Colorado Daily

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Colorado Daily – Georgia Tech Week

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September 3rd

… CU in a few minutes … 

CBS Sports: Coach Prime has meant a great deal to CU – Now it’s time to win football games

From CBS Sports …

Colorado under Deion Sanders has been just about all things to all people. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly has been a lot over three seasons.

A partial list includes:

• An original blueprint for flipping a roster through the transfer portal
• A one-of-a-kind college football phenomenon for three weeks out of the gates in 2024
• A lightning rod for social media fodder and an early TV ratings darling, catnip for the modern attention economy
• A marketing vehicle for Sanders himself for everything from sunglasses to peanuts to adult diapers
• An incubator for one of the most unique athletic talents we’ve ever seen (Travis Hunter)
• A public display of a unique father-son dynamic
• A celebrity-on-the-sideline, people-watching social experiment featuring everyone from Lil Wayne to The Rock to Terrell Owens

But after a 3-9 2025, Colorado was mostly just a bad football team. Sanders admitted he didn’t have “it,” and neither did his players without Shedeur Sanders, Hunter or the bevy of offensive weapons Colorado enjoyed during the first two years of Deion’s run. Now the Buffs are trying to turn the page, get back in contention for a bowl and climb out of the bottom of the Big 12.

It’s time to Go(-Go)

In his 2019 book explaining his offensive system, new Colorado offensive coordinator Brennan Marion detailed his philosophy.

“We are a running team,” he wrote. “We want everyone in the country to know that we are going to run the ball right at you. We’re not going to hit you all the way down the field. We’re not going to screen you all the way down the field.

We’re going to run the ball right at you, right over you. I believe the No. 1 thing defenses have to do in order to be a great defense is stop the dive. If they are not going to stop the dive, then we’ll just continue to run it right at them.”

The oft-traveled offensive coach is likely to give Colorado one thing it has sorely lacked: physicality in the run game. Few, if any, teams have been worse at running the ball since Sanders took over. The Buffs ranked last and second-to-last nationally in yards per rush during his first two seasons and weren’t much better in 2025, finishing 123rd.

Marion’s offense uses unusual formations to make life difficult on defenses, and that may go a long way toward making Colorado harder to stop while helping a defense that too often found itself on the wrong side of uncomplimentary football.

They’ll attempt to do it without left tackle Jordan Seaton, who left for LSU in the portal, but Sanders claims his line is eight or nine deep with starting-caliber players.

And they’ll block for a new signal-caller.

High hopes for QB1

In steps Julian Lewis under center. Last year, the position was a revolving door, with three quarterbacks seeing time, including Lewis, Kaidon Salter and Ryan Staub.

It’s often noted that Lewis won’t turn 19 until the end of September after reclassifying to join the Buffs’ 2025 signing class. Sanders has been clear about taking the pressure off his young starter.

“What I don’t expect, and this may sound crazy, but it’s real, because he’s a young kid, I don’t need my quarterback to lead us,” Sanders said at Big 12 media days. “I need my quarterback to do what we ask him to do. He’s 18, and we’re asking an 18-year-old kid to lead a locker room full of men; that’s not fair to him. But what I’m asking him to do: make the plays that should be made and do what’s necessary to be done, but you do not have to stand up in front of the team and hoo rah this, and hoo rah that, you do not have to run out of the tunnel first. You do not have to get on nobody’s butt, just do your job, man. That’s it.”

One of the most important offseason additions was wide receiver Danny Scudero, who arrives from San Jose State as one of the most productive wideouts in the country. Sanders has raved about his transfer pass catcher, who functions as a quiet leader. He was spotted on crutches and in a walking boot in early August, but the school declined to release specifics about his injury. He returned to practice in late August in a non-contact jersey but is expected to suit up for the season opener.

“He’s most definitely going to play against Georgia Tech for sure,” Sanders said. “If I know Danny, he’s definitely going to do that.”

… Continue reading story here …

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September 1st

… CU in a few minutes … 

**Coach Prime meets with the media before leaving for Atlanta**

From YouTube, courtesy of BuffsTV …

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Will practicing against the “Go-Go” offense help prepare CU’s defense for Georgia Tech?

From CU Buffs.com … Every day of fall camp, Colorado’s defense lined up against the strangest offense it will see all year.

That was the plan.

“As a coach, you always want to give your players the hardest thing first, and it’s just a blessing to have Brennan Marion’s Go-Go offense, because that’s one of the more unusual offenses you’re going to face,” linebackers coach Andre Hart said. “I’m not going to say any offense is simpler — it’s not that it’s simple, but there’s not so many variations. I think it makes it easier to get the information across to the players. So, yeah, I love that we did the hardest things first.”

Ask the players who have chased Marion’s shifts, motions and option looks around the practice field since spring, and they describe the same finishing school.

“Coach Marion challenges us every day,” fifth-year linebacker Tyler Martinez said. “Like, he comes out in the most exotic looks you’ll ever see, and it challenges you to communicate with the defense and just do your job — versus trying to be a superhero and making every play you can. We’re finally going to get to go against somewhat of a normal offense.”

“Going against an option offense tests every single rule of your defense,” fifth-year linebacker Gideon Lampron added. “You get so many exotic looks, so they definitely help us prepare for anything that we could see.”

The timing could not be better. The Buffs open Thursday, Sept. 3 at Georgia Tech (6 p.m. MT, ESPN) against a team built on a physical, quarterback-inclusive running game — the exact stress the Go-Go applies daily. Fourth-year linebacker Liona Lefau has spent all camp fitting runs where the quarterback is a live threat.

“Anytime you practice fitting in a plus-one run game — which is when you account for the quarterback as well — it really helps,” Lefau said. “It really challenges your rules at times. So just having the quarterback accounted for in each of our run fits, it helps when we prepare for a team like Georgia Tech, who also runs their quarterback.”

Hart sees the film-room carryover, too. Studying his own offense, it turns out, doubles as an early scouting report.

“You seeing some really funky looks, and how they’re getting people in positions for mismatches, and you get to teach to that,” Hart said. “It’s going to be kind of similar to what Georgia Tech does, in a sense of how they move around. To be able to see that through the summer and through the spring, and now in the fall, I think it just makes us that much better.”

None of it works without the connective tissue. Hart’s stated keys for Thursday — “elite communication and smooth operations” — have been rehearsed the hard way. The defense hasn’t practiced with the green-dot helmet communication yet, and Hart wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love that we’re not practicing with the green dot yet, because now it makes everybody accountable,” Hart said. “Don’t just rely on the green dot. Make sure you’re communicating with the people on your side you need to communicate with.”

… Continue reading story here …

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August 30th 

… CU in a few minutes … 

Projected CU starting lineups for season opener at Georgia Tech

From Brian Howell at BuffBlitz.com …

Projected depth chart for Colorado football offense

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Projected depth chart for Colorado football defense

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August 29th

… CU in a few minutes … 

ESPN “SportsCenter on Campus” to be at Georgia Tech game

… The show will air at 3:00 p.m., MT … In advance of the “White Out” game for the Yellow Jackets (it’ll be interesting to see what style/color uniform CU players will wear … 

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August 28th

… CU in a few minutes … 

OC Brennan Marion: “If you’re not violent, then you just can’t be on our offensive line”

From BuffInsider.com …

Offensive line expectations

The Go-Go offensive requires active bodies up front, and Marion is confident that his line will meet expectations.

“In the trenches, it has to be nasty,” Marion said. “There’s only one way that it can be up there. You can work on all the cute stuff — your footwork, your pass set — but if you’re not violent, if you’re not attacking off the ball, if you’re not trying to take another man against his will and take his soul, then you just can’t be on our offensive line. Everybody who will go out there will have that mentality. We won’t put anybody out there that does not have (the mentality of) I’m trying to maul and crush the guy in front.”

Julian Lewis confirmed as starting quarterback

Although it was largely expected, Marion confirmed that Georgia native Julian Lewis will make his third career start next Thursday in Atlanta. He’ll be operating in a new offensive system, but Marion is confident that Lewis can be a winning quarterback.

“For Ju, he has high expectations of himself,” Marion said. “Obviously, he knows the type of player he can be, the caliber of player that he’s been in the past from the high school level. And then obviously going back home, I know he wants this game. The thing that we’ve been proud of him the most is he’s learned how to practice at a high level and not just play at a high level. You saw in the games that he played in last year, he played good enough for them to win the game from the standpoint of in the way that he didn’t lose the game for the team. He was a quarterback who was moving the ball down the field, completing passes and not putting the ball in jeopardy. He understands how to win a football game.”

… Continue reading story here …

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This post, about the Georgia Tech game, from the 2026 Season, is filed under Article.
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