2023 College Football predictions: Colorado Buffaloes will have a nightmare season

Colorado football is up and up after hiring head coach Deion Sanders. 

Sanders can coach. What he did at FCS Jackson State was no joke – the Tigers went 8-0 in SWAC play last season. 

Sanders can recruit, bringing in the nation’s top transfer portal class, per 247Sports. 

And finally, Sanders is aggressive, scheduling one of the nation’s tougher non-conference schedules.

The Buffs will play TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State before diving into conference games.

Unfortunately, the aggressive scheduling is where the betting value lies with Colorado in the upcoming season. 

The Buffaloes are projected as favorites in only one game this year, against Stanford in Week 7, and the Cardinal will be coming off a bye. Their other close game is against Colorado State in Week 3, but the Rams will also be coming off a bye.

The Buffaloes have five conference road games, taking on Oregon, Arizona State, UCLA, Washington State and Utah. 

Overall, Action Analytics projects the Buffaloes for only 1.4 wins in 2023. 

There are reasons to believe that Colorado can exceed this projected expectation. 

The Buffaloes were horrendous last year, going 1-11 with a -29.1 net points per game differential. 

So, Sanders decided it was time for a total overhaul. The Buffaloes were second nationally in the transfer portal rankings because he brought in 50 total transfers, including one Five-Star (CB Travis Hunter), four Four-Stars and 43 Three-Stars. 

The Buffaloes have stars – including at quarterback with Deion’s son, Shedeur Sanders, who was excellent at Jackson State the past two years – and the guys on the field this season will surely be better than the ones on the field last year. 

Also, the coordinator hires are excellent, with Sanders grabbing offensive coordinator Sean Lewis from Kent State and defensive coordinator Charles Kelly from Alabama. 

But a complete schematic and personnel overhaul will take time. The Buffaloes will need a few weeks, or the entire season, to build chemistry and become comfortable playing together underneath Sanders and co. 

There is a lot to like about the direction of the Colorado program underneath Coach Prime, but I doubt success will come overnight. 

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And it’s much less likely to come considering the brutal slate. There isn’t one soft spot on this schedule, and it will sink Sanders in Year One.

However, this will likely be Sanders’ worst year at Colorado. It’s only up from here. 

The play: Colorado Buffaloes Win Total – Under 3.5 (-125, Caesars)