Coach Prime: Buffs ‘underachieving’ after 2-3 Start

Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes are already in jeopardy of making a bowl game, and it’s not even October. Through five games, they have yet to defeat a Power 4 opponent, as they have suffered two backbreaking losses against ranked opponents and were blown out by Houston on the road on a short week.

Coach Prime said in the offseason that this team is better than last year’s squad that featured the Heisman Trophy winner in Travis Hunter and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in Shedeur Sanders. They also had a handful of talented defensive backs, a stout linebacker room and an effective pash rush, all of which they’re missing this season. Through five games, it’s clear that this year’s team is not on the same tier as last year’s.

The offensive has been inconsistent, the linebackers struggle to tackle, and the cornerbacks can’t guard a JV player in man coverage. Defending the quarterback run has been a weak spot in all three losses, and the offense has mustered up just 61 points in those three outings.

Have the Buffs been underachieving? Prime was asked if he thought they were at his weekly media availability on Tuesday.

“Yeah, and I am as well, because I’m part of it,” Prime said. “We’re just not making certain plays.”

He was then asked why his players are not stepping up and making certain plays.

“If I had that answer, man, it’d be worth a lot of money, because I think many multitude of us coaches are asking that same question. We know what we need to do, we just got to do it. Exactly what we need to do. We just got to do it. It’s not it’s not a mystery,” Prime said.

Prime is being paid as a top-five coach in the country to win football games. The money and attention he’s brought to the university has been great, there’s no question about it. However, his five-year contract extension is not looking like the best deal in the country through five games. If the black and gold keep this level of play up against TCU, Iowa State and Utah, there’s a very realistic chance they could have a 2-6 record when Halloween comes around.

While there have been plenty of plays left on the table, such as Omarion Miller’s pivotal holding call that negated a 45-yard scamper by Kaidon Salter or Salter taking multiple sacks that flipped the field position on Saturday, there have been a fair amount of coaching blunders as well. Prime has burned timeouts in spots that disciplined teams wouldn’t have needed to through five games, Robert Livingston has had the defense underprepared in big spots, and Pat Shurmur’s play calling has struggled at times in the three losses.

Everyone has been underachieving, coaches and players alike (except for the offensive line, which has been phenomenal in pass protection so far), and the Buffs need everyone to have a wake-up call if they want to make a bowl game, because that schedule isn’t getting easier anytime soon.

Related

Deion Sanders says injured top WR Danny Scudero will play in season openerDeion Sanders visits Shedeur Sanders at Browns campJuJu Lewis says what we already knew about CU’s coaching staffDeion Sanders explains why he’s not in College Football 27Coach Prime is healthy and confident in his Buffs at Big XII Media DayFormer Buffs assistant coach Bob Simmons, who helped CU to 1990 national title, dies