There's plenty of blame to go around for Colorado's 52-17 home loss to Arizona on Saturday, the second consecutive blowout defeat for the Buffaloes, as they fall to 3-6 on the season and settle in somewhere underneath rock bottom.
Colorado's offense was pitiful, turning the ball over five times, and cycling through quarterbacks like relief pitchers in Game 7 of the World Series. The defense gave up a touchdown on the third play of the game and did little to make Arizona uncomfortable on offense.
Colorado was penalized 14 times, costing it 110 yards.
But blame always comes back to one man and one man only in these situations: the head coach.
This is Deion Sanders' program. He bears the brunt of the criticism for a second straight blowout loss. Colorado has been outscored 105-24 over the last two weeks. They've been outscored 81-7 in the first half of the last two games, digging themselves into a hole that they had no chance of digging themselves out of.
Coach Prime understands that. Say what you want about him, but he always shoulders the blame when the team performs like this. He didn't allow any players to be available to the media after the latest beatdown because he wanted the focus to be on him, not them.
"Don't attack the coordinators or players," Sanders said. "This is on me."
Deion Sanders accepts the blame for Colorado's blowout loss to Arizona
Through the clouds, there's a tiny ray of sunlight from the performance of freshman QB Julian Lewis in the second half, but this has been a lost season for Colorado in year three of the Coach Prime era in Boulder.
Last season's breakthrough looks like a distant memory now. Without Sheduer Sanders or Travis Hunter, most expected Colorado to take a small step back this year. It was always going to be a transition year, but that small step has become a giant leap. Colorado looks more like the team from the year before Sanders arrived in 2022 the last two weeks than the competitive team we've mostly seen during the last three years.
There are legitimate questions now about the direction of the program. Changes will have to be made this offseason to get things back on track. That likely means replacing both coordinators and potentially other position coaches.
Coach Prime will get time to turn it around. He's not in danger of being forced out. The only way he's not the head coach in Boulder next season is if he chooses not to be.
But running it back isn't an option. It wouldn't have been if the last two losses were close, either. But the margin of the last two defeats has accelerated the timeline.