Colorado fans have experienced this feeling before.
In 2023, Deion Sanders opened his first season in Boulder with a dramatic 45–42 victory at TCU. The shootout was much different from Colorado’s 14–13 escape at Georgia Tech this season, but both victories immediately created the feeling that something special might be developing.
Colorado followed the TCU upset with home wins over Nebraska and Colorado State. At 3–0, the Buffaloes were nationally ranked, the biggest story in college football and seemingly positioned to reach a bowl game.
Then the schedule became more difficult.
A 42–6 loss at Oregon was largely dismissed because Colorado was not expected to win. Ducks coach Dan Lanning famously declared that the Buffaloes were “fighting for clicks” while Oregon was “fighting for wins.”
Colorado then nearly completed a furious comeback against USC before falling 48–41. Despite consecutive losses, the Buffaloes remained competitive against eventual Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, and the excitement surrounding the Coach Prime era continued.
A road victory over Arizona State improved Colorado to 4–2. The Buffaloes needed only two more wins to become bowl eligible.
They never found them.
Colorado has already seen how quickly hope can disappear
The unraveling began when Colorado squandered a 29–0 halftime lead against Stanford and lost 46–43 in double overtime.
Coach Prime's Buffaloes then struggled to protect Shedeur Sanders against UCLA’s dominant pass rush, led by future first-round draft pick Laiatu Latu. Sanders was sacked seven times in a 28–16 loss.
Close home defeats against Oregon State and Arizona followed. Colorado was then embarrassed 56–14 against Cam Ward and Washington State in a nationally televised game. With bowl eligibility already gone, an injured Sanders sat out the season finale against Utah.
Colorado went from 3–0 to 4–8, losing its final six games and eight of its last nine.
That collapse is what makes the next two games so important for the 2026 Buffaloes.
Colorado is 2–0 after surviving Georgia Tech and overwhelming Weber State 52–21 behind a historic performance from freshman quarterback Julian Lewis. The Buffaloes will now play consecutive road games against Northwestern and Baylor, giving them three road trips during the season’s opening four weeks.
Northwestern represents Colorado’s final nonconference game and an opportunity it cannot afford to waste. The Wildcats are coming off a seven-win season that ended with a bowl victory, but this remains the type of matchup a bowl-caliber Colorado team must find a way to win.
A victory would move the Buffaloes to 3–0 before they travel to Baylor for their Big 12 opener.
Baylor opened the season with a 17–16 loss to Auburn before defeating Prairie View A&M 44–3. Winning in Waco would give Colorado its first conference victory and send the Buffaloes home undefeated.
Four wins could create much bigger dreams
If Colorado loses both games, the Buffaloes would enter October at 2–2 and need to split their final eight Big 12 games to reach bowl eligibility.
A split would leave them at 3–1 and still needing three victories.
But a 4–0 start would completely change the conversation.
Colorado would need only two victories over its final eight games, five of which will be played at Folsom Field. Bowl eligibility would suddenly feel much more manageable.
The question would become considerably bigger: How high is Colorado’s ceiling?
Curt Cignetti and Indiana have demonstrated what can happen when a developing program learns how to win before facing the most demanding portion of its schedule.
Indiana was criticized for playing a light nonconference schedule during Cignetti’s first season in 2024. The Hoosiers handled those opponents, gained confidence and carried that momentum into Big Ten play. They won their first 10 games and reached the College Football Playoff.
One year later, Indiana took an extraordinary leap. The Hoosiers went 16–0, won the Big Ten and defeated Miami to capture the first national championship in program history.
The lesson is not that a 4–0 Colorado team should immediately be considered a national championship contender. It is that winning breeds winning, particularly for a young team beginning to believe in itself.
Colorado’s schedule has not been filled exclusively with nonconference lightweights, either. The Buffaloes won at Georgia Tech and would need another road victory over Northwestern before beginning Big 12 play at Baylor.
The 2023 Buffaloes proved that a fast start guarantees nothing. Indiana demonstrated the other possibility. Sometimes an undefeated beginning is more than a temporary surge. Sometimes a team discovers how to win and forces everyone to reconsider what might be possible.
For Colorado, the next two weeks are critical to its bowl chances.
Get to 4–0, however, and six victories might begin to feel more like the floor than the ceiling.
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