CU opened the night with a sold-out stadium roaring. They closed it with a whimper — stumbling through a sloppy final drive in a 27-20 season-opening loss to Georgia Tech.
Losing to the Yellow Jackets isn’t a scandal. They were favored. It’s the way it happened. CU’s “new” problems looked a lot like the old ones.
The difference now? No Shedeur Sanders. No Travis Hunter. No Heisman hype or star power to mask flaws. These Buffs aren’t built for shootouts anymore. Last year, they averaged 39 points per game at home. They dipped under 20 only once. Friday night, in the rain, they matched it.
The first bruises are already showing — turf burns on the new field, doubts about toughness creeping in. Can CU grind out ugly wins? Can they respond when hit in the mouth?
History says no. When games turn to fistfights, the Buffs get bloodied. Weren’t nights like this supposed to vanish after the Kansas State and KU debacles?
Instead, the Ramblin’ Wreck flattened CU. Georgia Tech rushed for 320 yards. It was a car crash — minus the airbags. The Buffs must get tougher. It really is that simple.
“Defensively, we gave up 463 yards. They ran for 320. You can’t win with those stats,” Deion Sanders said. “They were much more physical than we were. Defensively, nah. No way you can say we were physical when you get your butt kicked like that.”
The contrast hit home for Sanders even before kickoff, when Shedeur wasn’t there for their traditional sideline walk. Cornerback Isaiah Hardge stepped in on the fly — a gesture Sanders said he’d never forget. It showed the players care. They compete. They don’t quit.
But they still get pushed around by bigger, stronger teams. That leaves no room for mistakes — which made Sanders’ clock management on the final drive so costly. With 67 seconds left, CU managed just five plays. Game over.
It was tough to tell what was more baffling: Pat Shurmur’s play-calling or Deion Sanders’ decision to walk into the locker room with two timeouts still in his pocket.
“We got out of bounds on both sidelines. After the first play, we got a good play — nine yards. And when you get a first down, the clock stops. So it don’t really make sense to use your timeout in that sense,” Sanders explained. “We were trying to preserve them. But I don’t want to go home with timeouts. They don’t do me any good. You have to be strategic. But to burn a timeout just to burn a timeout so you guys won’t say anything — that don’t make sense at all.”
The problem? The drive itself defied logic. And CU no longer has players who can cover for it.
Once, Sanders could count on his sons to deliver a dazzling finish. This time, he was left talking about how his defense made Haynes King look like a “Heisman candidate.” King ran for 156 yards — nearly half of Tech’s total.
“You say they had 320 yards (rushing)?” transfer linebacker Reggie Hughes asked afterward. “That’s definitely disappointing.”
The offseason message has been clear. But if it didn’t sink in before, it must now: the Buffs have to win differently. Time to muscle up, or get muscled out.
This was the eighth time in three years CU has given up 200-plus rushing yards. Friday’s total was the second-most of the Sanders era, behind only Kansas’ 331-yard outburst last fall. Tech kept pounding because CU never made them stop. At halftime, the Yellow Jackets had 279 yards and 18 first downs.
“They were committed to running,” Sanders admitted. “And they kept going and going and going.”
In his CU debut, Kaidon Salter proved serviceable, if unspectacular. He threw for 159 yards and ran for 43 — the inverse of what CU probably needed. He isn’t the “Fresh Prince of Bould-air.” Not yet.
This season, Sanders must show CU can win the hard way — four yards and a cloud of dust. Against Tech, they rushed for 146 yards, their third-best total in three years.
“Offensively, you’re probably saying we should have run it more,” Sanders said. “You saw what we’ve been talking about with the offensive line.”
Talk, though, isn’t enough anymore. CU has to prove it can win in the trenches, eliminating the need for Shurmur to scheme miracles.
How will this team define itself? Not through flashy highlights or retired numbers, but with bare-knuckle football.
“We have to get to the point where we are playing chess with teams,” left tackle Jordan Seaton said. “When you run the ball, people feel it.”
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