Stanford (1-4, 0-3 Pac-12) at Colorado (4-2, 1-2)
When/where: Friday, 8 p.m./Folsom Field
TV/Radio: ESPN/850 AM, 94.1 FM
: CU -11.5, 58.5 over/under
Weather: Partly cloudy, with light winds and temperatures around 45 degrees at kickoff.
Five storylines
Travis Hunter’s Return: CU coach Deion Sanders said Tuesday there’s a “serious chance” that Hunter, the Buffs’ star wideout/cornerback who suffered a lacerated liver during the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Sept. 16, could be back in the lineup Friday after missing the last three games. The sophomore returned to practice this week and his return would be a boost for a secondary that’s also dealt with recent injuries to safeties Shilo Sanders and Myles Slusher.
The Downtrodden Cardinal: Stanford appeared in 10 straight bowl games from 2009-18, including winning the Rose Bowl twice, a victory in the Orange Bowl and six double-digit-win seasons. But the magic’s evaporated in Palo Alto, where the reeling Cardinal are on pace for their third straight losing season following consecutive 3-9 campaigns. First-year head coach Troy Taylor, a former star QB at Cal in the late 1980s, has a huge rebuild on his hands.
CU’s Pass/Sack Ratio: Buffs star QB Shedeur Sanders leads the nation with 2,020 passing yards and has proven to be a clutch performer in crunch time, as evidenced by his three fourth-quarter game-winning or game-tying drives so far this season. But Sanders is also getting pummeled, sometimes as a result of poor protection, but sometimes as a result of him holding the ball too long or scrambling. out of 130 Division I FBS teams with 31 sacks allowed for 281 yards.
Bowl Eligibility Tracker: After squeaking out a win in the desert against Arizona State, a victory over the Cardinal would put CU one win away from clinching its first bowl berth since Karl Dorrell took them to the Alamo Bowl in 2020. Of the five games remaining (at UCLA, vs Oregon State, vs Arizona, at Washington State, at Utah), CU may only be favored in one of them, against the Wildcats.
Series History: CU is 6-6 against the Cardinal all-time but has ripped off three wins in a row, all of which came by five points or less. The Buffs haven’t won consecutive games against Stanford in Boulder since beating the Cardinal at Folsom Field in 1987 and ’90.
Predictions
Kyle Newman, sportswriter: CU 31, Stanford 21
CU takes advantage of Travis Hunter’s return, as the sophomore hauls in a first-half TD pass from Shedeur Sanders that is part of the Buffs’ early buffer. The Cardinal are bad, and this one’s never close as Sanders ends up with four TDs overall and Stanford’s garbage-time TDs keep it from being a rout.
Sean Keeler, sports columnist: CU 33, Stanford 21
Coach Prime is a tad cross, but at least the Buffs found a pass rush in Tempe, just in time (presumably) to add one of the best cornerbacks in the country, Travis Hunter, back into the mix. The Cardinal are in more of a conventional rebuild, which means they’ll want to run the ball, limit possessions and drag the speedy Buffs down into the mud. Ya know what? That might actually work. For like a half.
Matt Schubert, sports editor: CU 34, Stanford 20
The Buffs desperately need to end a string of poor starts that goes all the way back to their Week 2 win over Nebraska. Don’t give a very bad Stanford team even a shred of hope. Bury the Cardinal early, then set those those sights on UCLA, the Rose Bowl and a chance to clinch bowl eligibility in late October.
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