Colorado vs. North Dakota State Preview and Prediction

all right d the first game of week one that we're previewing is actually the first game we've ever done a preview that featured an FCS team man we are previewing the big Thursday night clash between North Dakota State and Colorado man can't wait for this one it's the first game in year two for Deion Sanders and listen some people might be disappointed by last year they went 4-8 they started off 3-0 on the season so obviously going 1 and8 to end the year is not great but you got to remember they were 1 in 11 the year before so the expectations this year are okay make a bowl game now at least make a bowl game you have so much talent on both sides of the ball you got one of the best quarterbacks in the country shador Sanders right there you got Travis Hunter our number one player in college football uh so there's a lot of and they brought in a lot of great transfers that could really help out some of their weaknesses from last year too but the thing is with this game even though they're an FCS team you can't Overlook North Dakota State man theyve won nine of the last 13 FCS national championships and they have a new head coach in Tim POC uh so they want to start off his tenure with a bang and beat Deion Sanders and Coach Prime in Colorado absolutely this is not going to be an easy game at all considering the things that we don't know about Colorado especially in the trenches and North Dakota state with their tradition of winning even last year they made the FCS semi-finals and lost by two points and that was considered a failure of a season yeah it's wild the expectations they are going to go in there expecting to win this game right and expecting to beat Colorado in the trenches obviously it's going to be tough right and they lost their leading receiver they lost a couple other guys but you still have two great quarterbacks two great quarterbacks in cam Miller and Cole pton I'm going to get into that stuff in a bit but no they're fully expecting to win this game Colorado is obviously expecting to have a much bigger season right brought in a ton of more guys from the transfer portal you got the number one tackle in the recruiting class in the country you still have a Heisman potential level quarterback you might have the best player in the country and Travis Hunter this is going to be a really good game there's a reason it's on Thursday night on ESPN in the prime time slot can you imagine college game day or whoever whatever previous show if North Dakota State poses upset off they're going to be calling for Dion's head man it's they're it's going to be a PR nightmare that's for sure that's why're pre it's a game they cannot take lightly at all no they can't absolutely and that's why again why we're previewing this game it's not it's just some pushover game for Colorado like I know it's not an FBS school but man this is a tough game that Colorado has man so what we're going to do once again uh dol's going to take one match up on one side of the ball I'm going to take another match up on the other side of the ball you have uh North Dakota State's offense man so what should we know when Colorado is on defense in this game yeah so what you have with North Dakota State they lost their leading receiver but they still have two really good quarterbacks and I'll get into that cam Miller is probably the best offensive player in the FCS a 94.1 passing grade last season 28 Big Time throws and five turnover worthy plays and for those for those we haven't mentioned this before for those who don't know PFF tracks every single FCS game during the year as well we have grades on every single one of these guys not just the big schools North Dakota State South Dakota State all I don't remember something of them I think we're around 130 but D2 stuff we do too right D2 we're starting to get into D2 now that process is like just started I actually had to do a couple of those games a couple weeks ago oh God bless you yeah it was it it was tough the film actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though but for the last two years now we've tracked every FCS game every single one during the season that's kind of our thing during the week that we go through so we have all the information on them too cam Miller's really really good dual threat guy can infer an arm I'm telling you right now he would start for a lot of group of five teams at the very least and then they have this change up this guy Cole pton a big 230 lb Wildcat quarterback that they kind of used like Tamm Hill both of them ran for 13 touchdowns last year Max both of them so you know you have these two guys and they can cause a lot of schematic problems and the big thing that I really wanted to touch on because look all off season we've talked about shador Sanders we've talked about Travis Hunter we've talked about Jordan seon and their brand new offensive line and all this stuff but Colorado at the end of the day needs to get more physical too right they were last in the country in rushing grade and they're running defense grade that's the 12th worst run defense grade in the country and what I noticed last year they brought in the Jackson State guys sh were and Hunter and some other guys right in the transfer P they're just collecting talent because Colorado was Far and Away in 2022 the worst team in the power five if not the entire FBS yeah this year the the what they did in the portal was a little more targeted now they got a couple receivers you know I love my guy Leon Wester from FAU but I I want to talk about this Colorado front 7even a and the number of guys they clearly wanted now they got a couple of pass rushers too but they clearly wanted to get more guys who could just defend the run like you can't you need shador to have the football you've got to stop the run and these are some of the some of the better run defenders in the country jayen Wester Leon's brother a 94.2 run degrade at FAU last year at linebacker and he can play off even off the edge sometimes and it's not just oh beating up the American very good in when they played Clemson at Clemson dominated Illinois they went up to Illinois and they lost by not that much but he dominated Illinois's offensive line which had two NFL off ensive tackles guys like chider and wano from Houston four straight years with a 70 plus run degrade Deon Hayes and BJ green off the edge also good Ryan bule I'm going to tell you from Ohio this is an angry individual I I I I'll be honest with you I don't I don't know who at Ohio pissed him off before every game but they did a really good job of it these are the type of physical players that they needed to bring in here to just beef up this front seven we're going to talk a lot during the season about like a guy like BJ green who may be the best pass rusher in the Big 12 but it's actually the run defense and that list of names and a couple others too Keat Wade off the edge Sam Oak also from pit you know came over with Deon Hayes they redid this front seven as well they reworked the whole thing with the idea not only to get sacks and rush the passer but to stop the run I've got how many seven guys on my screen right now that they brought in who graded at least a 70 in run defense last year right and and it's kind of that approach of okay we can't have any weakest links here right you seven guys is a lot I mean it's we talk about entire front seven that's an entire front seven if if one or two could play linebacker they still have they still have you know Trevor Woods they're moving down from safety to linebacker see if he can put some weight on he got some reps at linebacker last year but this is the group of guys that's going to make a huge difference for the defense we know their secondaries good Shiloh Sanders Travis Hunter Preston hodj there's they they're going to be able to cover they can cover some of the best receivers and passing games in the country but this is the list of guys that could make them a really good defense obviously again pass rush off the edge green and hay that's going to be the big ones but this depth of guys Wester juqu bule this is what has to happen they have to get better at running and stopping the run and on defense especially on the defensive line it's going to start with that list that we just saw in that graphic absolutely man that Runde is huge for this team this year I understand the offensive line who will talk about I'll literally talk about right after this but um that that rund D is going to be huge and you mentioned all those guys and then mention those two pass rushers man BJ green I actually have BJ green winning the burlsworth trophy this year which is given to the best former walk-on in college football he is an Elite pass rusher man really good in the Run game too um and yeah de on Hayes coming in for pit love him as well so one of the only few bright spots on that pit team last year so I'm excited to see how that Rundy holds up against what should be a really Dynamic North Dakota State rushing attack once again with those two quarterbacks that you mentioned before my match up on the other side of the ball is really the same exact thing physicality for Colorado is just okay how do you hold up now now you have a brand new offensive line basically you gave up 56 last sacks last year which is the second most in the nation projected to have three new starters on that offensive line including a five-star true fresh freshman left tackle in Jordan Sean but dlan they go up against North Dakota State who was second in the FCS last year with almost a 41% pressure rate and was also second in the FCS with 44 sacks and of the 11 Defenders at North Dakota state that had double digit pressures last year nine of them came back to school so you have the basically the same front seven as last year one of the Elite pass rushing teams in the FCS one of the best if not the best uh that is again is FCS I understand but this new L Howard offensive line is really going to be the key for this offense because we know shador Sanders Elite quarterback he had his third best clean pocket passing grade in the country last year behind Caleb Williams and jayen Daniels the first two freaking picks of the draft so when he's protected he's Elite man and you got Travis Hunter on the outside Lon Wester on the outside will sheper on the outside all these guys on the outside that can win for Colorado can they get the prodection up front and can not not only that can the offensive line create holes in the Run game because a rushing game last year like you mentioned before the lowest rushing grade in the country that's huge too man so that offensive line for Colorado is going to be massive this season and I think it starts in week one man against again a really good front seven that North Dakota state had that is coming back to school absolutely guys like Dylan Hendricks who had 11 sacks last year Jake Cavo had eight sacks last year and a big thing North Dakota State they don't Blitz a whole lot they were on a boatload of stunts with their fourman Rush it's kind of that that uh that NFL like Robert Salah style we're going to we're not going to Blitz but we're going to stunt we're going to we're going to play games up front true freshman left tackle against stunts man like with young players you know that or you got guys coming up from schools like utap and things like that they're really patching this together at the beginning of the season they needed to gel quick because this could cause them problems if they have errors especially against stunts and things like that I'm curious too where they are in the Run game you know right now you they brought in D Hayden from Ohio State they brought in Isaiah August state was a big back from Arkansas but I don't know if you saw believe it was like two weeks ago or so Charlie offeral is a guy that Deion Sanders love a former walkon he name he called him the starter as of like two weeks ago so we really they've got a lot of mystery at running back too I I'm curious where the balance is and where Pat Shermer as their new offensive coordinator is going to take this offense how much balance is it going to look are we going to see a lot of 10 Personnel like we did last year with four receivers on the field are we going to see more tight ends different packages it's really what in what should look like an NFL style offense and now I believe we have the helmet communicators too in for the quarterbacks right it's going to look like an NFL offense at least we think under Pat Shermer but I'm how much balance they're going to have and you're right the offensive line just like the D line on the other side is going to be the big thing to watch it absolutely is The X Factor The Trenches for Colorado is the xfactor of whether or not they going to be a you know Fringe bold team or a big 12 Contender because if the if you fix those two sides man you have the talent elsewhere to really compete for a big 12 title I think but ultimately D what happens in the first game of year two of the Dion era uh do you think K comes out to win or do you think that North Dakota State might pull off the Shocker in week one I I think there could be some early difficulties in this game as they adjust to the two quarterback system and especially I I think Cole Payton is something they really need to look out for with this kind of wild cat tesm Hills sort of packages they have in there but I do think Colorado should take care of business look to me they have too much athletic talent to be a four- win team again and I like what they did in the portal this year now getting kind of the meat and potatoes going and I think they have too much athletic talent to lose this game I when you talk about especially receiver Travis Hunter will Shepard's a legit he was a legit SEC receiver at vendy you know I love Leon Wester talking about him I think he could get a boatload of targets and catches in this off and offense you know he's one of the best slot receivers in the country and they throw to the slots more than anybody so you know Hunter they've got a lot of guys on the outside North Dakota state has some issues when teams get the ball quickly to the outside and make him tackle in the open field it was not their best defensive effort they've put out like you mentioned all those championship teams they've had better defenses in the past they tackle in the open field better not their specialty so I think at the end of the day no matter what Colorado's athletes are going to they're going to win the day especially at receiver I just want to see progress in the trenches I'm still going to take him I'm going to take him 34 to 13 I I I do I think I think they're going to make a statement here I do I think I think there could be some issues early first quarter maybe 20 minutes with North Dakota State's Run game but as long as they make those adjustments and they don't let the bison run game take over I think the bison are going to have some issues in the passing game they lost Eli green their top receiver who transferred to Iowa State really really good player too he's going to be a fun to watch for them but I I think Colorado I think people now in all the hype and all the arguing about are they're going to win four games again or this or that or whatever they they have a lot of talent they have a ton of talent like and especially athletic Talent when you have athletes like that on the outside you should not lose eight nine games in a season you should be better than that and this is a game one they have to win like you mentioned if they were to lose this game it'd be a nightmare yeah and two I think the home crowd's going to be bumping on a Thursday night and look shador is going to show us how good he is right he's he is that good and late in the year he was healthy last year I think all those factors together I'm going to take Colorado for a pretty convincing win okay I got Colorado winning this game as well not as convincing but I have them winning 35-24 over North Dakota State I I agree with you man I think the perimeter players in both the secondary and in the receiving core are going to be way too much for North Dakota state to handle um and I again I like North Dakota State's passing game and and how good cam Miller was last year but you know they have a great secondary to go up against right and Travis Hunter and Preston hodj and all and Charlo Sanders and all the other guys there as well so I think North Dakota state will throw some Haymakers early and get K on their heels a little bit but I think once the second half gets going they they'll find their Rhythm and I think Shor Sanders and uh that offense will really find the Rhythm and uh put up 35 points on the buis but that's what we got for our first week one preview of the 2024 college football season again we're doing a live preview show of the five biggest games of week one all the Saturday and actually a Sunday game too that we're previewing as well so five biggest games of week one we're doing that every single week and also a review show on Sunday mornings live as well going over the grades from the past uh yesterday and also the um all the big story lines of course from college football over the week but as we got for our preview of Colorado and North Dakota State [Music]