Pac-12 Football

The Colorado Buffaloes 2023 season officially came to an end Saturday and head coach Deion Sanders believes his team is already ready to create positive momentum for 2024.

The Buffaloes fell 23-17 to Utah and finished the season 4-8. This was an improvement from 2022, when the program was 1-11, but a 3-0 start makes the late season skid stand out. Sanders said the team is already ready to make improvements for next season and doing things the right way will be how they get there.

"We getting ready to start cookin,'" Sanders said, per Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today. "We getting ready to start go pick up that grocery and make sure we do it right. You know what we need. Everybody know what we need. You know dern well what we need, so we gonna get it."

The preparation for next season appears to include embracing NIL and being active in the transfer portal as Sanders mentioned this process and that the Buffaloes will need to embrace this in order to take that next step.

"We're getting there," Sanders said. "We definitely need giving. You know what I mean. It's unfortunate to say this, but some kids cost … I have not charted this yet, but I've asked for the numbers. But if you start thinking about the top several teams in the country, I see what was spent on assembling their teams. You know, we can sit here and talk about great coaching and great this and great that all we want, but it's gonna be a credit card swipe in some kind of way with all these guys going to these places. And I understand that."

Colorado was busy in this regard last year as Sanders brought along several players, including his son Shedeur Sanders and 2022 No. 1 recruit Travis Hunter, and the 2023 Buffaloes looked very different from the 2022 team.

Still, holes in the roster definitely contributed to the 1-8 record in Pac-12 play and kept the team from reaching a bowl.

Colorado will be re-entering the Big-12 in 2024 and will hope that the necessary changes can be made in order to return to a bowl for the first time since the Covid-shortened 2020 season.

The first season of the Deion Sanders era in Boulder has come to a close.

The Colorado Buffaloes dropped their regular season finale to Utah 23-17. This solidified a final record of 4-8, which is a significant jump from a 1-11 mark last season but still a tough way to end after a 3-0 start to the season.

Colorado went 1-8 in Pac-12 play and ended the season with six consecutive losses. This was a tough way to end Colorado's tenure in the Pac-12, but the finale at least provided some positives.

Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders was ruled out prior to the game and freshman backup Ryan Staub got his first opportunity to start. Staub was serviceable, going 17-of-24 for 195 yards and a touchdown.

The touchdown came via a connection with two-way star Travis Hunter, who had a game to remember.

Hunter had eight catches for 107 yards and a touchdown while also making four tackles on the defensive side of the ball. His statistics were nearly improved even further as he had another scoring play that was controversially called back.

Regardless, Hunter's performance was a terrific way to cap off the season and sets the Buffaloes up to make major improvements next season.

Fans on social media praised Hunter and called him one of the elite talents in college football.

Hunter finishes his first season with the Buffaloes with 721 receiving yards on 57 catches and five touchdowns.

He should be back in Boulder next season and will be a key contributor for a Buffaloes team that will be hoping to go above .500 in a full season for the first time since 2016 as they re-enter the Big-12 Conference.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders will not be available for the team's season finale against Utah due to injury, according to Brett McMurphy of Action Network.

Sanders was listed as doubtful heading into the game with an upper body injury.

The 21-year-old left the Buffaloes' 56-14 loss to Washington State in Week 12 due to numbness in his hand. He did not return to the game.

"He had some numbness in his hand and couldn't really grip the ball," head coach Deion Sanders said after the game, per ESPN's Kyle Bonagura. "But then that second hit he just got rolled up on. We decided not to send him back out."

The young signal-caller put together an excellent inaugural season in Colorado, passing for 3,230 yards and 27 touchdowns compared to a mere three interceptions. He scored an additional four times on the ground as well.

Sanders has taken a beating behind the team's inconsistent offensive line, though. He's been sacked 52 times in 2023, the highest total of any player in the country. Sanders has taken at least seven sacks in three separate games this season.

"Shedeur is not feeling well right now," the elder Sanders said about his son's status before he was eventually declared out (via Cameron Salerno of CBS Sports). "We are praying that he gets healthy and he's able to play because he is who he is, and when he's on the field, we have a tremendous chance to win."

It's currently unknown as to whether the signal-caller will officially remain in Boulder for another season or declare for the 2024 NFL Draft, although his time spent with the Buffaloes will be memorable no matter what his future holds.

Oregon quarterback Bo Nix continued his Heisman Trophy campaign by completing 33-of-40 passes for 367 yards and two touchdowns to lead the No. 6 Ducks to a 31-7 win over arch rival No. 16 Oregon State on Friday evening.

Nix also rushed for 31 yards and another score against an 8-4 Oregon State team whose previous three losses were only by a combined eight points.

This one was all Oregon, however, thanks in part to Nix, who kicked off the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown pass to running back Bucky Irving.

Nix later took care of business himself with a 16-yard touchdown run to give Oregon a 14-0 lead following the PAT.

Then Nix found wide receiver Troy Franklin for a 41-yard bomb after evading the Beaver pass rush and throwing across the field for a big-time play.

The defense, which was phenomenal all evening, then took care of business in the second half by pitching a shutout.

Oregon was also able to construct a couple scoring drives, one capped by a Camden Lewis 25-yard field goal and another by Jordan James one-yard touchdown run.

It remains to be seen whether the Ducks can sneak into the four-team CFP, but it's clear that Nix has supplanted himself as a Heisman favorite. He had much support him on social media as he led the Ducks' dominant win.

Oregon will now face No. 4 Washington in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday. The Ducks' lone loss this year came against the undefeated Huskies, who defeated visiting Oregon 36-33 on Oct. 14.

Kickoff will take place at 8 p.m. ET in Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium.

Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes have their next two-way star heading to Boulder for the 2024 season.

Kamron Mickell, a four-star athlete out of Georgia, officially committed to the Buffaloes Thursday. He became the 10th player to officially sign with Colorado in the Class of 2024 and the recruiting class is currently ranked No. 60 in the nation, per 247 Sports.

Mickell is a two-way athlete and the Buffaloes currently have two-way star Travis Hunter in the fold. Mickell has played quarterback, running back and cornerback in his time at Statesboro High School.

Mickell is ranked as the No. 79 overall player, No. 4 athlete and the No. 19 player from Georgia in the Class of 2024. He possesses a 6'1", 180-lb frame and had 31 total offers. He chose Colorado over schools like Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas A&M.

Hunter has been a sensation for the Buffaloes in 2023, with 49 receptions for 614 yards and four touchdowns in eight games on offense while also registering 27 tackles and making three interceptions on the defensive side of the ball.

Hunter had been rated as the No. 1 player in the nation for the Class of 2022 and came to Colorado ahead of the 2023 season alongside Sanders, who he originally committed to when the coach was at Jackson State.

Adding another two-way athlete could be huge for a team that has proven ability to manage it with Hunter. Mickell becomes the highest-rated player in Colorado's 2024 class so far and is the third four-star player.

USC head coach Lincoln Riley has no intention of following his quarterback to the NFL in 2024.

Riley responded when asked if an NFL team offers him the chance to coach Caleb Williams next season, per The Athletic's Antonio Morales:

Hell no. No. I'm coaching at SC. Period. I didn't come here for some short-term thing and as long as SC continues to give us the support and the things we need to continue to build this, this was not a two-year rebuild. No. I'm going to be the coach at SC. Period. End of discussion. I'm so committed to this place because I know what it can be. And if that commitment continues to get matched around us, we're going to do what we've got to do in here and make the adjustments, make the tough decisions, push on the good, own the bad, fix the bad. We're in it through all the twists and turns and I wanted to make sure people knew that and the more people we have with that same attitude, the faster this thing's going to get back to normal.

Williams is considered one of the top quarterbacks available in the 2024 draft class alongside the likes of UNC's Drake Maye, and he'll likely be selected in the top 10 and perhaps in the top five.

The 22-year-old has played his entire college career with Riley as his head coach. He started his career at Oklahoma in 2021 and followed Riley to USC ahead of the 2022 campaign. Riley coached the Sooners from 2017-2021.

Williams went on to win the Heisman Trophy last season after completing 66.6 percent of his passes for 4,537 yards and 42 touchdowns against five interceptions, in addition to rushing fro 382 yards and 10 scores.

The NFL hopeful is also in the midst of another solid season, completing 68.6 percent of his passes for 3,633 yards and 30 touchdowns against five interceptions, in addition to rushing for 142 yards and 11 scores.

Despite Williams' best effort, the Trojans finished the season 7-5, mainly because the defense was one of the worst in all of college football.

USC's finish to the campaign resulted in speculation that Riley might follow Williams to the NFL if given the opportunity, but now that he has declared his intention to remain in California, he'll be hoping to improve his squad next year with a new quarterback under center.

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders knows he has multiple holes on his roster that need to be addressed in the offseason, but he's not planning on using money to recruit players.

"We're not an ATM. That's not gonna happen here," Sanders said Tuesday, per David Ubben of The Athletic.

Sanders continued: "If you come to Colorado to play football for me and the Colorado Buffaloes, it's because you really want to play football and receive a wonderful education. All the business stuff will be handled on the backend. But we are not an ATM. You're not coming here to get rich unless you're really coming here with a plan to go to the NFL and get your degree. Not to come here and be Moneybagg Yo. That's a rapper, right?"

Of course, schools are not permitted to explicitly offer money to incoming recruits. That hasn't stopped such practices from happening, as improper benefits can be facilitated through boosters and other methods. The establishment of NIL rules has been hoped to be a deterrent to the issue.

Sanders was once highly regarded for his recruiting abilities, but Colorado's 2024 recruiting class is ranked 69th in the nation. The class currently consists of nine athletes, two of which are 4-star prospects. Just this week, Sanders lost two recruits as 4-star wide receiver Winston Watkins de-committed on Sunday and offensive lineman Talan Chandler flipped to Missouri.

Still, Sanders isn't trying to resort to extreme measures to convince players to play for Colorado.

"We want players that want us," Sanders said. "Trying to convince somebody and doing that, being held hostage financially, we ain't with that. We're not going to buy anybody whatsoever. We have tremendous needs. I'm pretty sure everybody in the country knows what we need and how much we need. That's not a secret and recruits are responding. Trust me, there's not a day that goes by that kids aren't blowing our recruiting staff up. They're calling and we're responding."

There haven't been many college football coaches that have had a toastier seat than UCLA's Chip Kelly.

Kelly has had a mostly unimpressive tenure at the helm of the Bruins' program and is in the middle of another mediocre campaign. He is—however—coming off the biggest win of the season against rival USC on Saturday in an impressive 38-20 effort.

But if this is Kelly's final rodeo at the Rose Bowl, NBC's Peter King doesn't really know what the next stop would be for the former following this uninspiring run.

"If this is Chip Kelly's last season at UCLA, I wonder what team, college or pro, would want him now," King wrote Monday. "Kelly turns 60 this week. His record at UCLA in six seasons is 34-33, even after Saturday's impressive win over USC, and when you can't win at UCLA, after not winning at San Francisco in 2016 and getting fired after three seasons without a playoff win at Philadelphia, the Oregon magic is gone

"I thought the guy had genius qualities when I covered him a few times in Philly, but boy was I wrong. His people skills aren't good. In his 10 coaching seasons post-Oregon, Kelly is 62-68. That's not a season or two. It's a decade."

Kelly is far removed from his days as the coach at Oregon where he managed to lead the Ducks to three-consecutive PAC 12 titles while running one of the most electric offenses in college football.

Following all that success, Kelly moved on to the pro ranks as the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles where he enjoyed a moderate amount of winning but made some moves that alienated the fan base and was ultimately fired during his third season in 2015 after going 6-9.

Kelly was subsequently hired by the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 but had the worst year of his coaching career, going 2-14 and not making it to a second season.

But Kelly's reputation as an elite college coach hasn't faded and it helped him land the UCLA gig back in 2018. He has amassed a 34-33 record since taking over the Bruins.

Realistically, it probably wouldn't take long for another college program to swoop in and land Kelly should he be fired by UCLA. It may not be a power five program but the glow of those four season in Eugene will follow Kelly around for the rest of his career.

It could be a warm night in Los Angeles or a monsoon in Corvallis and Michael Penix Jr. just always seems to come out on top.

The star Washington signal caller was great in the face of adversity Saturday night as the No.5 Huskies (10-0, 7-0 PAC 12) came away with a 22-20 win over No. 11 Oregon State (8-2,5-2) on a very rainy night at Reser Stadium.

Whenever a big play needed to be made, Penix was there to make it—despite a number of dropped balls due to the torrential downpour. The Heisman hopeful completed 13 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns while getting another score in the rushing game.

Considering the elements, it wasn't going to be a shootout like the one against USC a few weeks ago. But Penix did what needed to be done, including getting the crucial third-down conversion with under two minutes to go that sealed the win for the Huskies.

Washington's defense also stepped up, holding Beavers' quarterback DJ Uiagalelei to 166 passing yards and two interceptions.

But fans couldn't help but send plenty of praise Penix's way following another strong outing.

Next up for Penix and Washington is a matchup against in-state rival Washington State for what could be the last time with the impending conference realignment that'll shift the Huskies to the Big 10.

The stage is nearly set for a rematch with No. 6 Oregon in the PAC 12 championship game that'll likely have huge ramification on the CFP picture.