Has the clock struck midnight on Coach Prime and Colorado football?

The first quarter of Week 5’s USC-Colorado football matchup was the most soul-sucking quarter of football for Buffs fans; with a lifeless secondary missing Travis Hunter and Shilo Sanders proving no match for Caleb Williams’s all-nation receiving corps.

Just a few minutes into the second quarter of the Buffs’ September 30 matchup, the Trojans were up three touchdowns, just as the spread projected.

At that moment, the question had to be asked…

Has the clock struck midnight on Coach Prime and Colorado football?

And the answer was provided by Shedeur Sanders and the Colorado offense on the very next drive: hello no.

Anthony Hankerson broke out for an 18-yard first-down run, something Buffs’ running backs have had a problem doing this year on designed run plays. Jimmy Horn Jr. caught a 30-yard touchdown that was set up by a drive that, of seven plays, featured three designed runs that all got past the line of scrimmage; which sounds unimpressive but has never been guaranteed for CU. Before that drive, Sanders had started calling his own number while running an RPO we had not seen through the first four weeks of the season.

Sure, USC still beat the brakes off the Buffs. But Week 4 and Week 5 were never about winning for any Colorado fans truly in the know, but rather surviving.

With the improvements CU showed during their few bright spots in the first half while the game was still competitive against USC, the Buffs proved that the rest of the Pac-12 schools on the schedule — since Washington isn’t on it — should be manageable.

Tangible improvement, or at least, having more than just relying on Sanders’s arm, in their offensive attack and not playing USC/Oregon will do great things for Colorado football as their inaugural season in “Prime Time” progresses over the next two months.