Pat McAfee Reveals Why He's 'Worried' About Colorado

ESPN analyst Pat McAfee was brutally honest about the current state of Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes on Week 3's edition of "College GameDay," taking place in Columbia, South Carolina.

After a blazing 4-0 start to the 2023 season, Sanders and his team quickly became the talk of college football. The Buffaloes embraced trash talk but ultimately couldn’t back it up.

When a team talks, you expect them to back it up with wins. Unfortunately, for Colorado, it went 4-8 in 2023 and is off to a 1-1 start to the 2024 college football season.

McAfee and the "College GameDay" crew discussed the Buffaloes ahead of their meeting Saturday night with in-state rival, Colorado State.

McAfee began by speaking highly of Sanders' successful playing career.

"I grew up as a massive fan of Deion Sanders," he said. "I think he's one of the greatest athletes to ever exist on this earth. What he has been able to accomplish in both football, baseball, and everything that he's ever done. The amount of work that goes into that behind closed doors is admirable and honorable. I think everything he was going to ever do, I thought he was going to have success at."

He then explained what has gone wrong during the Sanders era as Colorado's head coach. McAfee pointed out team bonding and culture as major reasons.

"This has been an interesting little tale here in Colorado," he added. "I think he does have the ability to lead. I think he does have the ability to coach, but their team building and culture building, seemingly, has not really worked out thus far."

In last year's game against Colorado State, the Buffs won 43-35 in double overtime. However, their star player, Travis Hunter, sustained a lacerated liver from a cheap shot by the Rams, causing him to miss part of the season.

McAfee thinks the lack of team chemistry in Boulder might make things easier for CSU on Saturday.

"Does that play in the favor of Colorado State?" McAfee said. "I think so, double overtime game last year. And if you go back one year, what Colorado and Nebraska did and take the year of development that Nebraska had and what Colorado had."

And because of that, McAfee is 'worried' for the Buffs program.

"I'm worried about the Buffaloes even though I absolutely love them and I think they have enough good players to be a great team, but nobody believes that they're a good team at this point. They think they have superstars," McAfee added.

Kickoff Saturday night is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on CBS.

Related: Colorado Versus Colorado State Game Preview