The Oregon football team is getting ready to face Coach Prime and his Colorado Buffaloes, and for now, everything seems to be cordial.
Since the start of the season, the Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders have taken college football by storm. Opposing teams and their respective coaches have found ways to make bulletin board material prior to meeting the Buffs on the field. Over the last three weeks, those teams are 0-3 and Colorado is undefeated.
Colorado knew when they hired Coach Prime in the offseason that it would not be a normal situation. They did not even have the money at the time. Now, after a stellar start, a night game that saw the highest East Coast ratings for a game west of the Rockies in years, and a team that has created Heisman buzz and household names for players overnight, the attention now turns to Eugene.
Oregon is also 3-0 entering Pac-12 play and despite blowing out Portland State and Hawaii and earning a win at Texas Tech, the Ducks have played it safe when it comes to trash-talking at all. Earlier this week, Head Coach Dan Lanning was asked about facing the Buffaloes this week, “Super pumped about the crowd we’re about to see. I think Coach Sanders has done a great job with his team. He’s created a lot of momentum and they’ve done phenomenal in their first three games.”
No smoke, no mirrors, just a positive statement concerning the game this week. On Tuesday, Deion Sanders was asked about Lanning and had this to say, “I respect the heck out of this man, what he’s accomplished stepping in taking over a program and keeping it not only rock and steady but accelerating it. I love who he is, the way he runs his team, the way he operates. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”
Compared to the first three weeks of the season, this feels like the game and the atmosphere are set to take center stage versus comments made in the weeks before making it personal for Coach Prime.
Both teams enter this week with a similar feeling. Oregon played their most complete game of the season against Hawaii in a 55-10 win, but penalties reared their ugly head. For Colorado, the Buffaloes are still in search of the complete game according to Sanders, “We have not played a complete game…. the offense is playing well, the defense is hot garbage, when the defense is playing well the offense is horrible and special teams are not special. We need to put it all together to defeat a team like Oregon. We’ve gotta put it together.”
The game is a top-twenty matchup and will play a part in deciding the Pac-12 Conference race this season. It will have national attention, but the key will be to block out the outside noise and take care of business on the field for a full 60 minutes.
Oregon and Colorado meet inside Autzen Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 12:30 pm Pacific Time on ABC.
Quotes obtained during weekly press conferences for Dan Lanning and Deion Sanders
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