After Deion Sanders’ Offseason Changes, Colorado is a Team to Watch

It’s been a while since I’ve worked the crank on my Coach Prime take machine. 

I have mostly been a skeptic of the Deion methodology in Boulder – a hater, if you like. I never thought that bluster and transfer portal maximalism was enough to make Colorado a Big 12 powerhouse. And other than the singular talent of Travis Hunter, I think I’ve mostly been proven correct.

Since arriving at Colorado in 2023, Deion Sanders is 16-21, with nine wins coming from Travis Hunter’s Heisman season in 2024. The Buffaloes were 3-9 in 2025. 

With his seat getting warmer, Coach Prime has made some operational changes this offseason. He brought in some new staff, including former Sacramento State head coach Brennan Marion as OC. 

Maybe more importantly, Sanders appears to have significantly overhauled his recruiting and roster-building philosophy. Rather than trading on his incredible reputation to bring in four-star failures and SEC crashouts, Sanders is now taking the harder, smarter method of identifying successful players at lower levels and enticing them to transfer up to the Big 12. 

Some new Colorado names to watch include former San Jose State receiver Danny Scudero, who led FBS in 2025 with 1,297 receiving yards. New center Demetrius Hunter, who comes over from conference mate Houston, is a senior who’s played 24 games of Big 12 football in the last two years. Linebacker Gideon Lampron earned an All-Conference nod at FCS Dayton. Safety Naeten Mitchell had 93 tackles and 9 passes defended last year at New Mexico State.

This is merely one man’s opinion, but that kind of careful, unsplashy roster construction is the sort of thing that quickly builds a perfectly mediocre P4 team. And in the context of college football win totals, mediocre will get the job done for lowly Colorado. 

With less than a month to go until the Sept. 3 kickoff against Georgia Tech, the Buffaloes are sitting at a 4.5 win total with a nice +125 price for the over. 

That vig is slightly down from the +135 that was available when I highlighted Colorado football odds in my favorite college football futures bets from this summer. 

Still, +125 is nothing to sneeze at, and the fact that there’s downward price movement on such a random, unpopular, and not-very-good team suggests favorable sharp action. This is still a bet that I like.