We are finally at the first official Thursday night of the college football season. The long awaited wait for multiple television screens airing football games is over and it starts with a banger.
Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders has made numerous waves this offseason for how he's handled the press. It's honestly taken away some from the on-field projections for the Buffaloes, who are primed to have a good season. Can they get their first win of the season against a team with a historic track record against FBS competition?
2024 record: 1-0 (100%)
Career record: 164-154-5 (51.5%)
All odds from DraftKings Sportsbook unless otherwise noted
North Dakota State +10 (-105) vs. Colorado -10 (-115)
Historically speaking, the Bison have an incredible record against FBS competition. It's so good in fact that the Bison have only played one FBS opponent since the start of the 2017 season. They are 9-4 against the FBS and rattled off an astounding 9-4 record, including a six-game winning streak.
The Bison beat Kansas State in Manhattan in week one of 2014 24-21 and did the same against Iowa 23-21 in 2016, both of which were ranked wins and the Iowa win got the Bison, who have won nine National Championships since 2011, ranked in the AP top 25.
The Bison are debuting a new head coach in Tim Polasek who served as the Bison's offensive coordinator from 2014-2016 while also being on staff from 2007-2012. He spent the last few seasons under Craig Bohl at Wyoming as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He will come in here and continue the Bison's tradition of using a power running game and play-action passing attack. Quarterback Cam Miller is a multi-year starter for the Bison and will provide a level of both stability and dual-threat element for the Bison.
The Buffaloes are in an interesting spot this season. It's year two of the Deion experiment at head coach and results were mixed at best. They took the world by storm with a major upset win over TCU and started out 3-0. Unfortunately, it didn't last and they went 1-8 the rest of the way, but remained competitive in multiple contests.
They are led by potential top picks in quarterback Shedeur Sanders and cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter. The Buffaloes have an immense amount of talent but they weren't able to put it together. Some of that was due to the nature of the sheer amount of transfers the Buffaloes had while others were about the offense they ran.
Sanders was very frustrated with former offensive coordinator Sean Lewis' offense, stemming specifically from choice routes.
"There was a lot of times last year where we had choice routes and different stuff like that to where, I can't anticipate anything," Sanders said. "Now I'm, half a second, holding it longer. I never blame anything on the linemen because it's just always something I could've done better. But, the indecisiveness of not knowing what they're going to do...that just wasn't my style of play, I'll say."
In his summer NFL Draft evaluation, one of the things I knocked Sanders for was decision-making and lack of anticipation. It's easily explainable as choice routes are often difficult to anticipate due to the nature of attacking leverage.
With Pat Shurmur taking over, there will be more traditional reads and route concepts as he runs a pro-style system. That could be a huge thing for the Buffaloes.
As far as this game, the Bison are going to pound the rock on offense and they have a defense capable of keeping the game close. With the uncertainty of the Buffaloes offensive line and defense paired with a week one game that has real uncertainty, roll with the Bison to cover and potentially get the win. Plus, the odds are too great to pass up.
Bet : North Dakota State +10 (-105)
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