Some things didn’t really change at Colorado in Deion Sanders’ second year as head football coach.
His running game finished the 2024 season ranked dead last nationally in yards per game, same as it did in 2023. His offensive line still struggled to block. And penalties still were a problem. The Buffaloes ranked eighth nationally in most penalties committed this season with 100.
But in the bigger picture, Colorado undeniably took a huge step forward by finishing 9-4 in 2024 after a 36-14 loss to BYU in the Alamo Bowl Saturday. Sanders deserves credit for that, along with some blame for what went wrong.
Here are the biggest hits and misses of his second year after improving from a 4-8 season in 2023 and a 1-11 finish before his hiring in December 2022.
Big success No. 1: Rebounding after Nebraska
Colorado’s 28-10 loss at Nebraska on Sept. 7 looked ominous for the Buffaloes. They fell into a 28-0 hole at halftime, gave up six quarterback sacks and managed just 16 yards rushing in their second game of the season. In other words, they looked a lot like Sanders’ first Colorado team in 2023.
But Sanders recognized this and helped prevent the Buffs from falling apart down the stretch like they did last year. He made it the theme of the week that followed: “How do you respond?”
This time they responded by winning three straight games before finishing in a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 Conference. Last season, they lost eight of their final nine games. That’s coaching.
Big miss No. 1: The letdowns
This happens to every team to different degrees, but the Buffs seemed like two different squads at times: one with lots of firepower and one that disappeared for long stretches like they did last year.
Besides falling behind 28-0 at Nebraska, the Buffs fell behind 17-0 against Kansas and 20-0 by halftime in the Alamo Bowl. And don’t forget that time they came from behind to take a 28-24 lead late in the fourth quarter against Kansas State only to give up big plays of 34 and 50 yards right after that to fall behind for good.
They lost each of those games because of those letdowns and it’s on Sanders to smooth out that choppiness in 2025.
Big success No. 2: Letting Travis Hunter be Travis Hunter
Colorado won its second Heisman Trophy in school history because Sanders let Travis Hunter do what he wanted to do at the fullest extent: play both ways as a cornerback and receiver. Not many other coaches, if any, would allow this, simply because they’d see it as unnecessary, or as too big of an injury risk, or just too unconventional to be considered.
Not Sanders. He played both ways himself as a player and has shown he’s willing and eager to think outside the box in the quickly changing landscape of college football.
Big miss No. 2: The running game (again)
Having a quarterback as good as Shedeur Sanders made this issue less of a problem than it could have been. But it would help take the pressure off of next season’s quarterback if the Buffs don’t finish last in the nation for the third season in a row in rushing yards per game. The Buffs actually averaged fewer rushing yards this year (65.2) than last year (68.9)
Why is this problem so hard to fix? The answer relates to another big miss for Deion Sanders in 2024.
Big success No. 3: Hiring Robert Livingston
A good head coach knows how to delegate and find top assistant coaches. In this case, after last year’s defensive coordinator left for Auburn, Sanders turned to Robert Livingston, the defensive backs coach of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals. Livingston had never run a defense before. He’s young and wasn’t exactly a “name” hire.
But he coached up some transfers and returning players, who combined to help lead the Big 12 Conference in quarterback sacks (39) and fumbles recovered (12).
Big miss No. 3: The offensive line
Much of the trouble with the running game and in the Alamo Bowl involved blocking. Deion Sanders made it an obvious priority to overhaul his offensive line after his team gave up the second-most quarterback sacks in the nation in 2023 (56). He brought in nine transfers and the top offensive tackle recruit in the nation as a freshman: Jordan Seaton, who started every game at left tackle and will only get better as a sophomore in 2025.
But the Buffs still gave up 43 sacks, the most in the Big 12. Of those nine transfers on the offensive line, few panned out over the course of the full season because of injuries or substandard play. They had to reshuffle their line often because of that, raising questions about whether Sanders can solve this issue with more newcomers and reshuffling in 2025.
He’s got time to try to figure it out. The Buffs open their third season under Sanders Aug. 30 at home against Georgia Tech.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com