Joel Klatt Uses One Word to Describe Colorado’s Emergence This Season

The Colorado Buffaloes are in the thick of the Big 12 championship race after five weeks of college football action. Deion Sanders and company have already matched their win total from a year ago (four) and are coming off their best performance of the season against previously undefeated UCF.

Gus Malzahn's Knights, also in their first season as a member of the Big 12, led Power Four teams in rushing offense heading into the Week 5 matchup. Led by star quarterback and Arkansas transfer, KJ Jefferson, the Knights were considered as 12.5-point home favorites, per ESPN Bet.

But Colorado ultimately played much differently than the showing against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in a Week 2 loss. The Buffaloes jumped out to a 14-7 lead and never looked back, totaling 418 yards of offense on the way to a dominant 48-21 win in Orlando.

Run defense and protecting star quarterback Shedeur Sanders were glaring issues for Colorado last season, and in the loss to Nebraska. But that wasn't the case last week, as UCF's powerful ground game yielded a season-low 177 yards and Sanders was sacked only twice.

Fox Sports analyst and former Colorado quarterback, Joel Klatt, provided a one-word evaluation on how this year's Buffaloes stack up to a 4-8 showing in 2023.

"Complete," he said . ..."All the sudden we got a version of this Colorado Buffaloes team that we have never seen before. So the complete Colorado showed up and now, all of a sudden, that is an incredible surprise in college football."

Colorado's improvements are especially notable on defense. After finishing 124th in total defense last season, first-year defensive coordinator Robert Livingston has propelled the group to 54th in that metric thus far in 2024.

"The defense has been a lot better," Klatt said. "I thought that the defense played their best and most complete game against UCF. Their front has been terrific. Livingston, their defensive coordinator, has been tremendous..."

Klatt credits Colorado's improved ground game and the use of 11 personnel sets as the key to keeping Sanders clean in the pocket. The Buffaloes rushed for 128 yards and Sanders finished with 290 yards on 28-of-35 passing with three touchdowns to one interception.

"The diversity of the run game and the ability to put the linebackers in conflict made Colorado's offense completely different and much more difficult to defend," Klatt said.

The Buffaloes (4-1) are off this week ahead of the biggest matchup of the season, an in-conference clash against No. 20 Kansas State at home on Oct. 12. If Colorado can establish the same strategy that it implemented against UCF, Klatt expects the Buffaloes to put up a serious fight.

"If they stick to that, they will be very difficult to beat in the Big 12," he said.

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