The season is not over yet for Colorado. The Buffaloes hit rock bottom last weekend in Salt Lake City with a humiliating loss to Utah. The good news, however, is that there's nowhere to go from here but up.
At 3-5, Colorado is not in the running for the Big 12 Championship or College Football Playoff consideration. There's only one realistic goal left, a goal that won't be that realistic if the Buffs can't earn a home win in Boulder on Saturday against Arizona.
A bowl game.
Winning a bowl game was one of the goals Deion Sanders mentioned in the preseason when there was a lot more optimism for this team. Fortunately, that goal is still attainable, though Colorado will need to win three of its last four games. That has to start with a win over the Wildcats, or Coach Prime and his team would need to win out.
Defensive end Arden Walker is one of many on Colorado's roster who are playing the last few college football games of their career. Walker transferred to Colorado to join Coach Prime in 2023 after spending two seasons with Missouri.
He's hoping Colorado can play well enough down the stretch of the season to earn he - and his fellow seniors - one additional game together.
"We gotta get to six wins," Walker told reporters on Wednesday. "That’s what I’ve been preaching to a lot of guys in the locker room.”
A bowl game would be a fantastic result for Coach Prime and Colorado
Colorado fans might have had larger goals in mind over the summer, but getting to bowl eligibility would produce a lot of positive momentum for the Buffaloes at the end of this season.
Because frankly, there's not much positivity surrounding the program right now. After a 46-point loss dropped them two games under .500 and completely erased the upset win over Iowa State two weeks prior, you start to see a darker picture surrounding the future of the program.
As of now, Sanders can't even hang his hat on recruiting. Colorado's 2026 recruiting class has 13 total commitments and ranks 67th in the 247 composite.
Coach Prime will work some magic in the Transfer Portal and always seems to have some recruiting tricks up his sleeve right before the early signing period, but recruits are going to need to see something that shows them that they're not joining a sinking ship.
Last week's loss showed a lot of holes in the boat that Sanders will need to patch quickly to avoid falling to the depths of despair.