ESPN's Paul Finebaum believes that Colorado's Week 3 victory over Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown was Deion Sanders' best win so far in his short reign of the Buffaloes program.
Finebaum touched on why he liked what he saw out of Coach Prime and his team during Sunday morning's edition of SportsCenter.
"In many ways, I thought it was Deion's most impressive win yet in his three at Colorado because they had so many distractions leading in. When you bring in all the pregame shows, you bring Lil Wayne, you bring The Rock — I mean, I thought I saw Taylor Swift there but I could have misread that with sunglasses on — it was insane, and they were still able to play. They were playing an inferior team but they were resilient. They came from behind. They made so many critical plays in big moments. I think this will help them as they move forward. The only problem with moving forward…they play the two toughest games of the schedule up next."
Colorado hosted ESPN's College GameDay on Saturday as the signature game of the less-than-stellar Week 3 slate. As anyone who follows and covers this sport knows, anything and everything can happen on any given Saturday. For Colorado to need overtime to beat its instate rival at home to stay perfect was certainly unexpected, especially with star playmaker Travis Hunter out for the count.
Whether it be all the hoopla associated with GameDay being in Boulder, The Rock being the guest picker or Rams head coach Jay Norvell calling out Sanders and his mom, there were so many opportunities abound for the Buffs to implode under the pressure but they did not. Of course, Colorado commences Pac-12 play next week at Oregon before hosting USC. Buckle up, Buffs...
No matter what happens the next two weeks for CU, you must be impressed by their first three wins.
Paul Finebaum was overly impressed with Colorado's latest victory
This win not only came over an in-state rival, got them to 3-0 in the non-conference, and halfway towards achieving bowl eligibility, but it came on an elevated stage the Rocky Mountain Showdown has probably never seen. CU plays CSU very early in the season before Pac-12 and Mountain West play begins, but only Coach Prime could add that extra level of spice to this regional rivalry series.
I don't know if the momentum from the last three Saturdays will be enough to propel Colorado in presumably liquid sunshine vs. Oregon, but the Buffs are no joke under Sanders. This should be a team more than capable of getting to 6-6 (3-6) this season. If they're closer to an 8-4 (5-4) squad, then Sanders will be in the running for coach of the year. Nobody turns a program around this quickly.
Ultimately, Sanders has shown that he can not only talk the talk, but he can walk the walk. He has always had a knack for the gab, which has made him such a polarizing football figure for the better part of four decades now. However, it is abundantly clear that he is one helluva a college football head coach. He is every bit the CEO type, but he has the wherewithal to assemble an elite staff around him.
Sanders has an innate ability to make every game his team plays in to feel like an all-time spectacle.