Prime day: Colorado opens with victory over TCU

• Adam Rittenberg, ESPN

  • Senior WriterSep 2, 2023, 03:50 PM ET Close College football reporter.
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2008.
  • Graduate of Northwestern University.FORT WORTH, Texas

— Shedeur Sanders stood up after his news conference, took out his phone and snapped a picture of the stat sheet, the one that showed 510 passing backyards– the most ever by a Colorado quarterback.The picture would not work as a keepsake, but a receipt

, the one Sanders, his Hall of Popularity daddy and coach and the rest of the Colorado Buffaloes were collecting after Saturday’s 45-42 season-opening win over No. 17 TCU. They had actually heard how they would not win lots of games, how their revamped lineup had a lot of holes and how Sanders, Travis Hunter and others would have a hard time transitioning from Jackson State, an FCS group in the SWAC, to college football’s top level.”For real? Shedeur Sanders? From an HBCU? The one that played at Jackson in 2015? The one that you asked me, ‘Why would I offer him the beginning task?'”Colorado coach Deion Sanders asked mockingly about his son, whom he had coached at Jackson State before Colorado.”I’ve got receipts. I understand who they are.”Shedeur Sanders ended up being the first Buffaloes quarterback ever to eclipse 500 passing backyards in a game.

He completed 38 of 47 passes with four goals and no interceptions, and he had four different colleagues eclipse 100 receiving lawns– another Colorado first.Editor’s Picks

1 Associated His dominant debut amazed everybody but the man performing. Shedeur Sanders saw little to no difference playing in the FBS and against a TCU team that reached the championship game last season. He stated he appreciates TCU but doesn’t “fear names.”

“It’s the same recipe, the very same preparation, same things we’re doing over and over,” Sanders said. “It’s just amplified and y’ all have the ability to see us, more cameras and stuff. The only difference is the media and everybody is driving the headlines.”

Colorado, which went 1-11 last season and employed Deion Sanders in December, won its very first roadway game since 2021 and snapped a streak of 24 successive losses as an underdog of 21 points or more. The team recorded its finest road win versus a ranked challenger because 2002 and its first of any kind given that 2019.

Deion Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Popularity cornerback worked with after three strong seasons at Jackson State, made his Colorado debut with a group that included 86 new players, consisting of sons Shedeur and Shilo along with Hunter. Although Sanders outlined his intent to turn the roster at his first string meeting in December, the overhaul drew criticism from coaches and others– and some bleak forecasts for the season. But Colorado aced its very first test, managing play for the first 2 1/2 quarters before eliminating three deficits down the stretch.

“Turn on the film,” Deion Sanders stated. “We’re going to continually be questioned since we do things that have never ever been done. … We going to regularly do what we do, because I’m here and ain’t going no place. These boys therein today, they believe. Not all of them thought before. But today, they came up, one by one, 2 by 2, ‘Coach, we believe.'”

“Now Stone thinks.”

Shedeur Sanders and Hunter were the headliners of Colorado’s roster overhaul, and both shined versus TCU. Hunter, ESPN’s No. 2 recruit in the 2022 class, who spurned Florida State to bet Deion Sanders at Jackson State, ended up being the very first FBS player to record more than 100 getting backyards and an interception in the same game because Miami’s Quadtrine Hill in 2002, according to ESPN Statistics & Information research.OFFENSE Receiving

Yards 119 Targets 16 Receptions 11 DEFENSE Tackles 3 Interceptions 1 Pass Breakups
1– ESPN	Stats & Information He had 11 receptions for 119 backyards and nearly had more on 2 acrobatic dives but couldn’t hang on to the ball. With Colorado
up 24-21	midway
through the third quarter and TCU
at the Buffaloes’4-yard line, he
stepped in front of a Chandler

Morris pass and made an interception. “Travis is him, like the young folks state, Travis is it, “Sanders stated. “I constantly promote all my kids, and I actually believe we have actually got a couple men who need to be front-runners for the Heisman today.” Who did what they did today?”Hunter, who stated he maxed out at

120 snaps in high school, logged 129 snaps against TCU. He was targeted 16 times as a receiver and completed with three takes on, a pass breakup and the interception on defense.”It ain’t no various, football is football no matter

who is playing,”

Hunter stated.” You have actually got to head out and control which’s my most significant thing. I went out there and controlled. A great deal of people questioned me because I ranked myself as No. 1 [on the] Heisman watch, now they’re praising me now, since they have actually finally seen what I’ve seen, my vision and what the coaches’vision is for me. “Before Saturday, Colorado had actually been held to fewer than 400 lawns in 26 straight games, the longest active streak in the FBS, according to ESPN Stats & Info research study. The team had actually been among three FBS teams without a 300-yard passer in the past two seasons. Colorado didn’t have a player

record several goals from scrimmage in any game last season.But the Buffaloes rose for 565 backyards on 81 plays and held the ball for 34 minutes, 33 seconds. Offensive standouts consisted of freshman running back Dylan Edwards, who had a team-high 135 receiving backyards and 3 touchdowns to accompany a rushing goal; and wide receivers Jimmy Horn Jr. and Xavier Weaver, who integrated for

235 receiving lawns on 17 catches.”It feels great knowing that everybody can do their job and make plays,”said Edwards, an ESPN top-150 hire who turned his dedication from Notre Dame to sign with Colorado. “In high school, sometimes you’re that person and you have actually got to make the plays. Now you go on the field, you’ve got [Hunter], you’ve got Jimmy, you’ve got me, you’ve got everybody else making plays.”TCU coach Sonny Dykes said Colorado was more prepared to play than his team.”It was dreadful,”Dykes stated. “I believed it was a really bad protective performance.”Deion Sanders, who underwent multiple surgeries for circulatory concerns in a foot during the offseason, ran onto the field with his players and stood the whole game, stating afterward that the foot was”not good”but”

appreciative that God gave me what I required to complete.” While getting treatment on the

foot in the locker space, he had “a papa minute “with Shedeur and Shilo, a safety who

led Colorado in solo takes on with nine.Sanders thanked his assistant coaches and athletic director Rick George for hiring him.”They understand I’m a winner, and we’re going to end up winning, “Sanders said.”Ain’t none of [the media] thought we were going to end up sitting here. You were expected to be on the other side, speaking with [TCU] or asking me,’What happened? You said this and you said that.

‘”Now what? Everyone’s quiet now.”