BOULDER — The singular brazenness and kinship of the 2023 Buffs converged on one fourth-quarter play during their surgical disassembly of TCU’s defense last week.

Jimmy Horn Jr. was assigned a post route, but as the pocket collapsed on quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Horn identified more empty space to the outside. Sanders rolled left, and Horn’s movements corresponded. The scramble drill yielded a wide-open touchdown and a 38-35 lead.

But four days later, Horn insisted, grinning, “I was wide open at the post, too.”

Such was the ease with which Colorado’s passing game dominated in an eye-opening season opener. Nobody truly knew what to expect from the Deion Sanders era, and when the curtain was finally pulled back, the grand reveal was an overwhelming display of synchronized eyes, legs and minds. Four players amassed 100 or more receiving yards to put the rival Cornhuskers on notice, including Horn and his former South Florida teammate Xavier Weaver.

“I feel like all four of our receivers could have had over 200,” Weaver said Wednesday, driving home CU’s supreme confidence. “We left a lot of money on the field.”

The athleticism and cohesion is beyond doubt. If there’s any matter of suspense entering the Week 2 clash with a defense that allowed 13 points last week, it’s only whether Colorado has lost its element of surprise.

Was TCU, whose poor defense was already well-documented, merely taken aback by how far Coach Prime elevated the Buffs in such a short time? Or was the 45-point output an early sign of what will become the norm?

One thing’s for sure: The Buffs are anticipating new coverages from Nebraska on Saturday (10 a.m., FOX).

“It’s personal for us this week. It’s personal,” receivers coach Brett Bartolone said. “We’re expecting a little more (off-man) coverage this week, a little more zone coverage this week. So we’ve just gotta be where the quarterback expects us to be.”

That’s where the chemistry comes in. Horn knew Shedeur Sanders back in high school and advocated for the quarterback’s arm to Weaver when the two of them were preparing to transfer from USF. And as for that receiver duo — two crowning jewels of Coach Prime’s transfer portal purge — the bond is even tighter. The receiver room at USF used to get together periodically to get minds off football.

“We just talked about each other’s lives, and our mental health, and checked up on each other,” Horn said. “That made us real close.”

Enough so that when they’re on the field together in an improvisational situation, they can think in tandem and understand not to tangle each other’s routes. After all, TCU’s secondary played a lot of tighter man-to-man. When it comes to facing larger doses of zone, reading the leverage opportunities presented by the coverage and reacting mid-play can become more important.

“Depending on the players they’ve got on their team, it’s trust with your DBs,” Horn said. “They probably might not trust their DBs as much, so they’re running more zone than, like, TCU. They trusted their DBs, so they ran a lot of man. But this team, you’re going to see more double cloud, Tampa 2. … You won’t see too much man besides third down and stuff like that.”

Horn and Weaver shared a moment together after Colorado’s triumph in Texas, reflecting on how fast things have changed. They’re living in a national spotlight after existing as less than an afterthought one season ago. “We came a long way from our previous school,” Weaver said. “We’ve been losing a lot. … Felt like a national championship in a way.”

They hope the feeling becomes more routine. A Folsom Field debut against an enemy that long outdates their time in Colorado (or time on Earth) is a suitable way to replicate it. The coverages might be different, and the rivalry might be unfamiliar to Horn, Weaver and most of the 2023 Buffs, but as far as these swagger-sufficient players are concerned, receiving is still receiving, and rivalries are still rivalries.

A win would feel pretty sweet.

“I’ve gotta do my homework a little bit on the rivalry, but I just know we don’t like red,” Weaver said.

When asked if he has found a good reason to hate the Huskers yet, Horn spoke the universal language of trash talk. “Nah, but I hate them.”

“I gotta do my research and learn more,” he went on to say, “so I can just add a little extra hate in my heart.”