Sanders, Colorado score upset
Wins on late TD in debut as coach
Colorado 45 TCU 42
FORT WORTH — After nine months of hype, Deion Sanders had Colorado ready for prime time in his much-anticipated debut as Buffaloes coach.
Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son, threw for a school-record 510 yards with four touchdowns — the game-winner a 46-yard catch-and-run by true freshman Dylan Edwards with 4:25 left —and the Buffaloes pulled off an opening shocker with a 45-42 win Saturday over No. 17 TCU, last year’s national runner-up.
“A lot of you didn’t believe in us,” Shedeur Sanders said. “It’s crazy because you just got to understand our coach, Coach Prime, my dad, everywhere he went, he was a winner. Every game, every opportunity, he took advantage of.”
Deion Sanders came to Boulder, Colo., to revitalize a longdormant program, with an unprecedented roster flip.
Two-way star Travis Hunter, Edwards, and Shedeur Sanders are among 87 newcomers at Colorado, which won only one game last season and has only two winning records since 2005.
Coach Prime, a two-time Super Bowl champion that included the last for the Dallas Cowboys 28 years ago, said when he first got the job he was coming to Colorado with luggage and it was Louis Vuitton.
Sanders practically named his son the starting quarterback before Shedeur even had a chance to enter the transfer portal, and was almost uncomfortably open about telling last year’s Colorado players they should probably jump in, too.
Sanders’s rebuild and a packed spring game at Folsom Field dominated the college football offseason.
But what would the team look like when the games started? Sanders already has a signature win as a three-touchdown underdog in his first game as a major college football coach.
“I’ve been talking about it and talking about it and you didn’t believe me,” he said.
Edwards caught three touchdown passes, including a 75yarder in the first minute of the second half when he turned another short pass into a big play. He also ran for another score.
Hunter, the former top recruit who came with the quarterback and coach from FCS school Jackson State, had 11 catches for 119 yards. As a defensive back, he had one of the two interceptions that TCU’s Chandler Morris threw in or near the end zone. He played over 120 snaps.
“They showed up. They were more ready to play than we were, think more excited to play, think they played harder,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “It seemed like they had more determination down the stretch than we did. So again that’s a real credit to them. I think their coaching staff, they really did a good job getting them ready to play.”
Shedeur Sanders completed 38 of 47 passes and the Buffaloes had four 100-yard receivers for the first time ever: Hunter, Edwards (five catches, 135 yards), Jimmy Horn Jr. (11 catches, 117 yards with a TD), and Xavier Weaver (six catches, 118 yards). Colorado outgained TCU, 565541, in total yards.
Morris was 24-of-42 passing for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Emani Baily ran for 165 yards. Trey Sanders had three TD runs, including a 1-yarder for a 42-38 lead.
Edwards’s winning score came on a fourth-down play. He took a pass in the flats, made a slight hesitation, then raced down the sideline.
TCU’s final drive ended with a fourth-down stop around midfield, and Colorado, playing its final season in the Pac-12 before returning to the Big 12 to share a conference with TCU, ran out the final minute.