Coach Prime says a fast start is critical for Colorado on Saturday

The Colorado Buffaloes need a win against the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday night to get their season back on track after a poor showing against Houston a week ago. However, they’re going to have to wait until after the sun goes down, as they’re scheduled to kickoff after 8:00 p.m. for the sixth time in the Coach Prime era.

Prime said that the Buffs get their “butts kicked at night” following last week’s loss, which kicked off at 5:30 p.m. MDT from Houston. Saturday’s game is the first of two confirmed contests in which they have to wait to play until the latest TV window this season, with the second one being next week’s conference clash against BYU.

In the late-night window, the Buffs have posted a 2-3 record with wins over Colorado State in the historic 2OT battle in 2023 and Cincinnati last year. They lost to Stanford and Oregon State in 2023 and Kansas State in 2024. Colorado trailed at halftime in three of those games and blew a 29-0 halftime lead against Stanford. The Cincinnati game was the only contest in which they played four full quarters of football.

For Saturday night’s showdown with Wyoming, Prime said that the key was getting a good start right out of the gate.

“One thing that we got to do, though, is we got to start fast. Night game, we got to start fast. That’s why we’re changing the practices, last night, tonight. We’re practicing to make sure our bodies get turned around so we’re not going to sleep. You know, in the first quarter we’re up and we’re ready to go, but these guys get after it, and we got to match the intensity coming out early,” Prime said during the Colorado Football Coaches Show on Thursday.

The Buffs traditionally practice in the morning, but after the poor showing last week, Prime made the decision to move some of the practices back this week. This isn’t like 2023 when they seemingly played at 10:00 a.m. on Big Noon Kickoff every week, as they’ve been getting scheduled more like a traditional Big 12 team recently.

Buffs practice at night in preparation of all these night games 💡 pic.twitter.com/BBbvtpku0e

— Dalvinthetruth (@dalvinthetruth) September 19, 2025

Something else of importance for Saturday’s game is having success on first down, per Prime. His team hasn’t had the most success on first down on either side of the ball, which has set the offense up with second and third and longs while the defense is faced with second and third and shorts more often than not. Of quarterback Ryan Staub’s 35 passing attempts on Friday, 19 of them (54%) came on second or third downs where the Buffs had to go at least seven yards to move the chains.

For Houston quarterback Connor Weigman, just nine of his 24 attempts (37.5%) came in the same situation. It was a consistent theme all night that the Buffs weren’t able to succeed on first down on either side of the ball, and it put the Cougars in front instantly.

Saturday’s game is a must-win for Colorado. They’re two-touchdown favorites at home against an inferior Group of 5 opponent, and with Kaidon Salter reportedly getting the keys to the offense back, they should be looking to make a statement early in the contest. Given that they kick off Big 12 play for good with a gauntlet of four tough games, getting to 2-2 will be important to keeping hopes of making a good bowl game alive.

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