Colorado athletic director Rick George didn’t expect the Buffaloes’ football season to be over before the calendar flipped to December, but he’s also not upset about it.
Going 4-8 (1-8 Pac-12) isn’t what George, head coach Deion Sanders or anyone else at CU had in mind for this year, but it’s certainly nowhere near where the program was one year ago.
“I think if you went into this year, from at the end of last year, you’d be really happy to where we are,” George said in an interview with BuffZone. “The fact that we’ve competed in (almost) every game tells me a lot about these players and I think when we get a full year with a group under our belt, I think we’re gonna see results that are going to really be meaningful.”
George made the decision on Oct. 2, 2022, to fire then-head coach Karl Dorrell and take the football program in a different direction. At the time, the Buffs were 0-5, with five blowout losses. They finished that season 1-11, with 10 blowout losses. The only win came in a spirited, overtime thriller against California, with interim head coach Mike Sanford doing his best to keep the program together.
CU and George swung for the fences in going after Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who led a resurgent three-year run at Jackson State. Hiring Sanders on Dec. 4 of last year brought CU from complete irrelevance to the national spotlight.
From record-breaking ticket sales – CU sold-out every home for the first time ever and also sold out its spring game for the first time – to unprecedented levels of merchandise sales and national TV exposure, hiring Sanders was a major win.
“The exposure has been great,” George said. “People are very interested in us. … There’s people all over the country that, it’s about football, but it’s more than football. What he’s creating and the development of young men and all of those kinds of things are really important to people. While football is the driver that puts you there, it’s all the other things that have been very beneficial. People see that and recognize that and I think it’s gonna allow us to have great success in the future.”
On the field, the results didn’t match the hype, especially considering the Buffs’ sizzling start. They opened with a stunning, 45-42 upset at then-No. 17 TCU, which was eight months removed from playing in the national title game. That win vaulted the Buffs into the national rankings and they climbed to No. 18 with a rout of rival Nebraska in Week 2, followed by a double-overtime win against in-state rival Colorado State.
When Pac-12 play hit, however, the results didn’t go CU’s way, as it finished alone in last place in the conference.
A six-game losing streak to close the year took some of the shine off the season, yet George sees a program on the rise. Unlike past years, especially 2022, the Buffs were competitive in losses. Of the eight defeats, five were one-score games. Another, a 28-16 loss at UCLA, was a five-point game going into the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got coaches that have been together a short period of time,” George said. “We’ve got players that have been together a short period of time. I feel like we’re in a good spot. It hasn’t been great (on the field), but we’re in a good spot. We’ll have some momentum going into recruiting and then we’ll get back at it in January, hopefully with a full team that has been together and they’ve got eight months to work until the next season.”
Because of the fast start and the hype – much of it created by Sanders – the Buffs’ season could be deemed as a failure. Yet, the progress was in line with or better than most programs in a similar position.
This year, 25 FBS teams had first-year head coaches and CU was one of only six to win at least three more games than last year. Nobody else in that group played a schedule as tough as CU’s. The other five teams – Northwestern, South Florida, Liberty, UNLV and Texas State – combined for four games against ranked opponents (going 0-4), while Colorado had six games against Top 25 foes (going 1-5 with three one-score losses).
“I feel like we’re positioning ourselves for the future and recruiting is coming up and that’s gonna be really important for us,” George said. “I think having the majority of our squad in place in January is going to be great. I’m not disappointed, I’m really not. I know our coaches are working hard, our student athletes are working hard and I think our future is incredibly bright.”
That future includes moving to the Big 12 next summer and George expects the Buffs to compete right away.
“I have high expectations; that’s just who we are,” he said. “We’re gonna do everything that we can in the offseason to make sure that we’re prepared going into next season to have a great year in our first year in the Big 12 and we’re excited about that.
“I’m confident about where we’re headed and that’s why I’m not discouraged (about this year’s results). … I think if you go from last year to this year, where we are, we’re significantly better and it’s because of (Sanders’) leadership. That’s a fact.”
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.
