Troy Renck: Don’t make fun of the library, and then get schooled. Don’t rip the stadium, then get run out of it. Northwestern buried CU last Saturday, providing a semester’s worth of lessons in humility. BYU trucked CSU, leading 38-7 before the Rams made the score respectable in garbage time. Worse, CSU had to apologize for its student section delivering derogatory and profane chants directed at the Cougars and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All in all, an embarrassing Saturday. After one loss, it seems too early to ask, but gauging the panic meter, which school should be more concerned: CU or CSU?
Sean Keeler: on the rest of , my friend. Northwestern’s a DU clone, the Big Ten’s snooty, private legacy brat, a field hockey school. And Coach Prime just made the Wildcats look like Texas. Bad sign. Even worse: The Puddy Tats are the slowest team the Buffs will face the rest of the season. Although, as the late Peter Falk would say, just one more thing: Northwestern also isn’t the worst Power 4 team the Buffs have played this month, no matter what your favorite podcaster/YouTuber/Prime Disciple/crank is trying to tell you otherwise. Oh, no. That’s Georgia Tech. The Jackets followed up a sloppy stinker against CU by giving up 299 rushing yards at home to Tennessee and 188 yards on the ground (also at home) to Mercer. Mercy.
Renck: The answer is CU because old problems resurfaced just as the schedule stiffens. Coach Deion Sanders criticized specific players for laughing as they walked off the field in front of him following the 41-7 loss to Northwestern. He was right. But why do things like this keep happening, where self-awareness remains a stranger despite CU losing 10 of its last 15 games? The ability to run the ball remains encouraging, and it will be necessary with the upcoming games at Baylor followed by hosting No. 11 Texas Tech and No. 15 Utah. The gauntlet makes inching closer to the panic button unavoidable. A four-game losing skid would place a bowl game — the minimum accomplishment to justify Sanders’ salary — in jeopardy.
Keeler: Meanwhile, Jim Mora’s honeymoon phase still has plenty of legs left in it. Few realistically expected the Rams to hold off one of the Big 12’s Big Two (Texas Tech’s run by oil money; ). The loss of Hauss Hejny takes the shine off of a pretty good opening three weeks, all things considered. We’re about to find out how good Mora is with a signal-caller crisis, albeit not one of his own making. And much as we like him personally, I’m still not sure about Tyson Summers’ defense up in FoCo, especially with Texas State (478.3 yards per game), Boise State (461.7 per game), and Oregon State (461.3 per game) looming in the weeks to come.
Renck: The Rams don’t exactly have a leg up over CU because of quarterback Hauss Hejny’s hamstring injury. They face a solid Texas-San Antonio team on the road led by former CU quarterback Owen McCown, who is capable of lighting up the Rams’ secondary. Based on the history of hamstring issues, Hejny likely will miss at least a few weeks. Does that mean K’saan Farrar, who struggled on Saturday, gets his chance or will coach Jim Mora give Darius Curry more run after a strong cameo against BYU? When a team has three quarterbacks, it has none. The Rams need to lean on their ground game before Hejny returns, but it will be challenging. CSU is a 12.5-point underdog against the Roadrunners. Nobody said it would be easy for the Rams, but Mora was hired to deal with adversity better than his predecessor.
Keeler: CU’s got two problems, and the second one is the doozy. The first is perception. The Deion Brand is about talking a good game — and then backing it up on the field with an even better one. Your players loudly and profanely mocking Northwestern, only to go out and get trucked by the ‘Cats, is an insanely weak look. And a hard sell, too, which ties into the bigger issue — money. You’re right: Only a bowl game in ’26 would truly justify Sanders’ salary. The heyday of the “PRIME 21” merch and jersey sales are long gone. You’ve got to give the locals a reason to keep coming back. The only way to do that is by winning consistently. And after Saturday, we’re all wondering where the next victory’s going to come.
