The former CU Heisman Trophy winner wanted to play both ways for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He aimed to flip the sport on its head. Instead, he wrecked his knee and missed the final 10 games.

Now, the Jaguars plan on using him at cornerback with a few gadget plays at receiver sprinkled into the mix. I advocated that they use him on both sides of the ball. But not now.

Streamlining is the right decision.

The Jaguars don’t need two average players. They need one great one. They sacrificed three picks in 2025 (No. 5 overall, second-rounder, fourth-rounder) and the 24th pick in the first round next month to draft Hunter.

That is a quarterback cost. Playing both ways made a sound return on investment more likely. Until it didn’t.

Once Hunter got hurt in October, the Jaguars moved quickly, acquiring receiver Jakobi Meyers. Hunter was gaining traction, but Meyers was better. And it was clear from the way Jacksonville used Hunter that learning an NFL offense, as with most rookie receivers, was a challenge, made more difficult by the division of his meeting room time.

Before taking a shot at the “smaller-market” Jags for not continuing the experiment, understand something. The circumstances have changed.

Jacksonville is a Super Bowl contender. The Jags were the only team to beat the Broncos at home in the regular season last year, flattening their noses if we are being honest.

Even if Hunter prefers to play two spots, it is no longer his choice. The Jaguars must do what is best for him and the team. And that means letting Hunter ramp up at cornerback without taxing himself mentally with Liam Coen’s playbook.

Hunter had every right to carry his college ambition into the NFL. But he is not suited physically — 6-foot-1, 185 pounds — to perform well as a starter at two spots. It prevents him from becoming a star, and makes it more likely he gets injured. Plus, great corners are harder to find than receivers.

Hunter turns 23 in May. He has his entire career in front of him.

So he’s not Shohei Ohtani? So what. He can still hit a home run for the Jaguars by becoming an All-Pro defensive back.

Case for Jamal: Predictably, fans did not like my take, preferring Victor Wembanyama over Nikola Jokic in the MVP race. If the vote were about the last month, Jokic would get my vote. He just had a three-week hiccup before that while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Wemby were acing the test. Jokic is again the best player in the world. But is he even the Nuggets’ MVP this season? When it comes to creating connective tissue, especially during Jokic’s 16-game injury absence, no one is more responsible than Jamal Murray. And with his best needed over the last 10 games, the guard has averaged 27.6 points and 7.1 assists. While defending Jokic over every slight, don’t forget to give proper credit to Murray for keeping the Nuggets in position to secure the No. 3 seed.

Rock show: The Rockies began this season with a 6-7 record after starting last year 7-33. Cleaning out the front office and hiring baseball people outside the building sparked the revival. As did general manager Josh Byrnes reshaping the bullpen. Through the first 12 games, the Rockies’ relievers led MLB in most pitches (200) over 97 miles per hour. It was only a few years ago that they barely had anyone throw that hard. Baseball is a turbo-charged game off the mound, and the Rockies finally cracked open the hood and fixed it.

DU is Who: Let’s get one thing clear. With apologies to the Avs, Nuggets and Broncos, no one is better in the clutch than DU’s hockey team. They will play for the national championship against Wisconsin on Saturday after eliminating Michigan. Everything about the semifinal victory spoke to the Pioneers’ talent and resilience. It also helps having a goalie in Johnny Hicks who hasn’t lost this season. The Pios are the team of the decade. No one can be trusted to deliver more in a big spot than DU.

On Thursday, Todd Archer, who covers the Dallas Cowboys for ESPN, reported that Livingston was one of three coaches with in-person interviews Thursday for positions with the Cowboys.

Last week, the Cowboys hired former Philadelphia Eagles defensive backs coach Christian Parker as their new defensive coordinator. They are currently in the process of filling out their defensive staff.

Livingston, 40, has spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator at CU, hired almost exactly two years ago by Buffs head coach Deion Sanders. On Feb. 7, 2025, CU gave Livingston a two-year contract extension worth an average of $1.55 million per year, making him the highest-paid assistant coach in program history.

Prior to coming to CU, Livingston worked for 12 years with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, including eight as a secondary coach.

In 2024, Livingston turned around the Buffs’ defense, led by several seniors. That season, the Buffs were sixth in the Big 12 in scoring defense (allowing 23.1 points per game) and eighth in total defense (allowing 351.9 yards per game).

The previous year, CU gave up 34.8 points and 453.3 yards per game. In 2024, it was the first time in CU history that total defense improved by at least 100 yards (101.4), and the 11.7-point improvement in the scoring defense is the best for a CU team in nearly 40 years (the 1985 team made a 19.1-point improvement).

CU also led the Big 12 in sacks (39) and tackles for loss (93) and finished second with 27 takeaways in 2024, led by Big 12 defensive player of the year Travis Hunter.

The majority of those players graduated or transferred after 2024, however, leaving Livingston and the Buffs to rebuild. This past season, CU allowed 30.5 points and 425.7 yards per game and finished tied for 14th in the Big 12 in sacks (13). The Buffs ranked 135th out of 136 FBS teams in run defense, allowing 222.5 yards per game.

Jordan Seaton wasn’t liked at CU. He was beloved. this past November.

On Tuesday morning, those hearts were broken.

College football is so, so, so, soooo broken right now.

Seaton, the biggest Buff in terms of sheer size (330 pounds) and importance (22 starts at left tackle), announced late Monday that he was entering the transfer portal.

“I never imagined this journey would come to a close in this way,” “but I am deeply grateful for every moment that led me here.”

A fresh start might be good for Seaton — and for his NFL draft stock. It’s not a good look for CU. Or for Deion Sanders, who treated the young man like one of his own.

. Seaton, a 5-star recruit and the No. 1 offensive line prospect in his prep class, announced his commitment on Fox Sports 1 in December 2023. He was a game-changer. A momentum-driver. A core piece.

He immediately ran with Shedeur Sanders like a bigger baby brother, then protected Shedeur’s blind side during the greatest single passing season in Buffs history. He was a captain in the making. An icon on the climb.

And now he’s … gone?

“Financially, it’s going to be good (for Seaton), I’ve got to believe,” , told me Tuesday. “It’s too bad for the Buffaloes. They’re losing a guy they would have liked to have kept.”

Let’s be clear: This was mostly about the bag. Had to be. Nobody announces a portal transfer a few days before the window closes on Friday unless another party swooped in with some serious cash.

But if Coach Prime can’t keep Seaton around, who can he keep? They’ve even been repped by the same agency, for pity’s sake. The tackle as of Tuesday was listed as one of

Monday’s announcement might have been just about business. But after the last two seasons, it felt more than a little personal, too.

And speaking of personal, the same CU faithful who called Seaton the next Penei Sewell 18 months ago . That the Buffs are better off.

Whether players are coming or going, the spin never ends.

Cooper told me he did feel that Seaton hit a wall late last season, even while the latter was apparently playing hurt. Other scouting services agreed — after netting a 67.2 overall grade (out of 100) from Pro Football Focus as a true freshman in 2024, Seaton’s overall mark dipped to 65.8 in 2025, with his run blocking grade (52.0 grade) dropping significantly from the year before (62.0). Although came away more impressed with last fall’s tape, noting that Seaton committed fewer penalties (four) and allowed fewer QB pressures (seven) in ’25 compared to what he’d charted while watching the kid’s 2024 film (14 penalties, 27 pressures).

“I think he’s got some work to do,” Cooper stressed. “He’s got definite upside. I think as (2025) progressed … his pass protection was pretty solid until the end of the year. He took a dip there. His run-blocking has never been that great.”

Once you take off your Blenders shades, it’s clear that coaching was a factor here, too.

Seaton, who’s entering his junior season, wants to throw his hat into the 2027 NFL Draft. Cooper says he’d give the kid a second-round grade based on his sophomore season. That’s not going to cut it.

“He’s got an NFL body,” Syvertsen said. “He’s got the goods. He’s tall. He’s long. He holds his weight exceptionally well. He’s got outstanding body control.”

Seaton’s also got one season to put better stuff on film for the real money at the next level. If you’re a CU fan, shouldn’t it concern you that he’d rather do it somewhere else?

Sanders has had three different sets of offensive line coach configurations in BoCo since 2023. Seaton has seen four different position coaches, technically, since early 2024. Phil Loadholt, now at Mississippi State, gave way to the trio of Gunnar White (offensive run game coordinator/offensive line), George Hegamin (assistant coach/offensive line) and ex-Buffs great Andre Gurode (assistant coach/offensive line) before last season.

“From the outside looking in, it just seems like the coaching staff is consistently bringing in new people, new faces, new celebrities,” Syvertsen continued. “It doesn’t feel like this coaching staff is there to truly develop guys.”

Was it the system? Haven’t heard a bad word about high-tempo Go-Go system, other than you’d better be in good shape and willing to run — hard — for it to fly.

Was it the culture? Seaton was supposed to be a pillar of the Coach Prime revival, the kind of guy you could build a program around. For the last 10 days, CU has been swapping big names and in and out like it’s 2023 all over again. But if you made a list of five guys the Buffs needed to keep around, ideally, Seaton would land at No. 1. Or No. 2.

Instead, he’s leaving another crack in the foundation. Leaving more questions. And leaving one very large, uncomfortable query in particular: Who’s going to have Julian Lewis’ back now?

There aren’t a lot of big men in the college free-agent pool left who can do what Seaton does when he’s healthy. The dude’s a snowplow with nimble feet and a mean streak. He’s the kind of blocker who becomes a cult legend, the kind of tackle a fun coach feel good about throwing the ball to in the end zone. The next eight on the list were already spoken for.

Some in Buffs Nation will tell you this week that Seaton’s no big loss. They’re fooling themselves. Tennessee wanted him. Alabama wanted him. Florida wanted him. Ohio State wanted him. Georgia. Miami. Michigan. Oregon. Penn State. USC, too. Will the last Louis turn out the lights?

“Just Under Armour,” the former CU Buffs offensive lineman texted me from his vacation in Nashville.

While on the road with his fiancée, Fenske’s also been keeping an eye on an old CU teammate, Oregon’s starting right tackle?

Harkey, a 6-foot-6, 327-pound redshirt senior, is prepping for a Friday night showdown with Indiana — and another former CU player, the Hoosiers’ Kahlil Benson — in one College Football Playoff semifinal. The Ducks’ bruiser helped Oregon put up 245 passing yards and convert four fourth-down conversions on The Best Defense Money Can Buy, blanking Texas Tech 23-0 in the Orange Bowl.

He’d transferred into CU as a 305-pounder out of Tyler (Texas) Junior College, a 3-star who was weighing offers from Middle Tennessee and Old Dominion. After appearing in 12 games, largely as a reserve guard, Harkey was one of the kids from swept out in the great Deion Sanders roster purge during the spring of 2023.

Fenske, who played in seven games with the Buffs in ’22, was Harkey’s roommate at CU. He got swept away, too. Under Armour was out, Louis Vuitton luggage was in.

“(Harkey has) done incredible, man,” Fenske gushed. “Because when he first came in (to CU), he wasn’t what he is now. And just seeing his transformation from being a (backup) guard on a 1-11 team to being a first-round or second-round (NFL) draft pick …”

Big Alex could play. So could wideout Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State). And And quarterback Owen McCown, once he’d had some more brisket. McCown, who threw for 30 touchdowns at UTSA this past fall — including three in a 57-20 win over Florida International in the First Responder Bowl.

“We just stay connected, support each other’s success,” Harris, who still belongs to a group chat of former Buffs, told me over the weekend. “You’ve got to expect the unexpected. That (purge) hit us all in the mouth.”

CU fans talk a lot — a lot — about 1-11 in 2022. About rock bottom. About Coach Prime lighting the candle for the climb out of obscurity.

All of it true. But what we won’t talk as much about is just how young that 2022 team actually was. Heading into the opener, 33 of the 81 dudes on that CU depth chart were freshmen. Twenty-three were sophomores. It showed.

“I get that it’s a multimillion-dollar business,” Fenske said. “But what’s missing in college football is the developmental piece to it. For Philip Rivers to come back (to the NFL) after five years (retired) and be better than half the QBs in the NFL, that’s not a talent issue. That’s a development issue …

“I want (the Buffs) to do well, but man, they missed out. They really missed out on (Harkey). Even when he wasn’t a starter, he always kind of carried himself with a chip on his shoulder. He wanted to get better. He knows ball. He was a great person to be around.”

Hindsight is a fickle mistress. You don’t have 2023’s sugar rush and 2024’s Big 12 title chase without Coach Prime. Or without Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, if we’re being frank about it.

Yet you also could field a pretty darned good college football lineup out of players who left CU’s program following the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons. Check out tthese Post-Prime All-Stars, all ex-Buffs, and their 2025 stat lines:

OFFENSE

QB — Owen McCown, UTSA, 30 TD passes, 7 interceptions

RB — Anthony Hankerson, Oregon State, 1,086 rushing yards

LT — Isaiah Jatta, BYU, 64.1 Pro Football Focus grade

LG — Zack Owens, Mississippi State, 56.0 PFF grade

C — Van Wells, Oregon State, 63.6 PFF grade

RG/RT — Kahlil Benson, Indiana, 72.5 PFF grade

RT — Alex Harkey, Oregon, 64.2 PFF grade

TE — Seydou Traore, Mississippi State, five TD catches

TE — Chamon Metayer, Arizona State, four TD catches

WR — Jordyn Tyson, Arizona State, eight TD catches

WR — Chase Sowell, Iowa State, 500 receiving yards

DEFENSE

DL — Dayon Hayes, Texas A&M, four sacks

DL — Chazz Wallace, NC State, 70.9 PFF grade

DL — Shakaun Bowser, UTEP, 62.3 PFF grade

LB — Nikhai Hill-Green, Alabama, two forced fumbles

LB — Jeremy Mack Jr., Old Dominion, six sacks

LB — Johnny Chaney Jr., FIU, three sacks

CB — Colton Hood, Tennessee, eight pass break-ups

CB — Simeon Harris, Fresno State, five interceptions

CB — Kyndrich Breedlove, Arizona State, five pass break-ups

S — Trevor Woods, Jacksonville State, three forced fumbles

S — Myles Slusher, Purdue, three pass break-ups

It’s a little light up front defensively, granted. But that’s not a bad offensive bunch. It’s probably a better starting 11, McCown included, than what Pencil Pat Shurmur trotted out this past fall.

“I’m not the only one that’s thought that,” Fenske chuckled.

“It’s funny how we all panned out,” Harris added. “But we all (had) wanted to be at CU.”

Meanwhile, the Buffs’ door keeps revolving. According to the 247Sports.com database, That group included key cogs such as cornerback DJ McKinney, safety Tawfiq Byard, defensive end London Merritt, defensive end Brandon Davis-Swain, wideout Omarion Miller, wideout/all-purpose back Dre’Lon Miller — all of whom could make a future Post-Prime starting 11.

Meanwhile, the Buffs are going to need to import at least 30, and maybe 35-45 transfers, just to fill out a roster whose depth was frequently tested last autumn.

History says they’ll find some dawgs. And recent history says they’ll need twice as many as a year ago.

“I think (CU) is about to go through another rebuild situation,” Harris noted.

Still, the Bulldogs’ defensive back doesn’t harbor any grudges toward Sanders, nor CU. Neither does Fenske, really, despite his exit.

“If I didn’t have the portal, I’m not in the spot I am today,” Fenske said. “The grass isn’t always greener for some. And I would advise people who are going into that position to really think about what they’re doing and to really take a chance on themselves and see if they can develop …

“Maybe the best thing for me was to go down (a level) and be humbled, to re-learn the game of football in a way and re-learn what life is about.”

The Big Guy works in mysterious ways, sometimes. Fenske just wrapped up his eligibility at Southern Illinois, having been named to the Missouri Valley Conference’s second-team offense and to the first team of the league’s Scholar-Athlete squad, thanks to a 4.0 GPA.

Noah also got engaged. He became a foster parent. He . Just because you’re traveling with Under Armour bags doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the journey. However winding.

“I want those guys (at CU) to do well,” the lineman said. “Boulder was really good to me, and I’m glad that Boulder is doing a little better than it was before I got there. It would be foolish for me to be super cynical about that. I want to see (CU) do well. I want to see that area flourish because it was very welcoming to me.”

Let’s hope so.

The Board of Regents checked every box, bringing aboard the 37-year-old Lovo, who sprinkled pixie dust at the .

The school’s press release makes a case for why the well-traveled Lovo is qualified. He hired football coach Jason Eck, who led the Lobos to their first nine-win season since 2016. He landed dynamic hoops boss Eric Olen. And he produced record revenue for the athletic department, improving by 17.6 % year over year.

Now comes the hard part.

Lovo’s first task when he starts Thursday must be to hold football coach Deion Sanders accountable.

Sanders was given the keys to the athletic department when he received a massive contract extension last March. Lovo must take them back And change the locks.

Sanders delivered for CU in his first two seasons. He brought eyeballs to TVs, a spike in student applications, a star quarterback in his son Shedeur and a Heisman Trophy winner in Travis Hunter.

Then last season the wheels fell off and the transmission dropped. Sanders deserves nothing but respect for beating cancer and working through health issues related to having a reconstructed bladder. There are those who want to give him a mulligan for the 3-9 record. Sanders is not among them. He has taken responsibility and insists he will fix it.

Words are not enough. They cannot be enough. He has to answer through actions for this mess.

How long can Lovo expect the scant well-off Buffs boosters to reach into their pockets and endure such failed expectations? And how patient can he be while overseeing a CU athletic department that is staring at a $27 million budget deficit in the fiscal year that ends in June 2026, primarily because of Prime and his players?

When donors see themselves as only funding expenses without a return on their investment — Sanders has a 16-21 record in Boulder — fatigue and frustration will follow.

The current way Sanders is running his program is not sustainable.

Former AD Rick George risked his career three years ago by hiring Sanders with no idea how to pay him. He pulled it off.

Now, Lovo walks into a more difficult spot since Sanders’ salary nearly doubled with his five-year, $54.5 million contract extension that runs through 2029.

CU was terrified at the prospect of losing Sanders, knowing what empty seats and lifeless games looked like under Karl Dorrell.

Left unsaid was that Sanders has to win for the dollars to make sense for CU.

There are no rebuilding seasons when the coach is getting paid in the top 20 of his profession.

And let����ap be real, the Buffs did not just lose a lot last season, they were blown out in three of their final five games, leading to fans clearing out by the fourth quarter of the final two at Folsom Field.

“Everybody deserves much better than this,” Sanders said after CU fell to Kansas State in the finale.

Still waiting.

Since the season ended, things have gotten worse.

Several of CU’s best players and prospects — receivers Omarion Miller and Dre’lon Miller, safety Tawfiq Byard and defensive lineman Alexander McPherson — entered the transfer portal.

All schools work the hack now that Sanders used to overhaul CU’s roster in 2023, and they do it better because they have more money to offer.

Which brings us back to Lovo. A man-to-man conversation with Sanders is necessary to help him embrace and understand how his job has evolved as the state’s highest-paid employee. Barring the rescue by a sugar daddy or private equity firm, the program needs a new direction, transparency, and a pivot in how it recruits and operates.

The days of Sanders not making off-campus visits must end. Recruits in and out of state need to see him. High school coaches need to know him.

Sanders’ best asset is his personality, and yet CU landed one top recruit in the state. He can no longer be so dependent on the portal. If he had a strong local relationships, perhaps he could have swooped in and signed Cherry Creek running back Jayden Fox, a UCLA commit, who profiles perfectly for offensive coordinator Brennan Marion’s system.

At the risk of sounding callous, if Sanders can make trips to support Shedeur playing for the Browns, why can’t he get on a plane to find players to uplift his program? Everyone from Indiana’s Curt Cignetti to North Carolina’s Bill Belichick leave campus in search of players. Sanders has to follow suit, health willing.

History shows CU’s staff needs to do more homework and build stronger relationships with recruits, especially with those in the portal. They whiffed on multiple transfers last offseason, most notably quarterback Kaidon Salter.

Blame the kid if you want. But why did Sanders think he would fit with Pat Shurmur given his lack of creativity? And don’t get us started on all the misses on offensive and defensive linemen.

Here’s the thing about history: it shows what it shows. And it will repeat itself if left unchecked. Sanders enters his fourth season on his third offensive coordinator and second defensive coordinator.

His staff features former pros, but lacks grinders, even though records obtained by , including a bodyguard. It is unclear where the number sits now, but only huge success can justify this type of excess.

He knows how the sausage is made. Sanders needs to be his greatest asset. But it has become painfully clear, Lovo must have the courage to direct the coach to follow a new blueprint.

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Broncos-Jaguars series: Despite the AFC stakes riding on this one, with the Jaguars sitting at the No. 3 seed in the conference, there’s not much shared history in this matchup. Denver has never played Jacksonville in the Sean Payton era, and new Jaguars head coach Liam Coen hasn’t played at Mile High since he was a receivers coach with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018. The Broncos are 7-6 against Jacksonville all-time, with their last game a 21-17 win in October 2022.

In the spotlight: Who in this Denver secondary checks whom in the Jaguars passing game?

On Thursday, the Jaguars officially inked receiver Jakobi Meyers to a three-year, $60 million extension after just six games with the franchise, a nod to how dynamic the former Raider has been since joining Jacksonville at the trade deadline.

“He’s made a huge difference,” Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said of Meyers Thursday. “When you watch the early part of the season without Jakobi, it����ap a good offense still. But he’s added a toughness, a smarts that veteran receivers add to an offense.

“The quarterback likes going to this receiver, and that����ap something that they’ve worked out fairly quickly. He’s a blocker. We faced him twice a year for three years now, and he’s always been a good player. His toughness and consistency as a player has helped this offense go to the next level.”

Meyers has 27 catches for 355 yards and three touchdowns in his six games in Jacksonville, production that makes Joseph’s life rather difficult. Sunday will no longer bring a Colorado reunion for Jaguars rookie Travis Hunter, who is on IR after a season-ending injury in November. But surging quarterback Trevor Lawrence has a wide array of weapons and no true WR1 in Jacksonville, raising a question about the matchup for Broncos’ shutdown corner Pat Surtain: Will he shadow one wideout or simply try to take away a side of the field?

The Jaguars, of course, have second-year wideout Brian Thomas Jr., who’s regressed after a Pro Bowl rookie year in 2024 but still has 601 yards in 11 games this season. There’s third-year burner Parker Washington, too, whose involvement varies week to week but has 39 catches in 13 games. Tight end Brenton Strange is authoring a quiet breakout, with 395 yards in nine games. And don’t forget about old Broncos buddy Tim Patrick, who had five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown just two weeks ago.

“To see him having the success that he’s having, man — it makes me happy, brings joy to me, because he’s a guy who deserves it,” receiver Courtland Sutton said Thursday, who played with Patrick from 2018-2023 in Denver.

“We’ve had our friendly banters already, going back and forth,” Sutton continued, smiling. “But he said he’s not talking to me for the rest of the week, until after the game. So we’ll see how that” goes.

The Broncos faced a similarly multidimensional passing game in last Sunday’s 34-26 win over the Green Bay Packers, as Surtain generally spent his time on Packers WR1 Christian Watson — and held him to one catch on three targets, including perhaps the most impressive interception of Surtain’s five-year Broncos career. Joseph could slide him around more on Jacksonville, or elect to slot him on Meyers if he believes the new addition is a true ceiling-raiser for the Jaguars’ offense.

The most interesting matchup, though, would be Thomas. The athletic Jaguars wideout has caught only two of his 16 targets this season when facing a tight window, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Surtain just forced a tight window on all three of those Watson targets last week. And the Jaguars are 2-2, moreover, when Thomas has caught less than 50% of his targets in a game this season.

The Broncos, then, could largely turn to nickel Ja’Quan McMillian when Meyers plays from the slot. But Jacksonville is using Meyers significantly more out wide than the Raiders did in the early part of 2025, another nod in favor of a potential Surtain matchup.

In any case, the right combination will be particularly important without the presence of safety Brandon Jones (placed on injured reserve this week), who’s quietly been one of the NFL’s best safeties in coverage since joining the Broncos in 2024. And Joseph will need to plug some holes that have popped up in recent weeks against one of the hottest offenses in the NFL.

“We all have a lot of confidence in what we’re doing,” Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said this week. “It just seems like we got the ball rolling, the last few weeks.”

Who has the edge?

When Broncos run: This is a heck of a matchup for Denver rookie RJ Harvey, who’s coming off a late rib injury against the Packers last week. Jacksonville has the top-ranked run defense in the NFL, and play heavy doses of base personnel, and allow just 3.6 yards per run play when playing in that base personnel. The Broncos haven’t been able to generate chunk plays in the run game since J.K. Dobbins went down a month ago, and have put a combined 36 carries on Harvey’s shoulders the past two weeks. He’ll need to do more Sunday. Edge: Jaguars

When Broncos pass: The Jaguars have only surrendered over 200 passing yards to any individual quarterback once in their past four matchups. That being said, here’s the quarterbacks who Jacksonville’s faced in those four matchups: Cardinals backup Jacoby Brissett, Titans rookie Cam Ward, Colts rookie backup Riley Leonard, Jets rookie backup Brady Cook. Not exactly a Murderer’s Row. Bo Nix, too, should have his full complement of weapons back this week with rookie Pat Bryant rejoining the fold. Slight edge: Broncos

When Jaguars run: Lawrence’s old Clemson teammate Travis Etienne has had arguably the best season of his career, but has slowed considerably in recent weeks, only averaging more than four yards a carry in one game since November. Jacksonville will be down rookie RB2 Bhayshul Tuten, too, who’s made an impact with six touchdowns in spot touches for Etienne this season. Denver gave up 71 yards on 12 carries to Josh Jacobs on the ground last week against the Packers, but that was Josh Jacobs. Edge: Broncos

When Jaguars pass: Trevor Lawrence is playing as well as any quarterback the past three weeks, a frightening prospect for these Broncos. Jacksonville, too, has a number of receivers that can beat any team in a variety of ways, with wideouts Brian Thomas Jr. and Jakobi Meyers and tight end Brenton Strange. Broncos safety Brandon Jones’ injury hurts, too, as Jones has been excellent for Denver the past two seasons in coverage. Edge: Even

Special teams: Watch out. Jacksonville’s Washington is fifth in the NFL in punt-return yardage, and has ran back two boots for touchdowns this year. Jaguars rookie kicker Cam Little is a stud, too, knocking home a 68-yard field goal earlier this season to shatter the NFL record. The Broncos have turned in a handful of standout performances here in recent weeks, but Jacksonville will test them. Slight edge: Jaguars

��Dz����󾱲Բ�:��This is a battle between two dark-horse Coach of the Year candidates, with Payton steering the Broncos’ culture toward the top seed in the AFC and Coen getting the most out of Jacksonville’s defense and quarterback Trevor Lawrence. As Coen said himself this week, though, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph is “one of the best out there right now,” and Coen’s still in his first year as an NFL head coach. Edge: Broncos

Tale of the tape

By the numbers

5: Interceptions by Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd in coverage this season, tied with the Seahawks’ Ernest Jones for the most picks among any LBs in the NFL.

7.8: Targets per game that Jacksonville cornerback Tyson Campbell has seen since being acquired by the Jaguars from the Cleveland Browns before the trade deadline.

42.1: Jacksonville’s average yardage per game in the red zone this season, the highest mark in the NFL.

7: Number of 10-plus-yard carries the Broncos have had in the past four games, since losing J.K. Dobbins to injury.

229: Combined penalty flags the Jaguars and Broncos have accrued in 2025, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams (respectively) in the NFL in total flags drawn this season

27.6:��Broncos and former Jaguars tight end Evan Engram’s average receiving yardage per game in 2025, his lowest mark since the 2021 season with the New York Giants.

X-factors

Broncos: RB Jaleel McLaughlin. Payton said point-blank this week that he wanted to get McLaughlin more carries, and the Broncos desperately need to get another running back involved to lighten the load on rookie Harvey. McLaughlin hasn’t eclipsed six carries or a 20% snap share in any game this season; that could change this Sunday.

�������ܲ�����:��NB Jourdan Lewis. Nix finished 9-of-13 for 130 yards and two touchdowns last week against the Green Bay Packers when targeting receivers in the slot, and will have Bryant back working there this week. Lewis, though, is a stingy nickel, allowing just 4.7 yards per target this season in coverage, according to Next Gen Stats.

Post predictions

Parker Gabriel, Broncos writer: Broncos 27, Jaguars 20

There have been several points during this 11-game run where it’s easy to look at the opponent and say, ‘yeah, this could be the week.’ Before it was even a streak at Philadelphia. Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Green Bay. All but one of those — looking at you, Cowboys defense — and most of the others, too, have ended up close. Jacksonville is another contender in now a three-month End the Streak challenge. Somehow, the Jags end up like the rest.

Luca Evans, Broncos writer: Broncos 28, Jaguars 24

At this point, every single game Denver plays the rest of the season is going to be a one-score game, because that’s apparently the way that fate intended. So this is going to be a Mile High toss-up between two of the hottest teams in the league, and could come down to a head-to-head quarterback battle between Bo Nix and Trevor Lawrence. Here’s leaning Nix against the Jaguars’ pass defense.

Troy Renck, columnist: Broncos 26, Jaguars 23

Are we sure the Packers will be the best team the Broncos face this season? The Jaguars are firmly in the conversation with Liam Coen’s offense running on nitromethane and a defense smothering running games. This is a chance for Bo Nix to enter the MVP race. A milepost to pass on the way to the AFC’s top seed. The difference will be homefield advantage and Sean Payton’s career dominance against first-time head coaches (30-12).

Sean Keeler, columnist: Broncos 27, Jaguars 26

It took a half for the Broncos’ D to touch Jordan Love. You probably can’t afford to wait that long against Trevor Lawrence — he’s 0-3 this season, and 2-11 over his NFL career, when sacked four or more times in a game. New Jags WR Jakobi Meyers has been a quiet Broncos pest, averaging seven catches for 84 yards and a score over four career games vs. Denver, but Bo Nix prevails (again).

A few hours after putting the Raiders away to put some distance between them and the rest of their divisional field, head coach Sean Payton and staff turned on the Sunday night game. These were the dying vestiges of the Kansas City Chiefs as the Broncos and the world knew them, clinging for one last breath to their hold on the AFC West against the Houston Texans. Denver hit the sky with Houston up 10-0 early, and landed with the score knotted at 10-10. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and company, of course, would not go away quietly.

But Payton and staff watched Mahomes throw two picks in the fourth quarter, and Houston take control in a 20-10 win. And that solidified it, a steady bleed after the Broncos beat the Chiefs 22-19 in mid-November: Kansas City has been mathematically eliminated from winning their division.

Yes — a team other than the Chiefs will reign in the AFC West for the first time since 2015.

“I think, again, if this makes any sense — the focus gets so inwardly driven to our own team,” Payton said Monday, pondering the significance of watching that Chiefs loss.

“But,” Payton continued, “I recognize that a team that����ap won the division for however many straight years won’t be able to win it this year. But it����ap more important to focus on – all right, how do we finish this next quarter pole of the season, starting with a real good team in Green Bay?”

There’s no need, simply, to watch out for Kansas City in this last month. They’ve been on top, as cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian said Monday. They aren’t anymore. The boogeyman has been driven out, the Chiefs at 6-7. The Broncos’ attention now, as Payton indicated, will turn to navigating a December gauntlet to set themselves up as best as possible come January.

“Focusing on what we can do to win the division — the Chargers are very much alive in that battle,” Payton said. “And then furthermore, what we can do to give ourselves the best seed possible?”

Indeed, the Broncos don’t yet have claim to the throne now vacated by Kansas City. They sit at 11-2 after this 10-game win streak, a comfortable 2.5 games up on Los Angeles. But the Chargers have two incredibly important distinctions that could come into play in a tiebreaking scenario: Los Angeles already beat Denver in Week 3, and currently has the best record in the AFC West at 4-0 this season.

And a 2.5-game lead, with four games to play, is not comfortable enough to cruise by any means. The Broncos face one of the tougher final stretches of any NFL team this season, starting with those 9-3-1 Packers, who have leveled up this season after landing star pass rusher Micah Parsons in a blockbuster deal during camp. Then comes a home matchup with 9-4 Jacksonville, who’ve won four of their last five even after losing rookie Travis Hunter to season-ending injury. Then comes a road trip to Kansas City on Christmas, and finally those Chargers in a potentially titanic Week 18 matchup.

“We got a stretch here,” Payton said, “with some real good teams coming in.”

So do the Chargers, though: hosting Philadelphia (8-4) Monday night, then at Kansas City, at Dallas (6-6-1) and hosting Houston (8-5). One slip by Los Angeles and one tough win by the Broncos, and the AFC West will be Denver’s.

In the meantime, too, Sunday’s win over the Raiders gave the Broncos an important edge in AFC seeding overall: a tiebreaker in shared-opponent matchups with the New England Patriots, who also sit at 11-2. Don’t forget about Buffalo, who’s 9-4 and will play New England this Sunday in an important game with AFC seeding implications; don’t forget about Jacksonville, who could challenge the Broncos in that matchup in two weeks.

These Broncos have “been through a lot of crap” on the road to 11 wins, as quarterback Bo Nix said Sunday night. Nine of those 11 wins have come in one-score games. They’ll have to go through more to actually lock up the AFC West, and wade through even more muck for a shot at a no. 1 seed and a playoff bye.

But they played one of their cleanest games of the season against the Raiders on Sunday. And over 1,300 miles away, their greatest historical roadblock fell.

“The sky’s the limit for us,” left tackle Garett Bolles said in the locker room Sunday. “If we do what we’re supposed to, we’re a hard team to beat.”

“It sure helped CU when he first got the job,” . “But reliance on the transfer portal is dangerous.”

And in Boulder, three years into The Coach Prime Era, the Buffs are still living dangerously on the recruiting front. The early prep National Signing Day period opens Wednesday morning. As of late Tuesday afternoon, per Huffman and the 247Sports database,

And the Cowboys have been without a head coach since Sept. 23, when they fired longtime boss Mike Gundy.

“I’m of the mindset that the transfer portal is a nice, quick, healthy fix in Year 1 or Year 2,” Huffman continued. “By Year 3 or Year 4, you should have already by then focused on high-school recruiting …

“I think you’re seeing schools such as Florida State, they hit the jackpot with Jordan Travis. The next year, they’re back in the portal, and it blew up in their faces.”

Some shrapnel was felt in BoCo, too. The ’23-24 offseason brought a gold mine of transfers led by LaJohntay Wester from FAU and Will Sheppard from Vanderbilt, topping off one of the best passing games — and passing units — in CU history. The ’24-25 offseason, by contrast, brought QB Kaidon Salter from Liberty, who would lose his starting job twice, while defensive tackle Jaheim Oatis (Alabama) and tailback Simeon Price (Coastal Carolina) got hurt.

“At UCLA, (the Bruins) went with a ‘Moneyball’ approach this year (via the portal),'” Huffman said. “They said, ‘We’re going to chase elite recruits who aren’t playing at their schools.’ Once they came, you could see why they weren’t playing at their previous schools.”

Sound familiar? The 2024 Buffs already had a base in place a year ago that portal players could complement in a Heisman-worthy QB (Shedeur Sanders) and a Heisman-winning, generational talent in Travis Hunter. When that base was gone in 2025, players noted a void in locker-room leadership as well.

Keeler: CU Buffs’ 3-9 record proves Deion Sanders needs better coaches in his ear or another Shedeur on the field

“I feel like the leader, he doesn’t try to lead. It just naturally happens,” CU linebacker Jeremiah Brown told reporters after a season-ending loss at Kansas State left CU at 3-9, 1-8 in Big 12 play. “And we just, unfortunately, didn’t have very many of those.”

To remedy that, Huffman suggested, the Buffs need to reverse course, away from recruiting classes that are primarily transfers, and go young. He'd like to see Sanders focus more on high-schoolers and for CU to throw more revenue-sharing money, and reps, in their direction.

"Especially because, more often than not, if a player is going into the portal, they're going into the portal for a reason," Huffman said. "With revenue-sharing, fewer and fewer guys going into the portal are impact players, because they're getting compensated at the school where they're at."

Money talks. Mediocrity walks. While the Buffs changed admission standards to allow more transfers into CU when Sanders arrived three Decembers ago, Buffs administrators seem to be stymied and financially stressed by the fallout from House vs. NCAA — which, as of July 1, allowed up to $20.5 million of a Power 4 university's athletic revenue to be paid out to student-athletes. that Buffs athletics is anticipating a deficit of roughly $27 million in the '25-26 fiscal year, largely because of House payments and Sanders' $10 million salary. Athletic director Rick George, who told us in December 2022 that he was investing in Coach Prime with money the school didn't have, is retiring from his position in late June.

When asked about prep recruiting recently, Sanders countered that at least half of all prep recruits are more likely to transfer out within their first two years of eligibility. Coach Prime doesn't want to teach and nurture somebody for 18 to 24 months only for them to spend their best years somewhere else.

"Check the statistics so you understand the method to my madness," Sanders said. "You get 30, are they gonna be here in a few years?...  Nowadays, if kids aren't playing by that spring of that second go-around, they're out. They jump in the portal."

You get that. Huffman gets that, too. But isn't the retention of say, 50% of 30 prep recruits after two years a better program base than 50% of say, 10? Especially where depth is concerned?

Growing your own takes time. And money. And work. And patience. To the cynic, CU sounds like a program that isn't interested in investing enough in those high-schoolers — in skill development, strength development, academic development, you name it — to keep them around.

"If you're developing them," Huffman said. "They're not going to leave. They're more likely to stay if you're a Power 4 school and you're taking care of them the way a Power 4 school does. If you get my drift."

We do. Raising underclassmen is a grind that, more often than not, doesn't pay off. It is, effectively, talent gardening. The Coach Prime Method wants its meals prepared, even pre-packaged, so that all you've got to do is add the Sanders heat, pop the transfers in the microwave, and it'll start raining touchdowns all over Folsom Field. That's the theory, at least.

If 2024 was the ideal, we know what a peak Prime team is supposed to look like. The problem is that portal guys are a roll of the dice, even if you've done CIA levels of homework on the front end. Ideally, they're finishing pieces — a QB here, a wideout or edge rusher there — as opposed to your core and your spine.

Recruiting high-schoolers means legwork. Handshakes. Person-to-person relationships. Sanders has said he doesn't like to visit high schools. Or parents' living rooms. Coach Prime can close on a kid like Trevor Hoffman, but it's hard to replicate the bridges built from having your head coach actively on the road.

Sanders insists that's not part of his playbook. Huffman insists the Buffs won't progress — or stabilize — as a program if Coach Prime doesn't adapt.

"I realize college football has changed dramatically, but if you're going to be there for a long time, then develop from within and (strengthen) from within," Huffman said. "Then mix and match a few players here and there from the portal.

"If you keep focusing on the portal, you're not building the culture. You're not building sustenance. (The Los Angeles Times) did a story where Tim Skipper had to show the team a video going over the USC rivalry, because guys didn't understand the importance of it. There's no culture when you keep having one-year or two-year guys. You have to build from within."

He needs a game-manager on the headset. Nick Saban had Steve Sarkisian. And Lane Kiffin. And Bill O’Brien. And Jim McElwain. Coach Prime has Pencil Pat Shurmur . You get what you pay for.

Although the Buffs just paid their coach $10 million to go 3-9 this fall, which is the kind of ROI that tends to get athletic directors canned. At the least, it forces said $10-million coach to line up sacrificial lambs on his own staff before harder, and more expensive, decisions get forced upon him.

“I played this game and I know this game like the back of my hand and I love this game and all the ins and outs and ups and downs,” Coach Prime told reporters after his Buffs scrapped away at Kansas State but ultimately fell, 24-14, closing out Year 3 of the Sanders Era with five straight defeats. “I’m built for every last (part) of it. But if anybody’s built to reconcile and get this back on course, it����ap me. I will do it if it����ap the last thing I do on Earth.”

Somewhere, Dan Lanning had to be chuckling at that one.

We’ve heard this all before. And, yes, CU has rebounded from the ashes before, too. The Big 12 is a league of middleweights and fine margins. Which means, in terms of talent/personnel, the Buffs really aren’t that far away.

It’s just that when you fall just short week after week, the mental stuff starts building in the back of your head the way tartar piles up along the gum line. The doubt creeps. The questions linger.

On one hand, the Buffs were in four one-score games this year. On the other, they lost three of them.

Under Sanders, the Buffs are 6-10 in games decided by 10 points or fewer. He’s now 1-5 in those games without Shedeur Sanders as his QB1. He’s 3-10 at CU with someone other than his son as the starting signal-caller.

A starting NFL QB (Shedeur), a generational athlete (Travis Hunter) and a slew of pro-level targets (LaJohntay Wester, Will Sheppard) can mask an awful lot of coaching blemishes.

Take that away, though, and you get … well, 3-9. And a second 1-8 league mark over the last three seasons.

Can Sanders chase nine wins again? Sure. And then he’ll go 4-8 or 3-9 the season after that and start the cycle all over again. Down. Up. Down. Up.

For The Prime Method — building the core of a roster around transfers — to work consistently requires significantly better talent than your peers, significantly better coaching or significantly more money to pay for that better talent and coaching.

Sanders needs Alabama’s gravitas or Texas Tech’s sugar daddies. The Buffs have neither, so this is what you get. When the transfers hit (2024), the ship takes off. When Kaidon Salter has to save your season (2025), buckle up.

Although CU had a solid enough plan for Kansas State (6-6) — run Salter in the snow and see if that unlocked anything. The Buffs kept it on the ground in miserable conditions over nine of their first 11 plays. Just like in the script.

In the fourth quarter of a game they trailed 10-7, CU threw it nine times and ran it eight. K-State, meanwhile, went into business mode, just as Arizona State did at Folsom Field the weekend before. Of the Wildcats’ 206 rushing yards on the day, 98 came over the final stanza.

In the meantime, though, K-State tried to give CU the game, didn’t they? The Buffs just struggled to step up and take the darn thing.

Just like they struggled to tackle. Like they struggled get to get a field goal or a punt off in the snow globe that was Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

There will be a lot of soul-searching, a lot of social posts, a lot of hot takes as to what went wrong with Coach Prime’s third campaign.

Landing a 5-star prep QB in Julian Lewis was the fun part, but the next trick is developing him. While the in-game progress from April to November has been tangible and real, the jury’s still deliberating. When it was clear from the spring that more time was needed, Salter became the “bridge” guy. Only it turned out to be a bridge to nowhere.

This much is clear as day, especially after K-State: Whomever gets to run the offense in 2026 would be wise to feature more of junior wide receiver Omarion Miller, who torched the Wildcats to the tune of seven catches for 120 receiving yards despite swirling winds.

Miller through his first 10 games had collected 23 first downs on his first 37 catches, or one every 1.6 grabs. Point of comparison: Last fall, Travis Hunter had 51 first downs on 96 grabs — one every 1.88 receptions. LaJohntay Wester: 46 on 74 grabs — a first down every 1.6.

And while Coach Prime looked miserable out there, at least his team brought their snow pants early. With nothing to play for but pride, the Buffs came out in the spirit of what Sanders had promised in the summer — angry on the ground, relentless at the line of scrimmage.

Over the first half, the chuck-and-duck Buffs outrushed Kansas State 84-59 in the Wildcats’ backyard. CU went into the break with more first downs converted (10-5) and, maybe more impressively, having committed zero penalties to K-State’s three.

Meanwhile, a Wildcat team that ran for 427 yards against Utah was stuck at 67 on the ground halfway through the third stanza. Alas, with former Erie star Blake Barnett sprinkling in designed QB runs to spell an inconsistent Avery Johnson, the hosts salted a chilly game away on the ground late.

Once K-State wrestled back control of the clock, the Buffs couldn’t buy a stop. Or a salve. Coach Prime needed another voice — a voice from the coaches’ box or, like Shedeur, a voice from the huddle.

In the end, CU had two timeouts left over the final 45 seconds, down 10. Sanders didn’t use either. Like most Buffs fans, he was ready to turn the page and go home. The next chapter is setting up to be the one that defines CU’s experiment and a legend’s legacy. For better or for worse.

Deion Sanders sports a 43-26 record as a college football coach. He went 36-14 with son Shedeur, Cleveland’s biggest cult hero since Drew Carey, as his QB1.

From Jackson State to CU, they always had each other’s backs. They almost always found a way. If you had to win one college football game to determine the fate of the free world, I’d put 2024 Shedeur with 2024 Deion on the headset against just about anybody. So long as they also had 2024 Travis Hunter to throw to.

But set them apart, as they’ve been for much of this odd, disjointed autumn, and neither looks quite the same.

Shedeur is finally getting a deserved shot to become the 4,077th quarterback since 1999 to try and save the Browns from themselves. Yet meanwhile, up in BoCo, Coach Prime is heading into a tussle with Kansas State (5-6) on Saturday with a 7-12 mark as a collegiate coach in games in which his son isn’t his starting signal-caller.

After a 42-17 home setback to Arizona State last weekend dropped the Buffs to 3-8 overall and 1-7 in Big 12 play, the elder Sanders now owns a 3-9 record in CU contests started by non-Shedeur QBs.

“You could be a loser, or a guy who lost games,” Coach Prime said. “I would rather be a guy who lost games than a loser. (Because) I’m not a loser.”

He’s not. Yet without Shedeur, Dad Sanders hasn’t exactly been tearing it up, either.

The third anniversary of Sanders’ introductory news conference at CU falls a week from Thanksgiving. Coach Prime has proven a ton of people wrong over the last 1,200 days or so, this person included.

He’s proven he could make CU a national brand again. He’s proven he could fill Folsom Field on the regular. He’s proven he could get the Buffs on ESPN’s “A block” and on the cover of national magazines. He’s proven he could bring a Heisman Trophy back to Boulder. He’s proven that you can chase a league title with a team rooted in transfers, so long as you land the right blend.

Still, in Year 3, the jury remains out on a ton of talking points. After going from four wins to nine wins to three or four again, we don’t know if The Prime Method is remotely sustainable at this level. Every former NFL or collegiate offensive lineman I’ve ever talked to likes CU left tackle Jordan Seaton and despises the fact that Seaton has to play with four new partners every summer. And, more to the point, we still don’t know if Sanders can win big as a college coach without his son acting as his eyes and ears between the hashmarks, as his point guard, as his literal coach on the floor.

On that final front, Julian Lewis is going to tell us an awful lot.

Lewis’ true freshman season, as you heard, officially ended Tuesday. Sanders announced that he was redshirting his teenage quarterback, who’d started the last two games for the Buffs and who’d already appeared in two others.

Under NCAA rules, players who appear in four or fewer regular-season games can count that shortened season as a redshirt year and still have four more seasons of eligibility in the bank.

“That’s my decision,” the Buffs coach explained. “I want what’s best for the kid, what’s best for his family, what’s best for this wonderful university that has given me this tremendous opportunity.

“I think (the decision) is best for everyone. But mainly, it’s great for him.”

Sanders did the young man a solid, granting him another year he could spend developing in BoCo — or anywhere else Lewis wants to go, given the state of the transfer portal.

Ju Ju’s come a long way from that skinny kid we saw running for his life during the spring game. He’s still skinny. He’s still a kid. But those routes to wideout Omarion Miller looked downright telepathic at times. The more reps he got, the more he flashed.

And that upward trajectory can’t be understated. If he’s true to his word about staying a Buff, Lewis becomes the test case, the one who’s going to show us if another QB can develop as quickly — and as soundly — as Shedeur did under his father.

If once was genetics, twice is a pattern. The kind of pattern you can rebuild a program around.

“You’ve competed in every arena,” Coach Prime was told Tuesday during his midweek regular-season news conference. “You don’t have much left to prove, personally, I don’t think …”

“That’s not true,” Sanders interjected.

He’s yet to prove that there’s another level here. That his CU teams can close. That all that CFP talk isn’t just … talk. That the Buffs’ peak moments, that those peak feelings — think Baylor, 2024 — can be maintained and not veer, like a roller-coaster ride, up and down the standings from year to year. That CU can be consistent at something other than being remarkably inconsistent. That there’s life after Shedeur. Life and a passing game.

Sanders is most comfortable following what he knows best — NFL standards, NFL schemes, NFL mantras, NFL coaches, NFL lineage. To his credit, he’s adapted. He’s rebounded.

But the Big 12 and the No Fun League have this much in common: In either case, you’ll soar only as high as your coach and QB, in tandem, can take you. That’s something Buffs fans have been learning the hard way. One cruel week at a time.