Colorado Buffaloes 2026 Season Preview

A Rough Record, A Better Team

The scoreboard from 2025 says 3-9, 1-8 in league play, a season that bottomed out in Big 12 play. But the underlying power rating, a top-45 mark nationally, tells a different story than the record does, suggesting the product on the field was closer than the standings let on. Year 4 for Deion Sanders is about closing that gap between how this team rated and how it actually finished.

Explosive but Broken

Colorado's offense was a study in contradiction last fall, ranking 4th nationally in explosiveness on successful plays while finishing 131st in success rate and 127th in sacks allowed, a line that couldn't stay upright long enough to cash in its big-play ability. Julian Lewis takes over at quarterback for 2026 with real weapons around him, but he inherits an offensive front that has to fix a protection problem before his arm talent means anything against Big 12 defenses. The defense offers little relief, allowing 223 rushing yards per game (135th) and generating just 14 sacks, so this team's ceiling in 2026 comes down to whether the line in front of Lewis can turn explosive flashes into sustained drives.

Julian Lewis threw for 589 yards with 4 touchdowns and zero interceptions in relief snaps last season, and now inherits the job outright after Kaidon Salter's departure left 1414 yards and 10 scores to replace. That clean turnover-free sample matters behind a line that allowed 39 sacks and an offense that ranked 131st in success rate, since Lewis won't have much margin for the mistakes Salter made piling up 7 interceptions. Colorado's passing attack still flashed real explosiveness, ranking 4th nationally in yards per successful play, and if Lewis can hold onto the ball the way he did in his small sample, that big-play trait becomes the foundation for the whole offense in 2026.

Colorado didn't just add depth at running back, it imported a whole Sacramento State backfield, with Damian Henderson II (565 yards, 5 TD) and JaQuail Smith (511 yards, 5 TD) arriving to replace the departed Dallan Hayden and Simeon Price. Micah Welch, who ran for 384 yards and 4 scores, and pass-catching option Dekalon Taylor return to a run game that managed just 127 yards per game on the ground last season, so the transfer additions are less competition than a needed talent infusion. Alabama transfer Richard Young adds another proven ball-carrier to the room, and how quickly this new mix gels behind an offense that ranked 127th in sacks allowed will decide whether Colorado's ground game stops being the drag on an otherwise explosive attack.

Colorado didn't just replace Omarion Miller's 44 catches and 807 yards, it went out and stockpiled production, landing Danny Scudero (88 catches, 1,297 yards, 10 TD at San José State) and Ernest Campbell (37 catches, 755 yards, 8 TD at Sacramento State) alongside Texas transfer DeAndre Moore Jr., who posted 38 catches for 532 yards and 4 scores last season. That volume of proven pass-catchers arrives to prop up an offense that ranked 131st nationally in success rate and 127th in sacks allowed, meaning the receivers may have to win on scheme and talent alone. Joseph Williams (37-489-4) returns as the lone established holdover, but the ceiling here rests on how fast Moore and Scudero sync with whoever is throwing them the ball behind that shaky line.

Zach Atkins returns as the only tight end with production on the books, 20 catches for 149 yards, in an offense that ranked 131st in success rate and 127th in sacks allowed a year ago. Northern Colorado transfer Fisher Clements arrives with modest numbers of his own, 4 catches for 27 yards, joining Zayne Desouza, Corbin Laisure and Charlie Williams, none of whom have logged a stat yet at this level. With Sav'ell Smalls and Brady Kopetz gone and no established receiving threat replacing them, this group looks like blockers first for an offense still searching for the efficiency its 4th-ranked explosiveness mark hints it could find.

Thirty-nine sacks allowed and a 35.2% success rate that ranked 131st tell the real story of Colorado's 2025 front, and Deion Sanders responded by blowing the whole room up rather than patching it. Eleven linemen are out against just seven back, so this is a full rebuild built around whichever of the senior holdovers, Phillip Houston up front among them, can anchor a line getting five new tackles: Leon Bell, Bo Hughley, Taj White, Jayven Richardson and Xavier Payne. None arrive as a proven starter, but the sheer volume of tackle imports signals Colorado is betting on fresh bodies over continuity to stop the bleeding up front.

Colorado didn't tweak its front, it gutted and rebuilt it. Gone is Keaten Wade's 47 tackles and 9 TFL, and in his place Deion Sanders is stocking the trenches with five transfers at once: Ezra Christensen (41 tackles, 5 sacks at New Mexico State), Dylan Manuel (37 tackles at App State) and Vili Taufatofua (34 tackles, 4 sacks at San José State) arrive to replace production, not just bodies, while Quency Wiggins is the lone returning piece with any real snaps. A defense that managed just 14 sacks and ranked 135th against the run last season is betting its whole answer is imported experience rather than internal development, and if that portal haul gels quickly it fixes the run defense fastest since three of the five newcomers profile as run-stuffing interior types.

Colorado is replacing basically its entire linebacker corps through the portal rather than trusting Kylan Salter and Bo LaPenna to carry a unit that finished 135th in run defense and 125th in sacks. Liona Lefau arrives from Texas with 68 tackles, and Gideon Lampron leaves Bowling Green having posted 119 tackles and 17.5 tackles for loss, giving Colorado two established tacklers to replace the production Jeremiah Brown and Shaun Myers took with them. With Carson Crawford, Rodney Colton Jr. and Colby Johnson added behind them, this group is built to hit harder than the 60 tackles for loss and 14 sacks this defense managed a year ago.

Colorado's run defense bled 223 yards a game in 2025 (135th nationally), and Deion Sanders responded by remaking the back end almost entirely with transfers. Naeten Mitchell arrives from New Mexico State with 92 tackles, Randon Fontenette brings 6.5 TFL from Vanderbilt, and Boo Carter adds 4.5 TFL and a sack from Tennessee, giving the safety room actual thump that last year's unit lacked. Only Ben Finneseth (25 tackles) and corners Makari Vickers and RJ Johnson return with meaningful snaps, so this defense's identity in 2026 gets written by newcomers, not holdovers.

Alejandro Mata's departure strips Colorado of the one specialist who actually produced, a 9-of-11 kicker with a 42-yard long, and neither Elliot Arnold nor Daniel Gerlach carries a single logged attempt into 2026. That leaves Damon Greaves as the lone proven commodity in this group, his 43.7-yard average a real weapon for a team that went 1-8 in conference and will need to flip field position more often than it wins shootouts. Whichever of Arnold or Gerlach wins the job inherits a margin-for-error offense that cannot also absorb missed kicks.

Lewis Inherits a New Arsenal

Deion Sanders blew up the skill positions again, and the number that matters is 42 incoming transfers rebuilding around Julian Lewis rather than around Kaidon Salter, who threw for 1,414 yards and is gone. Lewis takes over off just 589 yards and 4 touchdowns of his own, but he inherits Danny Scudero, who caught 88 balls for 1,297 yards at San José State, plus Sacramento State imports Ernest Campbell and Damian Henderson II and Texas four-star DeAndre Moore Jr. On defense, Gideon Lampron arrives with 119 tackles and 17.5 TFL to replace Jeremiah Brown, and that kind of instant-impact production from the portal is what a 67th-ranked recruiting class alone could never buy.

Julian Lewis

Kaidon Salter's turnover-prone stint is gone, and Colorado hands the offense to Julian Lewis, who threw zero interceptions across his 589 yards a season ago. Pair him with new weapon DeAndre Moore Jr. from Texas and returning target Joseph Williams, and Lewis's ability to protect the ball while pushing the ball downfield is what turns this offense from a 3-9 unit into something functional.

Boulder Safe, Road Broken

Colorado's betting market split cleanly along geography in 2025, and that split defines what to expect in 2026 more than the 3-9 record does. At home the Buffaloes covered 57% of the time, including a perfect 2-0 mark as favorites, but on the road they cratered to a 20% cover rate and 0-5 straight up as underdogs. That gap outweighs the modest bump against ranked opponents (2-1 against the spread) and points to a program still built around Folsom Field, not one ready to travel with confidence.