Colorado football: Realistic post-spring expectations for 2023

Colorado fans believe again. Shortly after firing Karl Dorrell, the Buffaloes made a move that rocked the college football world and hired Deion Sanders from Jackson State.

Many believed that Deion’s next head coaching job would be in the SEC or at a major program, but Colorado is the first Power Five team to give him a chance. He opted to take the Colorado job after another successful season with Jackson State and his presence has already been felt.

The transfer portal has become a household term in Boulder as dozens of players from the 1-11 team a year ago have decided to leave the program and Sanders invited them to do so. He said that the program needs to get better, and he meant it. Now he has to rely on a roster of brand-new players.

The offense is surely going to improve with Shedeur Sanders under center and Travis Hunter at receiver and they both showed flashes during the spring game.

The defense can’t get any worse either as it finished dead-last in the nation in terms of points per game, allowing an astounding 44.5 per week.

The team overall can’t get any worse.

Realistic post-spring expectations for Colorado football

With the offense improving now that there’s a legit quarterback under center and some new, talented wideouts along with Kavosiey Smoke at running back, the Buffaloes should be able to keep up with some teams in the Pac-12.

As for the defense, it was 131st nationally in points per game last year and I think it has the potential to be in the 80-90 range this season.

With that in mind, let’s look at the games I think will be wins for the Buffaloes. They should beat Colorado State and Stanford for sure. I lean towards a win for the Buffs against Nebraska as well as at Arizona State and Stanford. They could split the Arizona State and Arizona games and I think they’d be content with that finish to the season.

Realistically, this is a 4-8 team that could maybe go 5-7 with a stolen win here or there.

The floor is probably 2-10, but this team shouldn’t go 1-11 again.