Colorado's season opener is now less than two weeks away. Deion Sanders and his team will get a national showcase to open the season, facing off against Georgia Tech on a Friday night on ESPN. The Yellow Jackets will enter the year with plenty of hype, with some even going as far as to call Brent Key's team a playoff darkhorse.
It's easy to see why. They have a lot of returning talent, and Georgia Tech pushed Kirby Smart and Georgia to the absolute brink in late November last season in Athens. Even though the game is in Boulder, the Buffs find themselves as four-point underdogs.
In reality, the game feels like a toss-up. On paper, some would consider Georgia Tech the superior team, with Colorado flying under the radar after losing Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, but the cupboards are nowhere near bare. Coach Prime supplemented the roster well in the Transfer Portal, and a talented team will be waiting for the Jackets at Folsom Field.
Like many around the country, Georgia Tech held a scrimmage on Saturday as it continues its preparations for the 2025 season. And while it might just be coach-speak as Key tries to light a fire under his team so they can reach the potential he believes they have, the third-year Yellow Jackets head man wasn't pleased with what he saw.
"We're nowhere near ready to play a football game," Key said.
Coach Prime looking to stay perfect in season openers
It's not a big sample size by any means, but Deion Sanders is 2-0 in season openers at Colorado. He's played quality opponents in both games, too, with many outside observers expecting his Buffs to lose.
In his first game as the Colorado head coach in 2023, the Buffaloes took down TCU 45-42 as three-touchdown underdogs. It was the game that signaled immediately how different things would be in Boulder under Coach Prime, regardless of how the rest of the 2023 season went.
Colorado opened last season against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, with plenty of pundits predicting the Bison to pull the upset in Boulder. It was closer than Sanders would have preferred, but Colorado escaped with a five-point win on the way to a 9-4 season.
Coach Prime will be looking to capture that season-opening magic again. Georgia Tech may be unranked, but they are a quality football team. If Colorado can pull off the win, it would serve as an indication that this team is better than anyone is giving them credit for in the preseason.