Analyst sees two dramatically different perspectives one can have on 2023 Colorado football season
The Ringer's Michael Weinreb offered two dramatically different perspectives on how one can view the 2023 Colorado football season now that the Deion Sanders era has kicked off in earnest; one being an optimistic take about CU's relative success given their expectations, the other a black pill darker than the Buffs' home uniforms.
"There are, in fact, two ways to view Coach Prime’s first season at Colorado," Weinreb prefaced before saying, "There is the argument that he took over a program that went 1-11 last season and that hasn’t had any sort of real identity since Bill McCartney’s departure nearly 30 years ago and immediately transformed it into a national brand. There is the argument that four wins is a definitive improvement over one, and that Shedeur and Hunter were two of the most thrilling skill position players in the country, until injuries derailed them. There is the argument that a university where less than 3 percent of the students are Black has now become a galvanizing force for Black America.
"And then there is the view that Sanders has built a house of cards—that his team failed in the second half of the season because it lacked depth and solid line play and all the unsexy elements of the sport that have never been associated with Deion Sanders."
The truth about 2023 Colorado football season
Weinreb offered two legitimate points that are concurrently true.
The 2023 season was a success in that it showed Colorado can compete with all but the very top teams of a conference that no longer exists. CU's move to the Big 12 will be a breeze compared to playing the Pac-12 schedule the Buffs just maneuvered through.
On the other hand, it's hard not to look at Coach Prime's disappointing offseason -- which could include a bottom-ranked high school class without Jordan Seaton and a transfer class accused of being "retreads" -- and wonder if there's a plan beyond Travis Hunter, Shedeur and Shilo Sanders' final year in Boulder.
The truth about the 2023 season is somewhere in the middle; oftentimes the answer to many debates.