He needs a game-manager on the headset. Nick Saban had Steve Sarkisian. And Lane Kiffin. And Bill O’Brien. And Jim McElwain. Coach Prime has pencilers Pat Shurmur and Brett Bartolone. You get what you pay for.
Although the Buffs paid their coach $10 million to go 3-9 this fall, which is the kind of ROI that gets athletic directors canned. At the very least, it forces the $10 million coach to line up sacrificial lambs on his own staff before tougher and more expensive decisions are forced upon him.
“I’ve played this game and I know this game like the back of my hand and I love this game and all the ups and downs,” Coach Prim told reporters after the Buffs swept Kansas State, but ultimately lost 24–14, ending the third year of the Sanders Era with five consecutive losses. “I’m made for every last (part) of it. But if anyone’s made to sum it up and get it on the right track, it’s me. If it’s the last thing I do on Earth I’ll do it.”
Somewhere, Dan Lanning had to laugh at that.
We’ve heard it all before. And yes, CU has risen from the ashes before. The Big 12 is a league of middleweights and great margins. Which means, in terms of talent/personnel, really buff are not doing that far.
It’s just that when you fall short week after week, mental stuff starts to build up in the back of your head the same way tartar builds up on the gum line. Doubt creeps in. Questions remain.
On one hand, the Buffs have been in four one-score games this year. On the other hand, they lost three of them.
Under Sanders, the Buffs are 6–10 in games decided by 10 points or fewer. He is now 1-5 in those games without Shadure Sanders as QB1. He’s 3-10 at CU and has someone other than his son as the starting signal-caller.
A starting NFL QB (Shedeur), a generational athlete (Travis Hunter) and multiple pro-level targets (LaJonte Wester, Will Shepard) can hide a lot of coaching flaws.
Remove that, however, and you get… well, 3-9. And a second 1-8 league mark in the last three seasons.
Can Sanders chase nine wins again? Sure. And then he’ll go 4-8 or 3-9 the season after that and start the cycle over. Below Above. Below Above.
For the prime method – building the core of the roster around transfers – to work consistently requires significantly better talent than your peers, significantly better coaching, or significantly more money to pay for that better talent and coaching.
Sanders needs the gravitas of Alabama or the sugar daddies of Texas Tech. The buffs don’t have anything, so that’s what you get. When the transfer takes place (2024), the ship takes off. Buckle up when Caden Salter has to save your season (2025).
However CU had a solid plan for Kansas State (6-6) – run Salter across the ice and see if that opens anything up. The Buffs put it on the field in miserable conditions on nine of their first 11 plays. Exactly like the script.
They trailed 10–7 in the fourth quarter of the game, with CU throwing it nine times and running eight times. Meanwhile, K-State goes into business mode, just as Arizona State did last weekend at Folsom Field. Of the Wildcats’ 206 rushing yards that day, 98 came in the final stages.
However, in the meantime, K-State tried to give the game to CU, right? The Buffs just had to fight to get going and take that damn thing.
Just like they struggled to cope. As they struggled to get field goals or punt offs in the icy conditions of Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
There will be a lot of introspection, a lot of social posts, a lot of heated exchange about what went wrong in Coach Prime’s third campaign.
Landing a 5-star prep QB in Julian Lewis was the fun part, but the next move is developing him. While the game’s progress from April to November has been solid and real, the jury is still out. When by spring it became clear that more time was needed, Salter became the “bridge” man. Only it proved to be a bridge to nowhere.
It’s clear as day, especially after K-State: Whoever gets the chance to run the offense in 2026 would be wise to include more of junior wide receiver Omarion Miller, who torched the Wildcats with seven catches for 120 receiving yards despite gusty winds.
Miller had 23 first downs out of his first 37 catches in his first 10 games, or one out of every 1.6 catches. Point of comparison: Last fall, Travis Hunter had 51 first downs on 96 grabs — one for every 1.88 receptions. LaJounte Wester: 46 on 74 grabs – first downs every 1.6.
And while Coach Prime was sitting there looking sad, at least his team brought their snow pants early. With nothing to play for except pride, the Buffs came out in true to the spirit Sanders promised over the summer – angry on the field, relentless at the line of scrimmage.
In the first half, the chuck-and-duck Buffs defeated Kansas State 84–59 in the Wildcats’ backyard. CU went into the break with more first downs converted (10-5) and, perhaps more impressively, K-State’s three had zero penalties.
Meanwhile, a Wildcat team that rushed for 427 yards against Utah was stuck at 67 yards on the ground halfway through the third quarter. Alas, the hosts endured a cold game on the field late, with inconsistent Avery Johnson fending off a QB run designed by former Erie star Blake Barnett.
Once K-State took back control of the clock, the Buffs were unable to make any stops. Or an ointment. Coach Prime needed another voice – a voice from the coaches’ box or, like Shedeur, a voice from the crowd.
In the end, CU had two timeouts left in the final 45 seconds, down by 10. Sanders didn’t use them either. Like most Buffs fans, he was ready to turn the page and go home. The next chapter is setting up what defines CU’s experiment and the legacy of a legend. For better or for worse.
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