In an exchange with a reporter postgame, Deion Sanders asked a question after his Colorado Buffaloes stunned college football and upset TCU, 45–42:
“Do you believe?”
Three simple words that can be complicated to unpack.
There’s a verse from the Bible that explains Colorado's offseason. 2 Corinthians 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” This Buffs team was one of the great unknowns in the history of the sport. It went beyond Sanders, who hadn’t coached at the FBS level, and extended to his roster with over 80 new faces replacing a bad team and entering a treacherous schedule in a deep conference.
Sanders has made no bones about casting himself as the good reverend, and he wears his faith proudly on his sleeve. He’s previously said that God called him to go to Jackson State, and he said the man upstairs called him again to go to Boulder. He is leading a revival in Colorado, and few could have expected it to start with such a joyful song. The doubting Thomases were myriad, but for the next week, even the most skeptical must acknowledge how powerful Saturday was.
Deion’s son Shedeur Sanders’s faith that he and his FCS-level teammates would be able to succeed in the FBS was rewarded to the tune of 510 yards—a school record—in his first start at quarterback. It pays his father’s faith in him off as well, as he named him the starter virtually from Day 1 on the job. There is also Travis Hunter, who was tremendous playing over 100 snaps on offense and defense. He had over 100 yards receiving and an interception, which according to ESPN is the first time a player has done that in FBS for at least 20 years.
Deion Sanders strongly believes that he was ready for this moment not just because of his winning run at Jackson State, but from all of his experiences throughout his career as a player and a coach. His direct exchange was with ESPN reporter Ed Werder, who covered Sanders while he played with the Cowboys. Sanders may be the right reverend, but as he’s said multiple times, he keeps receipts on everyone, especially non-believers. He told SI last week he didn’t have anything to prove when you consider a football life that’s earned him Hall of Fame honors and exposure to the media in various ways. Maybe you laugh when he says that his time as a youth coach was instructive to where he is now, but he coached running back Dylan Edwards as a 7-year-old. Eleven years later, Edwards was ripping off four total touchdowns, including a 75-yard scamper in his college debut, one of multiple weapons TCU was unable to contain.
Related: Deion Sanders targets ESPN reporter during press conference
Perhaps the Horned Frogs believed too much in themselves. Their head coach Sonny Dykes said “For whatever reason, our guys felt like they were almost too good to play those guys today. It turned out, we’re not.” Despite the fact that they were a heavy 21-point favorite, much of the hype around the game had little to do with TCU, after a berth in the national title game last year and a magical season. You would think it would be easy to build a belief that they were disrespected by the country, therefore producing a sharp and motivated unit in the season opener, but that is not what happened. Their offense at times was clunky, seemingly abandoning the run despite success on the ground—especially in the first half—and committing key mistakes in the red zone with two interceptions, one of which was a tremendous play by Hunter. The Frogs missed a field goal on special teams, and missed a bevy of tackles on defense that sprung chunk plays for CU. This isn’t last year’s TCU team, and any scan of the roster makes that clear, but if you spent time around last year’s team, it was easy to see how belief can snowball from week-to-week as the wins piled up. This TCU team seems a far cry from that one.
Colorado was by no means a well-oiled machine. Their defense still allowed TCU to march up and down the field before the Frogs often got in their own way with either play calling, penalties or miscues that prevented them from scoring even more points (and likely winning). The Buffs also allowed a massive kick return on special teams, and had a field goal blocked. Some of that can be attributed to both teams playing on a brutally hot day, but it contributed to the back and forth nature of what will probably go down as a game of the year candidate despite the fact it was played before Labor Day.
So much of running a college football program is promoting a culture of buy-in and belief, both externally and internally. Externally, it matters in recruiting and branding to tell a positive story and back it up on the field. Internally, you can only say “we comin’” for so long until you actually must arrive. For at least one week, the Buffs have, and they’ve done it earlier than many predicted. It’s almost certain that after this game, those in the locker room will believe now—if they did not before—because they’ve now seen it for themselves.
So what will it take for you to believe?
