BOULDER — Prime Time couldn’t tell time. The Buffs got bullied. And the Can’t Stand Pat crowd was in full throat.
CU went from saying hello to a sold-out stadium to how low can they go in an embarrassing final drive in a season-opening 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech.
There is no crime in falling to the Yellow Jackets. Tech was favored. It’s how it happened. The new problems sure looked a lot like the old ones.
The difference now is that the Buffs no longer have quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter to cover more blemishes than Revlon. These Buffs are not built to win track meets. Not like before. The Buffs averaged 39 points per game at home last season, a spike from 36 the previous year.
They finished with 20 points or fewer once. They matched that mark on a rain-splattered Friday night.
The first sweat has fallen, the first rug burns are visible from the new AstroTurf, the first impression is in, and the Buffs’ challenge is clear: Can they play a bored game? Can they win when someone punches them in the mouth?
When throwing down the sawdust is required, the Buffs have been left bloodied. Weren’t games like this supposed to go the way of Ralphie VI after what happened against Kansas State and KU?
The Ramblin’ Wreck collided with the Buffs. They rushed for 320 yards. The only thing missing was a deployed airbag. CU has to get tougher. It is that simple.
“Defensively, we gave up 463 yards. They ran for 320 yards. You are not going to win with those statistics. We tried everything. They were much more physical than we were,” coach Deion Sanders said. “Defensively, nah. No way you can say that (we were physical) when you get your butt kicked like that.”
Just how much things have changed struck Sanders when Shedeur was not available for their pregame walk up the sideline before kickoff. Cornerback Isaiah Hardge stepped in, unplanned, and took over the assignment, something Sanders admitted he would remember for the rest of his life.
It was a snapshot of how his players view him. They compete. They don’t quit. But they have a nasty habit of getting trampled by bigger opponents. It leaves a narrow margin for error. Which is what made Sanders’ clock management on the final drive inexcusable. CU ran five plays over the final 67 seconds.
It was hard to decide what was more confusing: Pat Shurmur’s play-calling or Sanders’ explanation for entering the locker room with two timeouts in his pocket.
“We got out of bounds on both sidelines. After the first play, we got a good play — (a catch) for nine yards. And when you get a first down, the clock stops. So it don’t really make sense to use your timeout in that sense. We were really trying to preserve them because we needed them. But I don’t want to go home with timeouts. They don’t do me any good,” Sanders said. “You have to be strategic. But to burn a timeout just to burn a timeout just so you guys won’t say anything, that don’t make sense at all.”
The drive tested logic. And there are no players to defy it anymore.
In the past, this night would have ended with the coach talking about the eye-opening achievements of his sons. Instead, he was left to discuss how the Buffs made Haynes King look like “a Heisman candidate.”
King finished with 156 yards rushing, nearly half of his team’s total.
“You say they had 320 yards (on the ground)?” transfer Reggie Hughes asked. “That’s definitely disappointing.”
If the constant offseason messaging did not take, there is no choice now. The Buffs need to realize they have to win differently. Time to muscle up or get muscled out.
This marked the eighth time in three seasons CU has yielded more than 200 yards rushing. Friday’s total represented the second most in the Sanders era, eclipsed only by the 331-yard eruption by the Jayhawks last season at Arrowhead Stadium.
CU won’t face many opponents as brutish as Tech this season. But teams are going to rush until they prove they can stop it. Don’t believe it? At halftime, Georgia Tech had 279 total yards with 18 first downs.
“They were committed to running,” Sanders lamented. “And they kept going and going and going.”
In his CU debut, Kaidon Salter showed he’s a capable college quarterback. But, he will never be the Fresh Prince of Bould-air. He threw for 159 yards. And ran for 43. CU would have been better off if those numbers were reversed.
For Sanders, this season is about showing CU can win with four yards and a cloud of dust. The Buffs rushed for 146 yards on Friday, their third-best total over the past three years.
“Offensively, you are probably saying they should have run it more,” Sanders said. “You saw what we have been talking about with the offensive line.”
The Buffs keep saying the right things. But for this team, it’s about doing them. About eliminating the need for Shurmur to be creative by winning in the trenches.
How does this team want to be viewed? How does it want to be remembered? The identity must come from bare-knuckles, not highlights that lead to retired numbers.
“We have to get to the point where we are playing chess with teams. Establishing the run will help everything,” left tackle Jordan Seaton said. “When you run the ball, people feel it.”
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