‘Mind blown’: What surprised opposing coaches most about Deion Sanders, Colorado win over TCU

In the midst of Deion Sanders’ spring roster purge at Colorado, there was a Power Five assistant coach who jokingly told On3 at the time that he “could see 2023 Colorado looking like a real life version of Shane Falco and ‘The Replacements.’”

Among college coaches, he was far from alone in expecting something similar. Before Saturday, there were way more opposing coaches expecting the Buffaloes to struggle getting even a few wins this year than there were ones expecting Colorado to have any sort of respectable product on the field this season.

It’s why Saturday’s result — the Buffaloes’ 45-42 win over 2022 national runner-up TCU — led to there being a good amount of surprised people around the college coaching world. One year after finishing 1-11 under the previous Colorado coaching staff, the Deion Sanders era opened with the Buffaloes’ first road victory over a top-20 team in 21 years.

“Shocked,” one Power Five coach told On3.

“Mind blown,” another said.

“People need to be very, very worried,” a different Power Five coach added.

Here are some of the things about Colorado’s performance from Saturday that were most surprising to a few opposing coaches who were able to watch the game.

The offense

This is an easy place to start.

Last year, Colorado ranked last in the Pac-12 and 127th out of 131 teams nationally with an average of 15.4 points per game. Was kind of a different story Saturday, right?

Led by offensive coordinator Sean Lewis and Shedeur Sanders at QB, the Buffaloes finished with 565 yards, more than double their total offense average of 281 yards per game from last season. They also posted the school’s highest point total against a ranked opponent since Colorado’s Big 12 title team in 2001.

Against a defense with a first-round NFL draft prospect at cornerback and two other preseason All-Big selections, Shedeur Sanders threw for a school-record 510 yards, tallied four touchdown passes, completed 81 percent of his 47 passes and finished with zero turnovers.

After leading 17-14 at halftime, Colorado scored touchdowns on four of its six full second-half possessions, including each of the final three. 

“What impressed me was the tempo,” a coach told On3. “They were getting lined up. They were sharp. They were disciplined. They were tough. They played through the whistle. They kept the TCU defense off-balance using various forms of motion and finding the weak points of the defense. TCU got out-coached on so many levels. I don’t think TCU made enough adjustments to what they were getting.”

While it’s been clear for a while that the Buffaloes have talent at spots like quarterback, wide receiver and running back, opposing coaches have viewed Colorado’s offensive line as a big-time potential problem area for that Buffaloes offense. However, Lewis found ways to overcome the offensive line deficiencies on Saturday.

It allowed the Buffaloes, who had just five total 100-yard receiving games the last two seasons combined, to have four separate players Saturday with more than 115 receiving yards.

“They realized from a personnel standpoint they couldn’t block TCU or stop a pass rush, so they either moved the pocket or they got the ball out so fast that it didn’t give the defense time to get up field and to get in Shedeur’s face,” a coach said. “They did a lot of max pro sets with seven pass protectors to where they were able to take shots down field.”

The culture

Upon asking about the biggest surprises from the game, this was either the first or second thing that came up with each of the three coaches that On3 spoke with for this story.

Simply put, Colorado didn’t look anything like a team that was 1-11 last year. The product was also much different than you’d expect from a roster consisting of about 90 percent of players who weren’t on the team before this offseason. As one coach mentioned, that says a lot about Sanders as a leader.

“Those guys were playing hard. They were flying to the ball. They were in that Texas heat and they played with a lot of resilience and grit and passion,” that coach said. “That’s a testament to the culture that Deion’s established with those guys. That was really more impressive than even the outcome of the game. The most impressive thing I took away was how well those guys played together and how they didn’t give up.”

In Colorado’s four games against ranked opponents last year, the Buffaloes were outscored by an average margin of 55-14.

On Saturday, they overcame three second-half deficits and essentially sealed the win with a late fourth down stop after TCU had advanced the ball to the Buffaloes’ 42-yard line with a chance at either a game-tying field goal or game-winning touchdown.

“Literally every time something happened and adversity, their ability to get through the adversity of that game was insane,” a coach said. “That’s maybe the most impressive shit I’ve ever seen. You’re talking about a team that won one game last year playing against a national championship contender. Usually, in games like that, the big dog wins because the big dog is more battle tested. The big dogs can usually fight their way through problems. And somebody who hasn’t been there, even if they’re putting up a good fight, usually the problems get a hold of them. 

“But it looked like Colorado was not flustered by anything. They looked unbothered. TCU goes down and scores, unbothered. Long kick return, unbothered. The composure of the Colorado players was insane. It looked like the only people that were on the sideline were people that believe in every word that has come out of Deion’s mouth. That’s how they played.”

Travis Hunter

If it wasn’t clear before Saturday, it definitely is now: Travis Hunter is a special talent.

Coaches were blown away by his performance, which included him playing 129 total snaps on offense and defense. In addition to recording 11 catches for 119 yards at wide receiver, the Class of 2022 blue-chip recruit also had three tackles, a red-zone interception and an additional pass breakup at cornerback.

During the Buffaloes’ second-to-last full drive on offense, Hunter converted a third-and-16 with a contested catch for a 43-yard gain. He then added an 11-yard catch two plays later to set up a go-ahead touchdown on the next play.

“I’ve never seen somebody play 129 snaps,” a coach said. “And he’s in one of the most important positions on both sides. He’s the boundary receiver on offense and then he’s playing boundary corner. What the hell.”

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