ESPN SC | Colorado's key to success is Shedeur Sanders must remain healthy. - Sam Acho explains

Q the Colorado Buffalo will kick off the season tonight taking on FCS Powerhouse North Dakota State shadur Sanders returns behind center with his two-way Ace Travis Hunter looking to make waves in both of their final college football seasons one they hope will be much improved from last year's 4 and eight finish despite that number coach Prime has been able to utilize the transfer portal it works both ways in Colorado for sure we'll get into that in a minute but they hope to prove everyone that that 11th ranking in the Big 12 the preseason ranking I should say uh they can prove Pro that wrong here is what the betting Outlook looks like for Colorado you see there over under the 5 and 1 half wins minus 132 or plus 108 uh looking at 25 to1 odds to win the Big 12 so a little far out there and then of course 22 to one when it comes to making the college football playoffs let's bring in CBS Sports in 24/7 Sports Colorado Reporter Adam monster tiger to discuss the keys to success for the buffalos this season you can't be successful at him without a solid offensive line it's something that the Buffs didn't have last season they ranked near the bottom in most statistical categories including the sacks allowed and rushing yards per game so how have they improved in that area in 2024 it was after the UCLA game last year that coach Prime was asked in the postgame press conference what do you have to do with this offensive line and he said get new players and so that's what the Colorado Buffalo did 13 of their 15 scholarship players are going to be first year eligible players or newcomers into the program so it is pretty much in a completely different group outside of Hank zalinskis their starting center that was on campus last year and so uh yeah that was the number one priority for this football team shadur Sanders broke Colorado's single season passing yards Mark last year while getting sacked 52 times and so it does make you wonder if the floor of this offensive line has indeed been raised substantially from last year exactly what he's capable of because uh he was really carrying this team on his back until uh 10 and a half weeks into the season he actually suffered a fracture in his back and that sidelined him so uh this is uh the clear objective for Colorado is keeping shador Sanders healthy this season yeah I'm glad you are mentioning shador Sanders because he's the second key on your lease and on your list I should say and that is to keep him healthy he has the potential to your point to be one of the best quarterbacks in college football this year but again stepping out there behind a new revamped offensive line you're entering the big 12 here how much is he taking that into consideration as he goes into his final college football season yeah it's going to be an improved offensive line but you're still starting a true freshman at left tackle in Jordan seon and we saw at Alabama with kayen Proctor starting as as a true freshman last year that no longer no no matter how talented you are there are going to be some Growing Pains coming to that into that position as a true freshman and so uh getting Jordan Sean up to speed as quickly as possible again there's going to be be some Growing Pains there but that's going to be key this football team is not going to be able to achieve its goals if shador Sanders doesn't stay healthy and not just that I mean even before he got knocked out in week 11 last year he was dealing with ankle injuries it was uh his body was starting to break down and so they need to be able to get him late in the season having two buys should help get his body ready at different points during the season but this is going to be the first quarterback drafted out of Colorado's program since 199 7 when KY dmer came out of Colorado so it's been a very long time that Colorado's had a Pro Prospect like this and they absolutely need to uh get the most out of this final season of his college eligibility yeah you're looking at the stats there what he was able to accomplish in that first year at Colorado so only hoping he can continue to elevate because to your point they are going to need him we talked about the Colorado Run game lacking last season but the run defense maybe wasn't that much better they ranked 108 in all of FBS they allowed 176 rushing yards a game uh so maybe one or two of those transfers that they have worked in and out of the program can help there but uh what what's going to be the difference there when it comes to the Run game for Colorado the run defense I should say yeah and you go back to last season there were a couple games you look to the Arizona game especially where Colorado actually outplayed the other team but they just wore down with their run defense late in the game and that cost them a couple wins last season and so uh all the attention's been on this new offensive line because of the number of times that shador Sanders got sacked last year but they've also brought in a lot of transfers on the defensive line they've got nine scholarship guys on the defensive line and they expect all those guys to be part of the rotation a lot of guys coming over from Power conference you know other teams whereas last year a lot of the guys they were bringing in were from the FCS ranks or from the Jo ranks uh so this is a bolstered defense align as well and so that's going to be the key for them they converted Trevor woods from safety to lineer er uh he went from 198 lbs last year to 224 lb so anxious to see how much his versatility coming closer to the line of scrimmage can help in that regard as well let's get into the transfer portal Saga that has been at Colorado because we've sort of teased it throughout this segment they had a lot of players coming in initially to several players leaving after the end of last season uh you know just a lot of turnover here and so one of your kece to success here is handling the transfer portal adversity that they've been dealt up to this point so how do you think Dion has handled the transfer portal in the whole new era of college football as he goes into this 2024 season I think just having more time to vet the candidates in the portal this past off season was different than the first winter he comes in coach Prime stayed at Jackson State coached in the celebration bowl and so the time he got to Boulder they were really quickly having to put a roster together and you know that frankly there were some guys that were me guys that came in and weren't great in the the locker room and so when they started to hit adversity last year the locker room I wouldn't say splintered but it didn't have that that same motivation that they did early in the season and they kind of fell apart down the stretch and so you were able to weed out a lot of guys in that first year trying to rebuild the roster and so uh you again cut about half the roster and fill that in with guys and this year unlike last year coach Prime was in Boulder all winter and was able to get a better jump start on transfer portal recruiting and uh the mentality of the offens lineman and defense lineman they brought in again more guys from the power conference ranks as opposed to getting guys at a lower level uh they seem to have a better continuity now as Mike Tyson says everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth so we'll see how that plays out but it does seem like the guys they brought in this year are meshing better than the guys they brought in the first offseason under coach prime your final key to success for the Buffs in this year and we're targeting the coaching side here both OC Pat shurmer and DC Robert Livingston have big expectations the whole program has big expectations and responsibility but how could they be a key part if Colorado is going to be successful this year well with Pat Shermer being the offensive coordinator the fact that he meshes really well with shadur Sanders has been of benefit uh sea Lewis was very successful running his uptempo style offense as a head coach at Ken state I'm sure he's going to have success at San Diego State now is their head coach but he did not mesh well with shador as the offensive coordinator shador Sanders is is a pro type quarterback that wants to make sure everybody's on the same page run a little bit slower scheme and you know less Choice routes more definitive things that he knows what guys are going to do as a quarterback and so when Pat Shermer took over as the offensive coordinator for the final month of the 2023 season you started to see that continuity come together a little bit but really you can't change an offense at that point of the season so Pat shmer was having to run a lot of what Sean Lewis was so uh but you know as much experiences Pat shmer has as a head coach and offensive coordinator in the NFL he's never run his own offense at the college level before so that is going to be interesting to see I don't think you're going to see an old school type offense you're going to see him uh you know run a lot of 10 Personnel uh you're going to see primarily four receivers on the field at a time for Colorado uh so that's going to be interest interesting to see on the other side of the ball Robert Livingston has never been a defensive play color at any level and so he had 12 years with the Cincinnati bangal as a defensive backs coach learned some from some really smart defensive coordinators there but again this is his first rodeo and so there's a little bit of uncertainty when you just don't have coordinators that have a ton of experience or really any experience calling plays at the college level these are the keys to success if Colorado is going to improve on that 4 and eight record from just a year ago or Adam monser tiger getting us ready for Colorado's opener tonight at 8:00 Adam thanks for hopping on HQ with us so here's how the Colorado Buffalo schedule is set to shake out of course we've got that game against North Dakota State coming up tonight at 8:00 and then it's a couple of rematches Nebraska Colorado got the best of them last year but this year's meeting is in Lincoln and then one of the most bizarre games we saw all of last season Colorado at Colorado State we get that again in week three their big 12 slate will open with Baylor and we'll wrap up with Oklahoma State in November foree spee [Music] got GTA tomorrow want for [Music] [Music] out [Music] on what [Applause] [Music] look go [Applause] [Music] around the minut I'm go [Music] out [Music] [Applause] get fore [Music] [Applause] [Music] fore wa let me the B [Music] [Music] [Music] for spee spee fore fore [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah I mean