Colorado starts season with loss to Georgia Tech in post-Travis Hunter era

Never one to mince words, Deion Sanders made a proclamation earlier this week that this year’s Colorado Buffaloes were not going to take a step back. Even with the loss of Heisman Trophy winner, former two-way phenom, Travis Hunter, and Sanders’ son, star quarterback Shedeur, to the NFL, Colorado’s head coach was predictably bullish on these Buffs — despite Colorado’s 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech Friday night.

“I’m optimistic on everything,” Sanders said. “We’re definitely going to be fine. I’m not concerned about that. We could’ve won that game. It’s not like we got our butts kicked.”

In Friday night’s 2025 season opener against Georgia Tech in Boulder, Colo., everyone in college football got a glimpse of what life after Hunter and Shedeur Sanders will look like. And it looked, well, awfully different. Unlike in 2024, these Buffaloes looked nothing like the air-it-out team that was the No. 6-ranked passing offense in the country.

“We don’t think we lost. We think we gained,” Sanders had said Tuesday. “Sure, there were a couple athletes that were phenomenal. But — and I’ve been saying this for quite some while — we have a better team.”

They were, as Sanders promised, more balanced and dedicated to the run. But the Buffaloes could not turn three first-quarter Yellow Jackets turnovers into a sizable advantage and could not contain Georgia Tech’s Haynes King. And with a chance to salt the game away with a late fourth-quarter drive, new Colorado quarterback Kaidon Salter failed to put together a lengthy drive.

That was a common theme in Colorado’s loss to Georgia Tech. King’s 45-yard touchdown run with 1:07 left in the fourth quarter capped a brilliant performance after those three first-quarter turnovers. King finished with 156 rushing yards on 19 carries and accounted for all three Georgia Tech touchdowns.

“That quarterback’s looking like a Heisman candidate right now,” Sanders said. “We made that happen for him.”

Colorado’s opener officially ended an offseason filled with plenty of action and alarm. Sanders made good on his promise to partner with Depend after revealing his battle with bladder cancer. Sure enough, the adult diaper company had a portable toilet on the sideline for the 58-year-old Sanders on Friday night at Folsom Field.

“I felt good,” Sanders said when asked to describe how he felt coaching after all that he went through in recent months. “I don’t feel good right now but I felt darn good during the game.”

That came after months of speculation regarding Sanders’ long-term future at the university. While Sanders’ representative and Colorado hammered out specifics on a contract extension following the Buffaloes’ nine-win season a year ago, his old boss, Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, made an inquiry to Sanders in January regarding his team’s head coaching vacancy.

Two months later, Colorado and Sanders finalized a five-year, $ 54 million contract extension, making him the highest-paid coach in the Big 12 Conference and one of the top 10 highest-paid head coaches in the sport.

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)