Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter lead Colorado to a 31-26 victory over North Dakota State

Colorado’s stars led the Buffaloes to a season-opening victory over North Dakota State on Thursday night.

The Buffaloes defeated the FCS powerhouse 31-26, with QB Shedeur Sanders throwing for 445 yards and CB/WR Travis Hunter again playing nearly the entire game, having seven catches for 132 yards and three touchdowns.

Hunter’s final two touchdowns of the game were the decisive scores. He caught a 13-yard TD from Sanders midway through the third quarter to give the Buffs a 24-20 lead. And then he made an incredible catch midway through the fourth quarter to put Colorado up by two scores.

Hunter is perhaps the most dynamic player in college football. No one plays both sides of the ball like him, and no one relies on Hunter to perform as well as Colorado. The former five-star recruit is so good at both positions that he could be a first-round pick if he played with just one unit.

After North Dakota State’s Cam Miller cut Colorado’s lead to five with 2:19 left, the Buffaloes needed to get a first down to end the game. They almost didn’t make it, but North Dakota State was called for a pass interference penalty on third down, effectively ending the game.

Or at least it should have. Colorado inexplicably threw the ball on the next play, with NDSU having just one timeout left. The pass fell incomplete, meaning the Bison got the ball back with less than 40 seconds left for a last-ditch drive that ended with a Hail Mary pass caught just five yards from the end zone.

There are still many questions for Colorado

This wasn’t a win that would make you think Colorado is going to take the Big 12 by storm in 2024. After starting 3-0 in 2023, Colorado looked set to become a Pac-12 player. Then it went 4-8, winning just one conference game.

On Thursday night, Colorado’s defense took a beating in the first half and the run game struggled again. Oh, and the coach’s decision to let Sanders throw the ball after the pass interference penalty with less than two minutes left was also terrible.

Deion Sanders’ biggest priority in the transfer portal this offseason was improving the offensive line. Sanders had over 50 sacks in 2023 and the run game averaged just 2.3 yards per carry. The Buffaloes added a host of transfers and five-star freshman Jordan Seaton for 2024, but it’s clear the line is still a work in progress.

Colorado rushed 23 times for just 59 yards against North Dakota State. Yes, the Bison have been incredible in the second division of college football over the past decade and have a program that would be a perennial bowl team at the FBS level. But Colorado averaged just 2.6 yards per carry and the Buffaloes’ longest run of the night was 11 yards.

The lack of a run game may put too much pressure on Shedeur Sanders. He threw for 445 yards on just 34 pass attempts, but Hunter and Jimmy Horn (seven catches for 198 yards and a TD) probably won’t get that chance every week. Especially against Big 12 teams when the Buffaloes can’t run the ball.

Next week’s game against Nebraska will be a much better test for the Buffaloes. They’ll be facing a freshman QB in Dylan Raiola, but Nebraska should be much better than it has been in recent seasons. And the Lincoln crowd will undoubtedly be in high spirits. It’s great that Colorado avoided an embarrassing loss on Thursday night, but they’ll likely need more than Sanders and Hunter to get through this season.