Colorado Daily

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Colorado Daily – Utah Week

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November 16th – Game Day!

… CU in a few minutes … 

Daily Camera: Utah Players to Watch

From the Daily Camera …

5 Utes to Watch

LB Lander Barton: He leads the Utes with 59 tackles this season, while also posting three tackles for loss and four pass breakups.

RB Micah Bernard: Although the Utes have struggled on offense, Bernard has been one of the best running backs in the Big 12, ranking sixth with 95.6 rushing yards per game. He has posted 860 yards and three TDs this year while averaging 5.9 yards per carry.

DE Van Fillinger: Utah’s top edge player, he has 37 tackles and leads the team in tackles for loss (eight) and sacks (six). The fifth-year senior has 27.5 TFLs and 19.5 sacks in his career.

CB Smith Snowden: Sophomore has been one of the Utes’ top defenders this season, playing in the nickel position. He’s recorded 33 tackles, three TFLs and six pass breakups, along with an interception. He is also expected to return kickoffs.

QB Isaac Wilson or Luke Bottari: Wilson was benched before the BYU game, but Brandon Rose was injured and Wilson could be back in the lineup. The younger brother of Denver Broncos quarterback Zach Wilson, he has started five games, completing 55.4% of his passes for 1,200 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. There were rumors out of Salt Lake City on Friday, however, that an illness could prevent Wilson from playing. That would lead Utah to turn to Bottari, the only other non-injured quarterback on the roster. Bottari hasn’t played this season, but made his only start a year ago against CU, going 6-for-10 for 61 yards and running for two TDs.

When Utah has the ball …

With senior QB Cameron Rising, the Utes averaged 30.3 points per game. Rising is out for the year, however, and in six games without him, Utah has averaged 18.8 points per game. Rising is one of several offensive players out with injuries, including star tight end Brant Kuithe and receiver Money Parks. The Utes do have one of the Big 12’s top receivers in Dorian Singer, but it’s unclear who will throw the ball. If Isaac Wilson can’t play, Luke Bottari will lead the team. With Bottari the in lineup against CU last year, Utah threw 10 passes and ran the ball 53 times. The Utes at least have a top running back in Micah Bernard. CU, meanwhile, has picked up some momentum on defense, holding seven consecutive opponents below their season scoring average. The Buffs will aim to stop Bernard and the run game, but they’ve also been piling up quarterback sacks in recent weeks. “They definitely say (sacks) come in bunches, but I feel like just staying consistent (is key), and continuing to keep rushing, to figure out plans that help us create havoc and be successful and influence  the quarterback,” CU defensive end Arden Walker said. “I think we all, in our room, from D-tackle to D-end, we all just continue to keep rushing and got on our bag and making plays. … Now we’ve got to keep going, and it hasn’t stopped.”

… Continue reading story here …

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November 15th 

… CU in a few minutes … 

Neill Woelk’s Keys to the Utah game 

From CUBuffs.com … The team with the outstanding numbers is Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes, the same squad picked to finish 11th in the league in the preseason media poll. The Buffs (7-2 overall, 5-1 Big 12) are ranked 18th in the nation, have a three-game win streak, are currently in second place in the Big 12 standings and control their own destiny when it comes to earning a conference title game berth — and a spot in the College Football Playoffs.

Meanwhile, preseason conference favorite Utah is struggling in every sense of the word. After winning their first four games and reaching No. 10 in the AP national poll, the Utes (4-5 1-5) have been hammered by injuries, have lost five in a row and are guaranteed to finish with a losing conference record for the first time since 2017.

But all those numbers mean just one thing to Coach Prime’s Buffs: the Utes are a dangerous team that can’t be taken lightly. If the Buffs are going to stretch their win streak to four — which would be the best in the Coach Prime era — they’ll have to be at their best.

That brings us to our weekly Fast Five:

1. Control the tempo offensively. Despite their record, the Utes might have the best defense the Buffs have seen this year. Utah is giving up just 17.1 points per game — best in the Big 12 — and the most anyone has scored on the Utes is a relatively measly 27, by Arizona State.

It’s a typical Kyle Whittingham defense. Nothing fancy, just a strong front seven that plays the run well (132.4 yards per game) and a dependable secondary (175 yards passing per game).

Utah doesn’t have a particularly strong pass rush, with just 16 sacks this season. But they don’t have to use extra defenders to get pressure on the pocket, meaning they can produce blanket coverage on the back end.

The Buffs will have to produce at least the threat of a run game, then give quarterback Shedeur Sanders time to work in the pocket. If they can accomplish that, it will give CU’s receivers time to get open, work the field for quick gains and keep the chains moving.

2. Control the Utah run game. This is far from a typical Whittingham team when it comes to their rushing attack. Utah is just 11th in the league in yards per game on the ground (150) and unlike past seasons, they don’t have the threat of a big passing game to keep defenses honest.

The Buffs need to stifle that ground game early, put the Utes behind the sticks and force them to throw.

Colorado has been solid against the run over the last three games. The Buffs gave up just 113 yards on the ground in last weekend’s win over Texas Tech as the front seven — led by linebackers Nikhai Hill-Green and LaVonta Bentley and linemen Chidozie Nwankwo and Amari McNeill — has become a force.

If the Buffs can stop Utah on first and second down, it will force the Utes to throw.

… Continue reading story here …

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It took until Friday, but the Utah game is a sellout!

From CUBuffs.com … The University of Colorado football game between the Buffaloes and the Utah Utes on Saturday, November 16 has completely sold out.

This is the fourth game to completely sellout for the 2024 season along with previous home games against Baylor, Kansas State, and Cincinnati.  Fans interested in purchasing tickets for the sold out Utah game can purchase via CU’s official secondary partner, SeatGeek.

Last season, every home game completely sold out for the first time in CU history. Season tickets are sold out for the season, and now single game tickets remain and are going fast for CU’s final home game of the season against Oklahoma State (Friday, November 29).  Get your tickets now!

CU’s first known sellout was in 1952, and this is the first time in 21 seasons that multiple games have sold out in back-to-back seasons. Between the 2023 and 2024 seasons, this is the most games that have sold out over a two year stretch in CU history. From 1989-1997, CU sold out multiple games in every season, 32 overall in a 54-game run.

Overall, this will be the ninth straight sellout the Buffs have played on front of, home and away, the longest streak in CU history and the 20^th sellout in 22 games played in the Coach Prime Era.

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November 14th 

… CU in a few minutes … 

ESPN: Coach Prime was right about Robert Livingston

From ESPN … When Clemson left the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium after a season-opening 34-3 loss to Georgia on Aug. 31, Dabo Swinney felt better than most wearing the Tiger paw.

Swinney is naturally optimistic — some would say too much so — about his team, but his postgame sentiment stemmed in part from seeing an offense that, despite a meager points total, had displayed potential absent for much of the 2023 season. He actually saw progress from the very first play, but Clemson’s mistakes ultimately derailed opportunities. Swinney sensed a similar feeling from his players.

“They came away from the game with frustration in themselves but also confident that, you know what? We’ve got to do the little things right,” Swinney recently told ESPN. “They went back to work, they watched it, and they’ve gotten better and better.”

Clemson has averaged 42 points and 509.1 yards since the loss to Georgia, despite a recent slowdown. In a season in which Clemson’s defense has dropped off, the Tigers’ offense has kept the team in the ACC race.

Other teams like BYU have positioned themselves for postseason glory through significant improvement on defense. Unit improvement is often tied to coordinator changes or new schemes, but sometimes the right mix of players can facilitate big steps.

Here’s a closer look at nine units from eight teams that have taken big steps during the 2024 season. Not every unit included is in the top 10 or 20 nationally right now, but all have made significant jumps since the 2023 season.

Colorado defense

2024 national rankings: 52nd in points allowed, 64th against the pass, tie for sixth in sacks
2023 national rankings: 121st in points allowed, 124th against the pass, 53rd in sacks

What has changed: Deion Sanders was right about Robert Livingston. The little-known Cincinnati Bengals assistant proved to be the ideal coordinator for a defense that couldn’t do much right in 2023. Despite having one of the nation’s best players in Travis Hunter, Colorado allowed more than 200 rushing yards in six games and multiple rushing touchdowns in nine games. The Buffs generated only 5.4 tackles for loss per game, tied for 81st nationally, and allowed at least one pass play of 30 yards or longer in nine consecutive games.

Livingston, a former Bengals scout who had served as an on-field assistant since 2016, has boosted Colorado’s play up front. The Buffs once again added transfers but this time maximized their pass-rushing ability, as BJ Green (Arizona State), Samuel Okunlola (Pitt) and others have applied steady pressure. Colorado has seven sacks in two of its past three games after never recording more than five in any game last season, and eclipsing three just once. Livingston told ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura that his faith in Hunter and Colorado’s other cornerbacks has allowed him to dial up more pressures.

“Everybody wants to have that sacks conversation when you’re not having sacks, but as long as you’re getting the quarterback off the spot, the rush and the coverage can kind of go together,” Livingston said. “The way we’ve called some games this year, we’ve put those corners in some tough spots, and it’s a testament to them. They can win their one-on-one matchups, and they can hold up.”

Colorado also is harnessing its expertise on the defensive side, starting with Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback. The Buffs added Warren Sapp, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman, as a defensive senior quality control analyst, and have former NFL players Kevin Mathis and Damione Lewis as defensive on-field assistants.

“His feel for the game is as rare as there is,” Livingston said of Sanders. “My eyes might be somewhere else, and he says, ‘Hey, man, they’re going to come back to this bunch route, I know it’s coming. Hey, we’ve got to be careful on this stack.’ His vision, obviously playing at such a high level for so long at different spots, it’s a phenomenal asset for me.”

… Read full story here …

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November 13th

… CU in a few minutes … 

Buffs to try and match Utah’s physicality

From the Daily Camera … In the two decades that Kyle Whittingham has been the head coach at Utah, his program has built a reputation for being tough and physical, especially at the line of the scrimmage.

Colorado has seen that up close and been on the wrong end of that physically too often in recent years.

Now in their second season under head coach Deion Sanders, the 18th-ranked Buffaloes are showing some physicality and nastiness of their own. And, that will be tested when the Buffs (7-2, 5-1 Big 12) host Utah (4-5, 1-5) on Saturday at Folsom Field (10 a.m., Fox).

Through much of their run in the Pac-12 Conference (2011-23), CU was pushed around by Utah and a lot of other teams. In 2023, Sanders’ first team at CU was built around its skill players, which was by design. It was often said, in fact, that CU might have had the best 7-on-7 team in the country – if only the game was played 7-on-7.

This season, and particularly in recent weeks, the Buffs are flexing their muscles. CU leads the Big 12 in sacks, the offensive line is keeping quarterback Shedeur Sanders protected for the most part, and even the skill players are showing physical play week after week.

“I think Coach Prime sets the tone, starting every week,” receiver Will Sheppard said. “Then it’s on the (offensive) line and (defensive) line really. They start it up front. Everything starts up front and then just bleeds out into the rest of the team.”

Coach Prime didn’t want to entertain any comparison to last year’s team, but said CU’s change in physically starts with the master plan of roster building.

“We’ve changed the roster,” he said. “We flipped the darn roster, remember? Remember all the changes? We flipped the roster. That probably has a lot to do with it. We’ve gotten the people that we wanted.”

… Continue reading story here …

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November 12th 

… CU in a few minutes … 

*Coach Prime Weekly Press Conference*

… Coach Prime, preceded by Edge rusher Arden Walker and wide receiver Will Sheppard … 

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Wide receiver Will Sheppard separately … 

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Defensive end Arden Walker separately … 

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November 11th

… CU in a few minutes … 

Big 12 sets Fox Big Noon record (thanks to CU)

From the Daily Camara … Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show is coming to Boulder for Saturday’s matchup between the Buffs and Utes. It will be the fifth time this season that Big Noon Kickoff has visited a Big 12 school, the most in conference history since the show began visiting campuses in 2019.

This week will be the third time Big Noon has gone where the Buffs are playing. Fox’s pregame show visited Central Florida on Sept. 28 and was at Texas Tech on Saturday.

Saturday will mark the seventh time since the start of the 2023 season that Big Noon will be on location for a CU game. That’s tied with Ohio State for the most in the country during that time. CU is 5-1 with Big Noon on location in the last two seasons.

On Monday, the Big 12 announced that CU’s game on Nov. 23 against Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., is slated for a 1:30 p.m. MT kickoff and will be broadcast nationally on Fox.

It will be CU’s sixth game on Fox and ninth overall on national network TV, extending the school record. With three additional games on the flagship ESPN, CU will have all 12 regular season games on national TV for the first time in its history.

Kansas is playing its conference home games at Arrowhead, the home of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, while its own stadium gets renovated this year.

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CU/Kansas kickoff time set – third straight week on Fox

Press release from CUBuffs.com …  The Colorado Buffaloes football game at Kansas on November 23, 2024, will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. CT (local) and 1:30 p.m. MT and be televised nationally by FOX.

This is the final regular season game that will be selected for TV, as the season finale vs. Oklahoma State on Friday, November 29, will be on ABC (10 a.m. MT kickoff).  This is the ninth game out of 12 selected for network television and all 12 on the flagship ESPN or network television, both program records by at least three games.

Six of the eight Big 12 games were held for a six-day selection by the TV partners.  The complete slate of Big 12 games for that weekend:

Saturday 11/23/2024

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Shedeur Sanders named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week

Press Release from the Big 12 … IRVING, Texas – Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders (offensive), Kansas cornerback Mello Dotson (co-defensive), West Virginia safety Anthony Wilson Jr. (co-defensive) and the Arizona State duo of quarterback Sam Leavitt (newcomer) and linebacker Martell Hughes (special teams) have won the Big 12 Conference’s weekly football awards.

Sanders continued his strong season in CU’s 41-27 win at Texas Tech, completing 30 of his 43 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns with a rushing score. The Buffs’ signal caller accounted for four touchdowns without an interception while tying the program record of 20 consecutive games with a passing touchdown. Sanders ranks in the top three nationally in completions (250), completion percentage (72.9%) and passing touchdowns (24) while ranking in the top 10 in passing yards (2,882) this season.

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November 10th 

… CU in a few minutes … 

Big 12 Week 12 lines: CU opens as a 9.5-point favorite over Utah

From DraftKings.com …

Friday, November 15th

• Houston at Arizona … 8:15 p.m., MT, FS1 … Arizona is a 2.0-point home favorite …

Saturday, November 16th

• Utah at No. 18 Colorado … 10:00 a.m., MT, Fox … Colorado is a 9.5-point home favorite …
• Baylor at West Virginia … 2:00 p.m., MT, ESPN2 … West Virginia is a 1.5-point home underdog …
• Arizona State at No. 20 Kansas State … 5:00 p.m., MT, ESPN2 … Kansas State is a 7.5-point home favorite …
• Cincinnati at Iowa State … 6:00 p.m., MT, Fox … Iowa State is a 7.5-point home favorite …
• Kansas at No. 7 BYU … 8:15 p.m., MT, ESPN … BYU is a 3.5-point home favorite …
• … On a bye week … Oklahoma State, UCF, Texas Tech, and Houston …

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CU’s depleted defensive line makes a statement against Texas Tech

From the Daily Camera … CU’s answer on defense, after falling behind, 13-0?

“This guy right here,” safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig said as he pointed to defensive tackle Amari McNeill sitting next to him in the press conference. “That whole group, that whole room. Guys really bought it.”

In a 41-27 win at Jones AT&T Stadium, the Buffaloes got a big night from its big guys up front.

Filling in for injured Shane Cokes, McNeill posted nine tackles, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

“Amari understood his opportunity. He understood his time,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “He had opportunity, man, and he made good on it.”

Filling in for injured Shane Cokes, McNeill posted nine tackles, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

“Amari understood his opportunity. He understood his time,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “He had opportunity, man, and he made good on it.”

… Continue reading story here …

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Shedeur/Travis fall short of game goals (except for the win) 

From the Daily Camera … Late in the fourth quarter, Colorado coaches tried to help a couple of stars reach milestones.

“We were trying to get (Shedeur Sanders) his 300 and was trying to get Travis (Hunter) his 100,” head coach Deion Sanders said. “We definitely was trying.”

In the Buffs’ 41-27 win against Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium on Saturday, Shedeur and Hunter both fell short of the goals, but both were exceptional once again.

Two of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy, they didn’t do anything to hurt those chances, including the most important element: the win.

Statistically, Shedeur finished the night 30-of-43 for 291 yards and three touchdowns through the air, while adding a touchdown run.

Hunter, the most dynamic two-way star in the country and arguably the Heisman front-runner, caught nine passes for 99 yards and a touchdown. A late 2-yard loss on a catch prevented the star receiver/cornerback from the reaching the century mark.

On defense, Hunter didn’t post any statistics, but it wasn’t because he played poorly. Texas Tech never officially targeted a receiver being covered by Hunter the entire night.

The only time Tech quarterback Behren Morton threw towards Hunter was on a free play. CU jumped offsides, so Morton had the luxury of taking a shot down field. Hunter made an acrobatic interception, but the play was negated by the penalty.

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This post, about the Utah game, from the 2024 Season, is filed under Article.
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