45-yard touchdown run and 1:07 remaining. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. MT on ESPN.
Deion Sanders is not pretending this one is ordinary.
"Truly a task, going to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech," Coach Prime said Monday. "Coach Key is one of my favorites.
Played the game - tough, hard-nosed, detailed coach. It's going to be a tremendous challenge, but I love it.
I absolutely love it."
Sanders still had the number that swung the game a year ago on his mind. Georgia Tech’s quarterback from that matchup, now gone, ran for 156 yards that night, and Sanders made clear how much that performance stuck with him.
"Thank God that quarterback is gone," Coach Prime said. "That kid refused to lose a year ago, and he was definitely a difference maker."
Colorado enters this meeting with a rebuilt roster and a coaching staff Sanders says has already shown him what he wanted to see before the games begin. He pointed to Monday’s staff meeting as a sharp one, then said the practice that followed stood out as one of the best of the stretch.
For Sanders, the real separator is consistency.
"They've been consistently who they are from the beginning," Coach Prime said. "I'm kind of skeptical when all of a sudden someone changes, you know, because the kids can sense that, and most oftentimes it's fear.
You start getting a little nervous about everything, but these coaches aren't like that. I mean, from A all the way to Z."
He added that the staff’s relationship with the players has been exceptional.
"Their connection with the roster, he added, "to me, is second to none. It's some of the best I've ever seen."
The one area Sanders is most eager to evaluate Thursday belongs to defensive coordinator Chris Marve’s group. He wants to see whether the speed Colorado has shown in practice shows up under the lights.
"I want to see how they get to the ball defensively, because Marve has them flying," Coach Prime said. "They're flying to the ball. When you fly to the ball like that, you should see turnovers."
The Buffs have also spent the week adjusting to the timing of the trip. With a night game in a different time zone, Colorado has been changing practice and sleep schedules, and the team is set for a Wednesday evening walk-through in Atlanta around game time. Thursday morning will come later than usual by camp standards.
"We're just trying to make sure we dot I's and cross T's," Coach Prime said.
Sanders said there’s no mystery about what this opener demands. It’s a real test against a familiar opponent, and neither side will view the other as anything close to a soft landing.
"Let's not get this mistaken. Everybody wants a dub, whether it's a layup or whether you got to fight for it," Coach Prime said.
"Georgia Tech is not a layup by any means, and we are not a layup to them by any means. So it's going to be a tremendous task.
Like I said, I got the utmost respect for Coach Key and that staff that he's assembled, and I'm sure he feels the same. And it was a tremendous battle last season that they had - a quarterback that refused to lose, and I love that.
I love that.
"I want to flip it on. I really do."
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That tension is showing up in the way observers are sizing up the season. Staff members at Buffaloes Wire have projected records anywhere from 6-6 to 8-4, with most of them landing on the same general idea: Colorado should have enough to reach bowl eligibility, but not enough, at least on paper, to crash the conference title picture. For a team trying to turn a major offseason reset into a real step forward, the line between progress and pressure may be thinner than it looks. [Read more 🡒]