Can Deion Sanders’ Buffs reach bowl eligibility this year? Too many questions remain (Rooney column)

Certainly there’s reason for optimism. More than likely, 2026 won’t be anything like 2025.

Going into season four of the Deion Sanders era at Colorado, the goal is to reboot after a disastrous season three. There’s pieces in place that can make that happen.

There’s quarterback Julian Lewis, the former five-star prospect whose future is now.

There’s new coordinators on both sides of the ball, with Brennan Marion bringing his unique Go-Go offense to Boulder while Chris Marve has been tasked with bringing a tougher, more violent ethos to the defense.

The Buffs are deeper and embracing fresh approaches on both sides of the ball, a critical shift following the limp-to-the-finish in last year’s 3-9 season. All of it led to one conclusion for CU’s leader.

“We have a pretty good football team,” Sanders declared.

Better, maybe. But good? Not yet.

This year’s crystal ball projects a 4-8 finish for the Buffs. Despite the added depth, and despite the potential of being better suited to weather injuries, too many variables, too many question marks, stand in the path toward bowl eligibility.

Tops among those question marks is Lewis. He still will be only 18-years old when the Buffs line up against Georgia Tech in the season opener. Marion’s Go-Go offense isn’t what Lewis signed up for when he committed to CU. Or when he reclassified to get to Boulder a year early. While Lewis certainly has embraced the challenge, nailing down the pass-run reads essential to the offense’s success is a big ask for a young quarterback who admitted he wasn’t really tasked with reading defenses at all last year.

The offensive line has struggled to protect CU’s quarterbacks throughout Sanders’ tenure, and the run game has mostly been an afterthought. The latter point should be addressed schematically with the Go-Go offense, but until the Buffs prove they can do something consistently they’ve yet to do under Sanders — protect the quarterback — it’s just another question mark.

Defensively, the Buffs probably won’t finish next-to-last in the nation in run defense, as they did last year. Transfers Liona Lefau, Gideon Lampron and Tyler Martinez are an intriguing trio at linebacker. The secondary will be solid if Boo Carter and Cree Thomas unlock their potential. The question mark will be the transfer-heavy additions up front.

About all those transfers. The Buffs are banking on players on both sides of the ball getting their production to translate from the FCS level, especially up front. Not that it’s impossible. Players pull it off every year, even for the Buffs. But the Buffs need all of them to come through to put together a bowl-worthy season. Those are long odds. Not all of CU’s transfers fit that description. Thomas played at Notre Dame. Lefau and receiver DeAndre Moore, another interesting addition, played at Texas. But the Buffs mostly focused on the hungry-to-prove-themselves types while recruiting the transfer portal. If too many of them starve, it will be a long season.

There’s also key question marks on special teams. The early nonconference games on the road and most of the Big 12 schedule could easily come down to one-score games. How confident is Buff Nation that young Elliot Arnold, he of the zero career attempts, will step up and knock down a clutch field goal? Maybe that’s exactly what happens, and he goes on to have a memorable career. Until it does, it’s yet another uncertainty to throw on the pile of things that have to go right for CU.

This year more than any year previous will test Sanders’ coaching mettle. A similar point could’ve been made last year, his first coaching a Buffs team that didn’t have Travis Hunter dominating both sides of the ball and his son Shedeur Sanders at quarterback. In retrospect, though, the impact of Sanders’ cancer battle wasn’t fully recognizable when the 2025 season kicked off. His forced distance and delegation of duties that summer meant CU didn’t get the full Prime effect.

That’s not a knock. The man had cancer. He earned a mulligan.