Colorado under Deion Sanders has been just about all things to all people. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly has been a lot over three seasons. But after a 3-9 2025, Colorado was mostly just a bad football team.
Sanders admitted he didn't have "it," and neither did his players without Shedeur Sanders, Hunter or the bevy of offensive weapons Colorado enjoyed during the first two years of Deion's run. Now the Buffs are trying to turn the page, get back in contention for a bowl and climb out of the bottom of the Big 12. In his 2019 book explaining his offensive system, new Colorado offensive coordinator Brennan Marion detailed his philosophy.
"We are a running team," he wrote. "We want everyone in the country to know that we are going to run the ball right at you. We're not going to hit you all the way down the field.
We're not going to screen you all the way down the field. We're going to run the ball right at you, right over you. I believe the No. 1 thing defenses have to do in order to be a great defense is stop the dive.
If they are not going to stop the dive, then we'll just continue to run it right at them." The oft-traveled offensive coach is likely to give Colorado one thing it has sorely lacked: physicality in the run game. Few, if any, teams have been worse at running the ball since Sanders took over. The Buffs ranked last and second-to-last nationally in yards per rush during his first two seasons and weren't much better in 2025, finishing 123rd.
Marion's offense uses unusual formations to make life difficult on defenses, and that may go a long way toward making Colorado harder to stop while helping a defense that too often found itself on the wrong side of uncomplimentary football. They'll attempt to do it without left tackle Jordan Seaton, who left for LSU in the portal, but Sanders claims his line is eight or nine deep with starting-caliber players. And they'll block for a new signal-caller.
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