“There were a few decisions made on his end that reflected (his age),” the Weber State linebacker told me after Lewis and the CU Buffs steamrolled his Wildcats, 52-21. “But he also reflected some abilities that wouldn’t come from an 18-year-old.

“So I think there’s two answers to that question. I think he played a great game. And he did what he had to do.”

“But those deep balls early …” I countered.

Cornelson stopped me on that one, too. Dude, you know we were stacking the box, right?

“Just watching what (CU) did versus Georgia Tech, their run percentage was just so high, we were playing pretty aggressively to stop the run,” the linebacker stressed. “And they just got us on a few plays over the top … we were anticipating runs so much. (But) yeah, (Lewis) was able to find those shots and execute.”

In hindsight, the only man who could stop JuJu Saturday was CU coach Deion Sanders. Until Sanders pulled him in the third quarter, the freshman quarterback out of Georgia toyed with the 38.5-point underdogs the way Godzilla toyed with Tokyo Bay. Over two quarters and two-thirds of another, Lewis completed 17 of 23 passes for 366 yards through the air, throwing for four scores and running for another.

It wasn’t football. It was artistry, balls painting the sky. On his first four touchdowns, Lewis found Buffs wideout after Buffs wideout running to daylight. On his fifth, JuJu tucked on a read-option for a 3-yard score that put the Buffs up 42-14 with 51 seconds left in the first half.

Takeaway? That was an 18-year-old making grown men look silly out there, flashing an arm that can drop dimes from anywhere on the field. Kid’s for real.

How real?

To Cornelson’s point, ask us on Sept. 26.

Northwestern’s up next. Those Wildcats, like Weber State’s, can’t really run with CU. But they’ve also given up four passing touchdowns in a game just twice over the last three seasons.

Baylor’s defense might be able to run with CU. But the Bears have also allowed a four-TD passing game just two other times since 2023.

“(Lewis) threw it really well — I think that was by design,” Weber State coach Erik Kjar said after the game. “I think they wanted to improve on some things and that was something they were going to try to work on. And I think he answered a lot of those questions against us and threw the ball especially deep well, put it out there and let his guys run underneath it and gave (them) an opportunity to make a play down the field. I was just impressed with how he played.”

Join the club. Other than a sack-fumble early, you couldn’t ask for much more from No. 10 in just his second-ever start at Folsom Field.

Heck, it took just one quarter for Lewis to knock Joel Klatt out of the CU record books. Lewis’ 212 passing yards in the first quarter were the most in a single quarter in Buffs history. The old record was held by Klatt, the Arvada native who set it in a 41-20 rout of Texas A&M at Folsom in October 2005.

JuJu’s first-half stat line was as Xbox as they come: 15-18 passing for 331 passing yards, four passing scores, one rushing TD, one fumble lost.

No. 10 was the tide that lifted all of Ralphie’s boats. Buffs tailback Micah Welch became CU’s first 100-yard rusher in the Coach Prime Era. Elliott Arnold’s 52-yard field goal midway through the third stanza was the longest by a Buffs kicker under Sanders.

Lewis has nine collegiate TDs to zero interceptions over his first six games as a
Buff. He’s thrown 144 straight completions without a pick. Only three CU
quarterbacks have posted interception-free longer streaks — Steven
Montez (172), Sefo Liufau (152) and Shedeur Sanders (145).

“If they can get their pass game going like they did (Saturday) and be explosive like that, it makes it hard,” Eric Kjar said. “If you have that double-edged sword of being able to run the ball and being effective that way and then still open it up and push it down the field, (the Buffs) have got a good chance to do something in the Big 12 this year, for sure.”

As laughers go, the bruises were few, but deep. CU wisely switched up a bad first half at nickel corner, moving Boo Carter inside and benching Makari Vickers while bringing in Jason Stokes opposite Cree Thomas on the outside. It took them six Weber State drives to do it, though, after the Wildcats had put up 116 of their 177 first-half passing yards and thrown for two scores.

The Buffs took their feet off several gas pedals after going up by 28 points so quickly. CU committed 13 penalties on the day, and piled up three on special teams by the start of the third quarter. Delay of game on a punt. Taunting. Holding. Carter butterfingered a punt at the CU 20 with 12 seconds left in the half that the Wildcats didn’t have time to capitalize on.

“We can’t win consistently with those types of penalties,” Sanders noted. “They don’t make sense.”

And the pass rush didn’t always get home against a Wildcats team that was scrappy but slow. With��CU up 28-7 after Welch’s 54-yard rushing TD, the visitors faced a desperation third-and-10 at their 25. Pressured Weber QB Nate Dahle fired off a prayer up the right boundary, where wideout Noah Kjar had gotten free behind the Buffs’ secondary. Kjar rumbled 70 yards before being taken down at the CU 5. Three plays later, Dahle hit Kjar for a 6-yard score in the corner of the end zone, and the extra point that followed trimmed the Buffs’ lead to 28-14.

Weber State brought in the nation’s No. 102nd-ranked defense and 86th-ranked third-down defense. And that was No. 102 and No. 86 ��in the nation out of 116 FCS schools — not their FBS counterparts.

So, no, it was never expected to be a fair fight. Early on, it wasn’t. The Buffs scored 35 seconds into the contest, and that was without even receiving the ball first. After a frazzled Dahle misfired three times in a blink of a possession, CU drew blood on its opening play. Lewis bootlegged right from his own 33 while DeAndre Moore cut left off the line and outran the entire Wildcat secondary and into the clear. JuJu lofted a rainbow high and true, Moore caught it in stride, and the Buffs were up 6-0 only 10 seconds after they’d initially snapped the ball.

A CU late hit extended Weber’s ensuring drive, but the Buffs bowed up for a stuff on a fourth-and-1 Omar Shah run to force a turnover on downs at their own 37. CU picked up pretty much where they left off. A long Lewis throw on first down sailed out of bounds, but the second landed with the delicacy of a roundhouse kick. Joseph Williams cut on a dig route, took a perfectly timed toss from Lewis, then shifted up about three gears, turning a short route it into a 63-yard score. Over their first three plays, the Buffs had marched 129 yards, all through the air, and found the end zone twice. Lewis had 124 passing yards all of Week 1 at Georgia Tech.

And while JuJu giveth, he sometimes taketh away, too. Almost as soon as he’d brought a rapacious home crowd into the game, CU’s third drive almost took that crowd right out of it. On second-and-8 at the Buffs 36, Lewis got strip-sacked by Weber linebacker Teni Worthen, and the visitors recovered at the CU 28.

“We’ve just got to finish,” Williams said later. “You’ve got to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer.”

As long as the Buffs keep swinging, they’ll be fine. CU could’ve run three fly routes on any given play all afternoon, and would’ve seen someone break free more than half the time. If that works in Evanston and Waco, the Buffs will be ranked by the end of the month. And the Heisman Watch is going to start sniffing around BoCo like it never left.

When/where: 1:30 p.m. MT Saturday/Folsom Field

TV/Radio: ESPN+/850 AM

: CU -34.5, 55.5 over/under

: 81 degrees, partly sunny

Series history: First meeting

Three storylines

JuJu’s momentum: CU QB Julian Lewis looked a little lost for the first three-plus quarters of last week’s 14-13 upset win at Georgia Tech.��But the redshirt freshman quarterback turned it on in crunch time, leading an eight-play, 75-yard TD drive in 63 seconds to put the Buffs ahead in the waning moments. Lewis made several impressive throws on that drive, including a beautiful lofted pass to TE Charlie Williams that resulted in the go-ahead TD. Lewis should have plenty of opportunities to continue that momentum against Weber State.

CU’s special teams. Prior to Boo Carter saving the game in Atlanta with a blocked field goal on the final play, the Buffs’ special teams performance was downright awful. The examples of CU’s poor play in the game’s third phase were plentiful: Carter calling for a fair catch on a punt inside his own 5-yard line. Multiple miscues by the punting team, including a Damon Greaves punt that went only 21 yards. And there was Rahkeem Smith’s 100-yard kick return for a Georgia Tech TD. CU needs to use this tune-up game to get its special teams in order.

Two-way force in the trenches. Lineman Chauncey Gooden played a pivotal role in the season-opening win. The sophomore started at guard on offense, and then also played late in the game on defense to earn the by the Football Writers Association of America. Gooden plays on the interior defensive line in goal-line situations, and his performance on offense helped CU control the clock with a strong ground game against Georgia Tech. He’s the fourth two-way player under Deion Sanders at CU.

Predictions

Kyle Newman, sportswriter: CU 45, Weber State 17

Good for the Buffs in pulling off the upset in the season opener. But let’s be honest, Georgia Tech is not close to the team it was a season ago when it won nine games. Anything less than a total blowout on Saturday will not be a good sign for the Buffs, who will use this opportunity against an outmatched FCS opponent to get the pass game gelled. Julian Lewis effortlessly throws for four TDs, and the Wildcats get some points late against CU backups in a game that isnearly near as close as the score indicates.

Sean Keeler, sports columnist: CU 36, Weber State 7

The Buffs went into Atlanta with a point to prove, and made that point in about the wildest way possible. Now they’ve got a game to iron out some things, especially on the passing front, before two road tests (at Northwestern, at Baylor) that’ll set the tone for 2026. Deion
Sanders can pick Saturday’s score — Weber’s just the fourth game in The Coach Prime Era in which the Buffs go in favored by 15 points or more at home. CU put up a mark of 2-0-1 against the spread in those other three tilts, so caveat emptor.

Troy Renck, sports columnist: CU 34, Weber State 10

This get-right game for quarterback Julian Lewis. He must show he can run the new offense and play with more competency in the passing game. His best pass was his last pass against Georgia Tech. He missed a battery of wide-open receivers, including on multiple deep routes. The run game was a revelation. But it will dim if Lewis cannot keep defenses honest. And on defense, Lamont Lester Jr. go eat. It was unclear if the Buffs had any NFL prospects, but Lester sure looks the part.

Nate Peterson, sports editor: CU 35, Weber State 14

Julian Lewis needs this one to iron out what went wrong against Georgia Tech. The Georgia native looked lost throwing the ball for most of the game before flipping a switch in crunch time to drive the Buffs 75 yards and get out of Atlanta with a win. Outside of the special teams gaffes, Colorado’s overhauled offensive and defensive units were a revelation in the opener. Brennan Marion’s Go-Go offense ran it right down the Yellowjackets’ throat, while Chris Marve’s defense was stout up front and gave up just six points. The Buffs should overwhelm the FCS Wildcats from Weber State before a big game against the FBS Wildcats from Northwestern next week, but a 34.5-point spread feels like a stretch. We’ll see.

Sean Keeler: With no respect whatsoever for Weber State, which visits CU on Saturday; and Southern Utah, which plays to CSU later that day, you’d have to go all the way back to 1994 to find the last time the Buffs and Rams both started a season 2-0. (I mean, yeah, that’s in part because they usually played one another within the first two weeks of the season, but when everybody’s smiling on a Labor Day Monday, why get pedantic?) CSU’s win felt better, largely because it came with shaming Wyoming and hoisting a sacred trophy. But that mean ol’ CFP selection committee doesn’t give a flip about your feelings. For committee purposes, CU’s win was “better” from a resume perspective. Power 4 opponent. In Atlanta. Historic building. Historic foe. Name-brand pelt to stick on the wall. Deion wins the weekend by one of Ralphie’s hairs.

Renck: For me, the answer is easy: CU. The Buffs have made the Rockies look functional in visiting parks over the past two decades. In fact, CU snapped a seven-game road losing skid with the 14-13 victory over Georgia Tech when counting the Alamo Bowl. Did the Buffs benefit from Boo Carter getting an early start on the blocked kick as time expired? Probably. But CU need not apologize for any road triumph. Ever. Besides, the Buffs dominated the stat sheet, showing physicality in running the ball and stopping the Yellow Jackets’ ground attack. That victory could be the difference between qualifying for a bowl or not. It makes it more impressive than CSU’s opener, even if the Rams walked away with a cool trophy.

Keeler: And our AI computer overlords agree. Or, at least, some of the nerds who program them do, at least. Statnik Kenneth Massey, used to be part of the old Bowl Championship Series formula, also tracks schools that move the most in his rankings in any given week. No FBS team had a bigger jump in the Massey Ratings from Week 0 to Week 1 than the Buffs, who hopped from No. 73 nationally before the game to No. 38 after. CSU, funny enough, experienced the fifth-highest single-week jump in the country, to No. 92 from No 114 before the contest. Which was good, mind you. Just not Coach Prime good.

Renck: Not going to lie. Watching the Rams left me squinting in disbelief. It was hard to remember the last time CSU had outstanding quarterback play — Hauss Hejny put on a show with five touchdowns — and an opportunistic defense. With 76 new players, the Rams were a mystery to everyone, including themselves. But for all the goosebumps, they were supposed to do this in Jim Mora’s debut. Wyoming is not good. And the Rams’ new coach is built to win games like this. CU hasn’t won many games like last Thursday under Deion Sanders, or anyone else, over the last 20 years. It might turn out that Georgia Tech is bad this season, entirely possible with the Temu Mendoza at quarterback. In the present, CU beat a good team away from Boulder and that makes it a bigger deal than the party in Fort Fun on Saturday.

Keeler: And the best part? Other than the fact that we have two more winnable games on tap for the Buffs and Rams this weekend? Neither CU nor CSU played remotely close to their best in Week 1. And both teams finished strong. And Sanders and Mora won while playing styles that belied their respective preseason expectations. The Buffs, whom we presumed would be chucking it 38-40 times, instead ran the ball with authority against, historically, one of the more physical defenses in the ACC. The Rams, who got more preseason ink for their tackles and tight ends, landed a five-TD passing night from a CSU QB for the first time in five years. The overall takeaway from Week 1? Expect the unexpected, my friend. And without warning.

“Wefense,” by the way, is what new calls the Buffs’ special teams units. Officially, that side of the ball is Niblett’s side hustle. Sanders elected to split special teams coordinator duties for 2026 among several staffers, including Niblett, rather than dedicating one desk where the buck stops.

Technically, Coach Prime’s not ignoring or downplaying that side of the ball. But let’s just say the special teams results from Thursday’s wild, wacky 14-13 win at Georgia Tech sure looked that way.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Boo Carter. Blocked kick. Won the game. Awesome burst, Boo-tiful play. But should we just forget the 59 minutes prior to that? Should we act like it never even happened?

Because what happened was all over the darn place. In a tilt featuring a couple of raw, shaky young QBs, the Buffs and Yellow Jackets combined for just 17 points over the first 57 minutes before piling up 10 points, back and forth like a pickleball match, over the final three. Carter kept , who is to older brother Fernando what , from having the last word.

Yet that didn’t paper over an evening’s worth of cracks on the special teams front. Carter’s block swatted away three massive Tech points off the board as time expired. CU also left at least 10 special-teams points on the field.

The Buffs’ first kickoff of 2026 got run back 100 yards for a house call. Earlier in the evening, Carter fielded a fair-catch punt inside his own 5-yard line. At least two members of the punt coverage team let a Damon Greaves rainbow at the 2-ish yard line land in front of them and then bounce over their heads and into the end zone for a touchback. Greaves’ first punt of the tilt flew for just 21 yards, allegedly because of contact that wasn’t called.

You’d hand the special teams a grade of “B” or “B-minus,” given everything, but that letter was trending more toward a “D-plus” before Carter stole the show.

“Made some mistakes on special teams,” Sanders said after the game. “It’s effort.”

It might also be staffing.. And Notre Dame. And Texas.

In fact, the college football programs ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 going into Labor Day Weekend all have an assigned “special teams coordinator” on their coaching staff.

The Buffs don’t. The only person with “special teams” listed in his job title on the CU athletics website is Jacob Heavers, a graduate assistant.

CU’s staff roster makes for an interesting read. Three offensive line coaches. Assistant LB coach. Nickelback coach. Five offensive analysts. Five defensive analysts. No dedicated special teams boss. So it’s not as if CU can’t afford it.

And when it comes to that staff, let’s also give out some flowers where they’re due. For all the paragraphs dedicated to offensive coordinator Brennan Marion and his Go-Go scheme, it was Sanders’ defensive play-caller, Chris Marve, who put a larger stamp on Week 1.

The Buffs held a Power-4 opponent under 60 rushing yards for just the third time in the Coach Prime Era. A Sanders CU team won a game, and on the road, while scoring under 18 points — which is something Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter can’t say about their time in BoCo.

Marve’s guys got bent from time to time, especially in the first quarter, but they rarely broke. Tech’s offense managed just 17 first downs and was held without a touchdown. The Ramblin’ Wreck’s only trip to the end zone came via a kickoff return.

Which brings us back to the point.

Can you imagine what this team might look like if Coach Prime secured a Marve for his special teams?

“When you look at the statistics,” Sanders reflected, “you’ve got to get on the plane happy.”

True, but the Jackets might also stink. We walked away from Georgia Tech’s visit to Folsom at this time a year ago lamenting Sanders’ clock management and Pat Shurmur’s offense, both of which became running themes during a lost 3-9 campaign. Yet we also marveled at Tech QB Haynes King, a strong, stubborn son of a biscuit who ran like Tim Tebow, and seemed to be about the same age (39).

Mendoza flashed some escapability Thursday, but he’s no King. And Tech ain’t last year’s 9-4 bunch, either. The hosts came off slow, sloppy and unprepared. The former had a lot to do with CU’s speed along the perimeter, granted. But the latter was head-scratching from a Brent Key team. At one point, a Jackets blocker ran late onto the field during an extra point and appeared to jump over a live snap as it whizzed past him.

For most of the game, CU was tighter. Cleaner. Big 12 ready, Big 12 fast. Take away Texas Tech’s oil barons and BYU’s cookie mafia, and the rest of the conference is packed pretty tightly. The margins — coaching stuff, game-management stuff, special-teams stuff– will start to add up.

To wit: In The Prime Era, CU’s played nine conference games decided by nine points or fewer. The Buffs went 1-8 in those contests.

Flip half of those, and you might be talking about a bowl team in 2023 and a College Football Playoff berth the year after that.

Given the choice, an ugly 1-0 beats the snot out of a pretty 0-1 any day of the week. ��For three quarters, CU fans were looking for the nearest exit. By the end of the night, from Buckhead to Boulder, they were dancing in the streets.

The Buffs may not be as small as they looked in the spring. But they’ll need to clean up the little things if they want to take down the big dawgs to come.

As in, Boo Carter.

The Buffs cornerback flew in from somewhere west of Chattanooga to stun Bobby Dodd Stadium into stunned silence.

Carter, a transfer from Tennessee, blocked a 45-yard, potential game-winning Georgia Tech field goal as time expired, flipping Atlanta — and the evening’s narratives, social media, online haters — completely on their collective heads.

Buffs 14, Yellow Jackets 13.

Do you believe now?

Lordy, after that one, we might have to.

Deion Sanders’ Buffs had no business losing that game. Then they had no business winning it.

They won anyway.

Remember CU 45, TCU 42 in 2023?

For Coach Prime, the Georgia sports icon, this one might’ve been even sweeter.

It took a lightning delay and four quarters, but Julian Lewis, the beleaguered freshman quarterback from nearby Carrollton, had one magical drive left in him after all.

“I challenged him (at halftime),” Coach Prime said later. “And he did his thing.”

The kid got the ball back with 1:40 left, down 13-7, at his own 25. The next 59 seconds will be talked about, smiled about, for years. A campfire legend come true.

A pass to running back DeKalon Taylor for 17. A sack. An incompletion. A third-and-11 toss to Joseph Williams for 16 yards and a fresh set of downs at the Tech 43.

While a young, sloppy Georgia Tech bunch grew wide-eyed and froze in the moment, CU pounced. Lewis for another seven. An incompletion. A Taylor rush for 16 yards on third-and-3 to the Tech 20.

The hosts called timeout with 41 seconds on the clock. New CU offensive coordinator Brennan Marion was only getting warmed up.

On first down, the pocket held. Buffs tight end Charlie Williams raced out of the backfield, up the left boundary, and lost his defender with a double move. Lewis spotted his target and placed the rock where only Williams could run under it.

Which he did, snaring the ball with his fingertips and riding his momentum all the way into the end zone. Out of nowhere, a listless contest was tied at 13-all before the extra point.

“He didn’t shrink in that moment,” Sanders reflected.

And to think: Up until the final two minutes, Marion’s Go-Go system had largely been a no-go. Lewis completed four of six passes for 76 yards on that final, fateful drive.

Before that, the Georgia native, with Shedeur Sanders whispering in his ear on the CU sidelines, made good on just 10 of 21 throws for 48 yards. Only three routes had looked comfortable for the frosh QB 1 — the flat, the slant and the inside dig. Lewis repeatedly overthrew open deep shots in the first half; In the second, his wideouts took turns dropping the ball.

With new coordinators and a roster makeover, CU looked nothing like we’d expected. It took four years, but the Buffs finally found a running game under Coach Prime. Behind an honest-to-goodness, bruising, physical, get-what-we-want-when-we-want-it offensive line. Big, bad Tech, meanwhile, managed just 51 rush yards on 30 carries. Lamont Lester Jr.racked up three sacks through the first three stanzas.

“I thought,” Coach Prime cracked, “we were small?”

The Buffs still have their share of small issues, mind you — primarily on special teams and at safety. CU trailed 10-7 at the half, and if the hosts weren’t such a ramblin’ wreck, it could’ve been worse.

The visitors outrushed Tech 81-24 over the first two quarters and while playing comparatively clean, with three penalties to the hosts’ seven.

The difference? A 100-yard Tech kick return to the house, and GT’s young QB Alberto Mendoza (8 for 12 passing in the first half) looking a little less rattled than Lewis (6 of 14, 41 yards at the break) at the outset.

There were the game-management things that drive Buffs fans bonkers, still. Midway through the second quarter on a CU fourth-and-5 from the Tech 38, a fairly obvious punt-and-pin with the way your defense was playing, Sanders lined up for a punt … then called a timeout. When play resumed, the Buffs … punted.

Tech’s first touchdown came on Rahkeem Smith’s 100-yard return of CU’s first kickoff of the season. Fortune was a fickle mistress for the Buffs, who would have something good followed almost immediately by the unfortunate.

With 4:04 left in the half, the Buffs forced Mendoza out of the pocket on a third-and-12 at the CU 26 and had Fernando’s baby bro scrambling to his right. But the Jackets’ signal-caller somehow found an open Jordan Allen just in front of the end zone for a 22-yard gain.

With 5:34 to go in the first quarter, Carter smothered a Jackets’ fumble the Tech 26, giving CU the game’s second big momentum boost.

Only they sort of turned around and give it right back. On a fourth-and-goal at the Tech 3 with 1:49 left in the first, Deion went for it. Taylor chugged forward for one-and-a-half yards before being stood up and stopped short. Like the aggression. But in the first quarter? Of a scoreless game? On the road? And is a 165-pound back your best north-south option on a gotta-have-it conversion when Micah Welch, who outweighs Taylor by 50 pounds, could hammer it home?

In a way, the decision paid off, only it took two more series to get there. CU’s defense held fast, forcing the hosts after three plays to punt from their own 9-yard-line. Carter took a wobbly Jackets boot at the Tech 43 and rumbled forward to the hosts’ 35. Gifted great field position again, the Buffs didn’t mess around — or get cute. After a first-down incompletion by Lewis, his fourth straight, the Buffs unleashed their inner Big Ten beast, handing it to Welch for 11, Welch for 15, Welch for 4 and Welch for 5 and a score.

That lead, alas, lasted 14 seconds. Smith took the ensuing kickoff to the house, exploding from the goal line before veering left and outrunning all of CU’s special teams to make it 7-6.

The good news? Buffs wideouts were sailing past Tech defenders on both boundaries, sometimes by two or three steps. Less good? Lewis couldn’t hit them.

After two dumps to transfer star Danny Scudero to open the game and another shortie to Williams, JuJu missed on his next three tosses downfield.

Kid found his confidence. Found his mojo. Eventually.

Given an evening of unknowns, Thursday’s run-up to kickoff had something of that TCU 2023 vibe, only … meaner. On one side of the spectrum, it wasn’t hard to find “SANDERS 21” Falcons jerseys from Coach Prime’s playing days in the ATL. Shedeur turned up. So did Kordell Stewart.

On the other end, a small plane flew a banner above Bobby Dodd with the words “CU IN HELL” flapping behind it.

As signs go, that was one of the nice ones. Rows of fraternities line the walk to and the kids put up cartoon drawings of Ralphie in, shall we say, unflattering positions above every door.

“PAST HIS PRIME,” one read, with poor Ralphie shotgunned.

“PRIME TIME RIBS,” said another, with the head of Ralphie burning on a Labor Day grill.

“CU LATER, ROADKILL,” said yet another, with Ralphie wearing tire tracks across her back.

Mother Nature had a say, too. There’s humidity like Dixie humidity. Or Dixie storms. At 7:10 p.m. Atlanta time, about 49 minutes before the scheduled kickoff, Tech officials ordered teams and fans were to clear the field because of a lightning delay. Spitting rain evolved into angry showers, the drops pushed sideways by a swirling southern wind. It came and went in a flurry, with frat boys in pressed white shirts scuttling back to their seats at the all-clear at 7:32.

The Buffs laughed last. And loudest. CU loses this kind of game a year ago. Sanders loses this kind of game, too. In one drive, on one un-Boo-lievable night, the ghosts of 2025 felt buried and gone. Like TCU three years ago, Thursday felt like the start of something. The only question is how big. And how bright.

She’s first thing you notice when you walk through Donnie McLemore’s front door. sports store, located at the Peachtree Center in the heart of downtown Atlanta, is a mile-and-a-half south of Bobby Dodd Stadium in Midtown, where CU visits Georgia Tech Thursday night in the season opener for both schools. It’s also 1,429 miles southeast of Boulder.

“Been good for business,” Donnie said. “Been good for us.”

The Coach Prime Effect still lives here. In McLemore’s world, it never really left. A half-dozen shirts, some white, some black, hung Wednesday from a prominently placed rack at The Fan’s Wear, just past the store’s entrance. Seven new adjustable CU hats rested on a shelf on the back wall, not far from a high-def television.

McLemore’s been a manager at The Fan’s Wear for about a decade. He’d never carried CU shirts before Christmas 2022. Not before you-know-who showed up.

“We did have socks,” he cracked. “We had banners.”

“Did you stock any of this stuff.” I asked Tim Nguyen, who owns the store, “prior to December 2022?”

Tim looked up from his spreadsheets. He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“No,” Nguyen laughed. “Geez, no. Not with CU. But ever since, yeah.”

CU may claim Deion Sanders. Atlanta had him first. In his younger days, Coach Prime was an electric, All-Pro cornerback and returner for the Falcons from 1989-93 and an outfielder with the Braves from 1991-94. In October 1992, Coach Prime spent an afternoon playing for the Falcons in Miami, — he didn’t appear in the contest — for Game 5 of the NLCS against the Pirates later that night.

As a player, Sanders But he was an Atlanta legend.

“Deion’s huge here,” McLemore said. “Still is.”

Ergo, Tim and Donnie ordered a few boxes of CU stuff just before Christmas 2022. It sold so well that they bought more. And more.

It’s slowed up over the last 18 months or so, but from ’23 through the autumn of ’24, McLemore insisted, his Buffs swag moved. In downtown Atlanta.

Donnie got two more boxes of CU stuff in on Tuesday in advance of the Buffs’ visit to Tech. He expects half of it to be gone by the end of the month.

All signs point to a crazy Labor Day weekend — CU and Georgia Tech tussle Thursday in Midtown, while Baylor meets Auburn in the Aflac Kickoff Game Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. one of the largest pop-culture/comic/fantasy events in North America, runs Thursday-Sunday downtown. So basically, you’ve got Buffs faithful milling with Baylor and Auburn types downtown, while occasionally walking past packs of kids wearing full It’s a regular Nerdi Gras ’round these parts.

“You like the Jackets or Buffs?” I asked my Lyft driver Wednesday.

He paused. Car, then train of thought.

“Deion Sanders, man,” he said, his voice dropping to an almost nostalgic whisper. “Deion Sannnnnnnders. In Atlanta.”

***

If you want to leave an impression, the A-T-L’s a pretty darn good place to plant a flag — as a program and as a brand.

Atlanta is to college football talent what Kansas City and Dallas are to barbecue. Of 247Sports’ top eight national prospects for the Class of 2027, three hail from Georgia. Of the top 12 for ’28, two are Georgia preps.

“That’s the South, man,” Sanders told reporters last month. “That’s the South. It’s like — how prominent has the University of Georgia been the last decade? Prominent. Alabama? Prominent. Those schools from the South, (such as) Clemson, all those schools. So it’s a bed of talent here. And we’ve been able to penetrate that bed and grab some great players out of there. And they’re excited about going home. They’re excited about putting on (a show) in front of their families.”

While CU has a ton of competition, On3’s Chad Simmons told me that Sanders’ name alone opened more doors for local prospects than they had in the decade prior.

From 2018 to 2026, the Buffs averaged 30 offers to Georgia high schoolers, per the 247Sports database. From ’23-26, the opening four classes of the Prime Era averaged three Georgia high school commits.

Simmons has covered in-state recruiting in Georgia for more than two decades. CU wasn’t even on his radar before Sanders arrived in Boulder. Thanks to Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who played at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga., and Julian Lewis of Carrollton, Ga., the Buffs haven’t really left.

“I would say there wasn’t (a presence),” Simmons told me by phone. “There really wasn’t. I mean, they weren’t the brand … there wasn’t a lot of talk (about them), to me.

“Throughout my entire career, I’ve covered every level player from 3-stars, 4-stars, 5-stars, and you didn’t hear a lot about CU (here). Obviously, Deion changed that and he changed that overnight. Before Deion, there wasn’t much, if any, real chatter (about the Buffs) among the legit Power-4 guys in the state of Georgia.”

They’re talking now. And they’ll be buzzing Thursday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, just a few miles north of downtown Atlanta. As of Wednesday, the Buffs had 20 offers out to Georgia preps in the Class of ’28, per the 247 database. That group includes 4-star edge rusher Myles Tate (Woodward Academy, College Park, Ga.), and 4-star safety

“I definitely think Deion has laid down the groundwork (here), and kind of put CU on the map for guys in this state,” Simmons continued. “With the way college football is now, anybody can recruit anybody, with (Name/Image/Likeness), the (revenue) opportunities there are outside of football.

“And even if Deion’s (not) there, if it’s (offensive coordinator) Brennan Marion or whoever may be the next coach, if they can kind of keep that brand, that style of football, winning some key games — obviously, they’ve got to play the NIL game.

“(Boulder) is a great place. I mean, kids come back home (to the South) that I covered in high school from CU and are always talking about how beautiful it is, the weather — it’s different from being in the city of Atlanta or around the Atlanta area. They like the change. So, yeah, there’s a lot for CU to sell.”

***

Including merch, as it turns out. Josh Young is a manager at the Hudson Grille in Sandy Springs, Ga., up in the north ‘burbs. It’s the home of the football watch parties hosted by Forever Buffs Atlanta, CU’s local alumni club.

Young hasn’t been there long, yet he figures a typical Buffs game-watch at the Grille draws 25-30 folks in black and gold — roughly quadruple what it was before the Coach Prime Era.

And not all of them are Buffs alums, either. Young, who grew up watching Coach Prime rock Atlanta, San Francisco and Dallas, bought a CU hat four years ago when Deion was hired. So did one of his co-workers. Neither had set so much as a foot inside Folsom Field.

“I can’t speak much for Sandy Springs,” Young told me, “but when you do walk around, you see (CU) gear in downtown Atlanta or in Buckhead. You’ll see people really supporting Deion. Even on game day.”

Heck, Donnie says that, among Denver-area franchises he stocks at The Fan’s Wear, the Buffs now keep pace with the Nuggets — RIP, Dikembe Mutombo — while lapping the Broncos and Rockies.

All down to one dude. Who’s a touchdown underdog against the Ramblin’ Wreck.

“Tough one,” Donnie laughed. “Tech was good last year.”

“That was last year,” I quipped. “Haynes King is the Falcons’ problem now.”

Donnie took four or five calls Tuesday morning asking if he still had any CU stuff on hand. He got a couple more early Wednesday.

“We’re proud of Deion. We love him and support him,” McLemore said. “He definitely has his own identity. And he’s carried it on.”

Deion Sanders. In Atlanta.

You want to bet against that?

When/where: 6 p.m. MT Thursday/Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field

TV/Radio: ESPN/850 AM

CU +6.5, 50.5 over/under

79 degrees, clear skies and humid

Series history:��2nd meeting; Georgia Tech won 27-20 last year in Boulder

Three storylines

The Go-Go offense’s CU Debut: Deion Sanders hired to be the Buffs’ new offensive coordinator in the offseason, replacing Pat Shurmur. The former UNLV offensive coordinator and Texas assistant has been tasked with reviving a CU offense that with 20.9 points per game last year. Marion is CU’s third full-time offensive coordinator in four seasons, so there’s pressure on him and redshirt freshman Julian Lewis to make the Buffs’ offense fun again. That starts against a Georgia Tech defense renowned for its physicality in the trenches; Lewis will need a supportive run game Thursday.

Buffs’ new-look defense. It was which ranked 13th in the Big 12 in average points allowed (30.5) and was last in average yards allowed (425.7). The run D was incredibly weak: CU ranked 135th in the nation by giving up 222.5 yards per game. Setting a new tone on Thursday will be important for new defensive coordinator Chris Marve, who has almost an all-new defense. Of the 44 defensive players on the roster, only eight were with CU last year. Georgia Tech ran the ball 47 times for 320 yards ; they are going to pound the rock again, and CU has to be able to contain quarterback scrambles.

What’s at stake for Deion.��As Sanders enters his fourth year helming CU, there are��serious questions about the program’s direction. Aside from a 9-4 season in 2024 that was headlined by an NFL QB (Shedeur Sanders) and a generational Heisman Trophy winner (Travis Hunter), the Buffs were a combined 7-17 in ’23 and ’25. They looked like they didn’t belong in the Big 12 last year. The Neon Deion hype has worn off; 2026 is now or never to start winning more football games. Sanders’ lingering legal issues — his son Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy trial, plus a lawsuit by a graphic designer — haven’t helped public perception. Sanders can start righting the ship with an upset win on the road in Atlanta.

Predictions

Kyle Newman, sportswriter: Georgia Tech 31, CU 21

In what will be a make-or-break season for Coach Prime, the Buffs just don’t have the talent of cohesiveness to get it done. That begins with a poor performance in Atlanta, where the Yellow Jackets make CU’s offense one-dimensional and use a big third quarter to pull away from the Buffs. CU will win next week against Weber State, but after this performance, the Big 12 slate looks daunting.

Sean Keeler, sports columnist: CU 30, Georgia Tech 28

Do you believe? I believe in new Buffs offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, who’s got the element of (some) surprise and novelty — via the Go-Go offense — at his back. In his last six season openers as either an offensive coordinator or a head coach, Marion’s teams are 4-2 and his teams have averaged 30 points per game. If you take out Sacramento State’s stumble in Marion’s Hornets’ debut last August (a 20-3 loss at FCS power South Dakota State), those other five teams averaged 35 points in their openers. Deion Sanders loves Atlanta. Atlanta loves him right back. This is a statement game in one of Coach Prime’s favorite places. On those stages, in these moments, he usually doesn’t miss.

Troy Renck, sports columnist: Georgia Tech 27, CU 20

With dozens of new players, CU is a mystery. The Buffs have added players who have produced or have potential. But until the Buffs under Deion Sanders prove they can get more physical along the offensive and defensive lines, it is hard to believe in them in a spot like this.

Nate Peterson, sports editor: CU 28, Georgia Tech 24

Nobody loves The ATL more than Deion Sanders. He’s already working on his best lines for his presser after the Buffs pull off a stunner in Prime Time. Brennan Marion’s “basketball on grass” Go-Go offense is the shot in the arm Colorado needs after last year’s 3-9 disaster under Pat Shurmur and the defense does just enough for Julian Lewis and the other Georgia Buffs to get a win. Hold on to those receipts.

Sanders’ testimony contradicted Monday, in which witnesses said Sanders was angry, cursing and kicking chairs before becoming the aggressor in the altercation between him and former school security guard John Darjean at a school in Dallas.

Sanders said he was not angry, did not curse and never kicked or threw a chair. “That never happened,” Sanders said.

Judge Michael E. Romero heard Sanders’ testimony in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver. In the trial, which is scheduled to run through Friday, Romero will determine whether Sanders acted willfully and maliciously during the Sept. 17, 2015, incident in which Darjean claimed the then 15-year-old Sanders assaulted him and caused permanent injuries.

Darjean sued Sanders and was awarded $11.89 million. Sanders filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and now hopes to discharge, or erase, the debt owed to Darjean. Romero will determine whether Sanders acted willfully and maliciously, because under U.S. bankruptcy law, debts resulting from a “willful and malicious injury” cannot be discharged by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Sanders testified that Darjean was “getting aggressive” and “attacked and assaulted” him, including choking him. Witnesses said in depositions played on Monday that Sanders struck Darjean and that they did not see Darjean choke Sanders.

Sanders denied striking Darjean.

Jordan Ham, whose video deposition was played earlier Tuesday afternoon, investigated the incident for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The final report determined there was not enough evidence to determine whether Sanders suffered abuse, Ham testified in his deposition. Ham’s investigation began after Sanders reported to the agency that he was choked and slammed into a wall.

Michael Phillips, a medical doctor who treated Darjean’s injuries after the incident, testified via video deposition to Darjean’s ongoing pain. After the incident, Darjean underwent surgery to fuse the C3 through C7 vertebrae in his neck.

“It was an extensive injury to warrant multi-level fusion,” Phillips said.

Darjean stepped out of the courtroom several times during the first two days of the trial to take a break from sitting due to back pain.

Part of a 2018 video deposition from CU Buffs head coach Deion Sanders, the father of Shilo Sanders, was also played in court on Tuesday afternoon.

Deion Sanders said that Darjean called him on his cell phone earlier that day because Darjean was dealing with a situation with his son, but that Darjean didn’t provide specific details.

“My exact words were to handle it like you’d handle anybody else,” Deion Sanders said in his deposition.

Shilo Sanders is expected to continue testifying on Wednesday.

Deion Sanders virtually at 1:30 p.m. MDT Friday in case his testimony is needed in his son’s trial. His possible virtual court appearance is scheduled the day after the Buffs’ season opener at Georgia Tech on Thursday.

.

Will Deion Sanders be served papers at CU’s home opener?

Will Gideon Lampron or Julian Lewis get subpoenaed during their postgame interviews?

Coach Prime’s Buffs are a walking prop bet right now, college football’s most curious outfit.

Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy trial, stemming from a physical altercation with a high-school security guard more than a decade ago, begins Monday — a few days before CU opens its 2026 football season at Georgia Tech.

Despite efforts to quash a subpoena, a Colorado judge ruled that Sanders, CU’s fourth-year football coach, must testify if asked, but not until after the Buffs-Yellow Jackets game on Thursday night in Atlanta. Which means the work week for the elder Sanders’ biggest game since his Buffs debut at TCU three years ago just gets weirder and weirder.

“There is a lot of pressure, a lot of external expectations and stuff like that,” CU wide receiver Danny Scudero said. “But if we can narrow it down to what our team believes in, and just focus on going 1-0 each week, that kind of eliminates a lot of the external factors that weigh on us as players and coaches.”

When it comes to Coach Prime 2.0, there’s only one way to get this train back on the football track. Just win, baby.

“I feel like us collectively as a team, we understand that the most important game is the next one,” Buffs linebacker Liona Lefau, a transfer from Texas, told me earlier this month. “And especially if it’s the season-opener — that kind of sets the tone to see how we want the season to go. The coaches, they keep preaching as well, that (it’s) going to set the tone for our season. We’re really hoping to come out there (at Georgia Tech) firing, preparing the best we can to just be ready, to be at the top of our game and ready to go.”

We joke about the prop market, but a nugget of Buffs wagering news kind of went under the radar this past week. Ben Fawkes, a betting analyst with Yahoo Sports, — sandwiched between the over on Oklahoma’s 8.5 victories (No. 1) and the over on Nebraska’s 5.5 wins (No. 3).

2023: Welcome to The Coach Prime Effect.

2026: Welcome to The Coach Marion Effect.

“I think based on the track record for (Marion), I see nothing but success coming out of this,” Connor Fetterhoff told me by phone recently. “There’s no doubt.”

Fetterhoff doesn’t know Coach Prime. But he knows Brennan Marion, CU’s new offensive coordinator, well. And he kind of likes the Buffs at over 4.5 wins this fall, too.

Connor’s an insurance broker these days in Waynesboro, Pa., a little burg along southern border of the state, roughly 72 miles northwest of Baltimore. A dozen years ago, he was the starting quarterback at Waynesboro Area High School in 2014, a 5-foot-11 plugger who ran, by his own admission, a “5.0 in the 40 (yard-dash).” Marion had just arrived in town to be his head coach. Waynesboro went 0-10 the year before. The program hadn’t produced a winning season in 22 years. Fetterhoff didn’t play varsity football in 2013, and wasn’t even sure he was going to in ’14, either.

“We’re at the YMCA, just shooting hoops, and Coach Marion and his younger brother Justin, they walked into the YMCA, and I don’t know if he’d (met) me before or not,” Connor recalled. “And he said to me, ‘You’re going to be my QB this year.’ And it was crazy how it all played out there.”

Marion, then just 27, had brought this new-fangled, no-huddle offense with him from California. Fetterhoff and his pals hadn’t run anything like the “Go-Go” before. Two running backs lined up as “sidecars” on either side of the quarterback taking a shotgun or pistol snap. Five eligible wide receivers gathered on the same side of the formation. Tempo, tempo, tempo.

“As soon as somebody was down, you’re all getting right onto the ball for the next snap,” he recalled. “The defense had no time to recover.”

In Marion’s Waynesboro debut, his kids won 53-7. Fetterhoff threw for 417 yards, five touchdowns and two picks. Waynesboro piled up 607 yards. They’d gone from 0-10 to 6-4, from averaging 11.4 points the season before to 36.6 points per contest under Marion. Fetterhoff, he of the 5.0 40, finished the season with 19 passing touchdowns and ran for five more.

Marion bolted for a job working quality control at Arizona State not long after that, and the rest his history.

“He sat us down when we first met him and was very upfront about his goal,” Fetterhoff recounted. “To build something really crazy here and then move up. I didn’t know if any of this would go and extend (for him) like it has. It’s awesome.”

He would call plays at Howard (2017, ’18), William & Mary (2019), UNLV (2023, ’24) and as head coach at Sacramento State last fall. The teams in each of his initial seasons at those four stops wound up with a combined 28-21, for an average of seven wins. In his Howard debut in 2017, the FCS Bison went to UNLV as 45-point underdogs and wound up running for 309 yards, throwing for 140 more, and notching a 43-40 upset in Sin City. What worked in Waynesboro worked against the Mountain West, too.

“It definitely switched the whole town’s mindset on the whole football program,” Fetterhoff said. “He started making it exciting to go watch the games.”

Something that could not be said for Marion’s CU predecessor, mind you. Compared to Pat Shurmur practicing incompletions or “free-balling” it with JuJu Lewis last year, any upgrade for the Buffs’ offense would feel like a breath of fresh air. But when Marion’s guys are humming, the vibe’s more like a tsunami. His Sac State Hornet teams in 2025 scored at least 30 points on seven different occasions and went 6-1 in those tilts.

That’s the magic number to watch. Thirty. 3-0. Since 2023, Sanders’ Buffs are 13-3 when CU scores 30 points or more, and 3-18 when that number is 29 points or fewer. To that end, a no-huddle offense at altitude is exactly the kind of offense the Buffs should be running, given Sanders’ remit. And the 38-year-old Marion, on paper, is exactly the sort of young, innovative play-designer Coach Prime should be hiring.

You bring up CU’s offensive line being small on the eyes, and Fetterhoff takes you back a dozen autumns, when he says Waynesboro under Marion featured maybe one guy who weighed 300 pounds protecting the pocket, while the rest of the offensive line checked in at between 180-230 pounds.

You bring up Lewis’ height —, and that might be generous — and Connor reminds you that he’s still probably 5-10 and change, but had an arm that could chuck the ball 65-70 yards and get it out quick. Sound like anybody we know?

“Just buy into the system,” Fetterhoff would tell Lewis.

“Just listen to (Marion) … and know that system is built for success, no doubt … just building that team atmosphere and knowing that you can trust those guys, and knowing that they can trust you.”

Can we trust these Buffs? The only thing that’ll change CU’s narrative is the scoreboard. And you can that the one at will speak volumes.

Parker Gabriel: Well, that would certainly make Deion Sanders’ weekend travel arrangements more convenient. Do you think it would also make it easier … eh, never mind. Bottom line: I cannot fathom that happening, although Payton did wax fairly poetic about Sheduer during the 2025 NFL Draft when his fall to the fifth round was approaching terminal velocity. It’s one thing to be friendly with the coach and his kid, but it’s another when it comes to Payton and being protective about his quarterback room. If he thinks Shedeur would fit well in that room, hey, let it rip. Turns out, Sanders is the No. 2 in Cleveland — somehow — to start the season anyway. But when Payton says he wants anonymous donors in his building, the only exemption is for himself. Shedeur around here would be anything but anonymous. If Von Miller can’t get a call, it’s hard to see Shedeur fitting Sean’s “right 53.”

Keeler: I can’t see Stiddy or Ehlinger winning a postseason game for this franchise, and that’s the problem. I also can’t see Payton trusting his passing game to Shedeur. The former CU Buffs star has the touch, the vision, the cool and the “it” factor — but he’s also got a career sack rate of 9.8% in the NFL, a clip that sits between Russell Wilson’s 10.22% rate in ’22 and 9.15% in ’23 under Sunshine Sean. We saw how long that marriage lasted. So let me throw another name out there: Cowboys backup Joe Milton III. The former Tennessee/Michigan man boasts a TD-to-int ratio of 3-0 and a passer rating of 142.9 this month. That works.

Gabriel: Alright, now you’re cooking. Just like Preseason Milton. The funny thing: Payton never specifically named Milton, but he complained about how the NFL Combine and Pro Days have changed and now it’s just about seeing how far guys can throw the ball … conspicuously soon after Milton hucked it 80 yards or something like that. The thought process here, though, actually leads to the ultimate reason why I can see Payton keeping both at the roster cutdown on Aug. 30 and then maybe even playing it coy until Week 1 on who will be No. 2 and who will be the emergency third on gamedays: Who else is there? Maybe Zach Wilson gets cut at the roster cutdown, but other than that, there haven’t been many young guys who have learned any of Payton’s system since he’s been in Denver. So, are you going to be one injury away from Stidham or Ehlinger as your starter and a guy off the street or just into the building as the No. 2?

Keeler: Stidham vs. Ehlinger doesn’t feel like a fair fight. The latter needs more preseason snaps, and Payton’s playing time so far feels as if he’s got a thumb on the scale. It also feels as if Stiddy’s got a job for the same reason Zeke Nnaji is still a Nugget — But Super Bowl windows with a cost-controlled star QB don’t last forever, and the time is now. I’m ringing up Jerry Jones about Milton — career NFL sacks taken: zero in five appearances — to see if he’d like to swap backups.

Gabriel: That would be fun. From here, I’ll say the Broncos keep Stiddy and Ehlinger through 2026 and then try to identify a Milton-esque young, developmental player to add to the room for 2027 — potential Bo Nix extension season, as it happens — and beyond.