BOULDER — Do you believe now?

Honestly? When it comes to Deion Sanders and his CU Buffs football program, that depends.

Do you believe in Shedeur Sanders? Without a doubt. Do you believe in Travis Hunter? Twice on Sundays, where he’s gonna make a killing.

Do you believe in the coaching staff? In the offensive line? In a defense that became a punch line on “Saturday Night Live?” Not so much.

The glass is half … something. Compared to 1-11 and a national afterthought a year ago, the Buffs are clearly on a better path. But after a 3-0 start turned into 4-8, there’s still a long, long, long way to go.

Which begs the question: Is there enough time on Coach Prime’s internal clock — always ticking — to get there, as soon as next fall?

“What Deion has proven in Year 1 is that it’s possible,” former Buffs football coach and CBS Sports football analyst Rick Neuheisel told The Denver Post earlier this month. “It’s been a terrific Year 1, even though it’s not going to end in the postseason.

“The over-under (prediction) was 3.5 wins, right? He got over that (quickly). And that was really the Deion bump — based on what you had (left over) from a year ago, it probably should’ve been two wins, and you got to four.”

So what has to change for the Buffs to take the next step? To meet the lofty standards Sanders aspires to and turn another corner? The Post recently asked experts how CU could best address its weaknesses going forward.

Step 1: Milk that portal (again)

See that clock? It’s running. The roster linchpins of the Sanders Era –Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son and CU’s QB1; senior safety Shilo Sanders, another scion; and sophomore cornerback/wideout Hunter — are likely all staring at their final seasons in CU gold and black next fall. (Shilo’s eligibility will expire after 2024, while all three are expected to enter the NFL draft pool during the ’24-25 offseason.)

Next summer, CU transitions back to the Big 12, where Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma State and Kansas State figure to be the biggest fish in commissioner Brett Yormark’s gridiron pond. So how can the Buffs make the jump, in just a few months, from four victories to nine or 10?

“It’s just more players,” Neuheisel said. “… You win games with scheme only if the players are equal. If the players’ (relative qualities) aren’t equal, scheme will have a very difficult time masking that over the course of 60 minutes.”

But the Buffs also struggled to string together a consistent performance over 60 minutes of football this season, and some Jekyll-and-Hyde performances are reflected in a season’s worth of schizophrenic statistics.

The Buffs finished Coach Prime’s inaugural season ranked among the top 25 programs in the country in these categories: pass completion percentage, passes per game, passing yards per game, interception percentage, turnover margin per game and fewest giveaways per game.

But they were among the nation’s bottom 25 in these: opponent points per game, opponent yards per game, rush yards per game, rush yards per attempt, sacks allowed, penalties per game and penalty yards per game.

Throw those superlatives onto a chart, without any visuals, and it paints the picture of a team that profiles as one with an excellent passing game (check), an accurate and careful quarterback (check), and an opportunistic defense (check).

But that team also checks out as one that couldn’t keep the other offense out of the end zone (check), protect the aforementioned passer (check), run the ball consistently (check), keep opponents’ offenses off the field unless they turned them over (check), or stop shooting itself in several feet with ill-timed penalties (check).

Summing up? Coach Prime’s inaugural Buffs squad has been fun, fast, undisciplined … and not very physical.

“We’re getting there. We definitely need giving, you know what I mean?” Coach Prime said this past Saturday following the Utes loss.

“It’s unfortunate to say this, but some kids cost (money). It’s unfortunate to say this, and … I have not charted this yet, but I’m gonna ask for the numbers, but if you start thinking about the top several teams in the country, let’s see what was spent on assembling the teams.

“You know, we can sit and talk about ‘great coaching’ and ‘great this,’ and ‘great that’ all we want. But it’s gonna be a credit-card swipe, some kind of way, with all these guys going to these (College Football) Playoffs, right? And I understand that.

“And you’ve gotta have a quarterback. If you look, (the) commonality (for elite teams is): (Top) players; quarterback; run game; they can stop the run. That’s pretty much what all these pretty darn good teams share.”

The first two factors are strengths that figure to be built upon with the expected return of the Sanders brothers and Hunter. It’s the latter two, and how Coach Prime addresses them, that will determine just how high CU can set its ceiling in 2024.

Step 2: Fix both lines (obviously)

CU came out of Thanksgiving weekend with the second most sacks allowed (56) among all FBS programs, with Shedeur Sanders having been taken down 52 times. Coach Prime has been highly critical of his linemen since his program’s slide began in early October, although the rhetoric has cooled in recent weeks.

Two of the Buffs’ starters up front against the Utes were juniors or younger, so there’s a hope of improved cohesion and chemistry down the line. CU’s lone offensive line commitment to date, tackle Issiah Walker, Jr., is a junior-college transfer who’s expected to factor into the mix immediately. And more will be coming, either via the transfer portal or via the prep ranks.

“(They need) five (offensive) linemen and three to four interior d-linemen,” observed Broncos tackle Will Sherman, a former Buff. “I think that changes everything. If you’ve got guys that can protect Shedeur and can run the ball on their terms when the defenses know that they’re going to run — that changes everything. That opens up the play-action pass, which CU hasn’t been able to do this year.

“And then if you get interior D-linemen, (they) can help you out there rushing, if they flush a quarterback to the edge, then I think the edge guys can handle it. So I think just being able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball — because the skill players are gonna come. It’s Coach Prime. Skill players love flash. It’s just the trenches. I think the trenches are vital.”

Step 3: Discipline — no more Stanford moments

The Buffs finished 3-5 in games decided by eight points or fewer. But they were 0-4 in those games after Oct. 8, and one game in particular — that home loss to the underdog Cardinal at Folsom Field on Oct. 13 — appeared to rip a program’s potential wounds wide open.

CU stormed out to a 29-0 lead at the half. The Buffs were 30 minutes away from a much-needed bye week.

The hosts took their foot off the gas. And their eyes off the task at hand.

A blowout transformed into a 10-point game late in the third quarter. A game-tying Stanford field goal shocked Folsom into silence. A 46-43 loss in overtime basically flipped the season in the wrong direction after a promising 4-2 start.

Mentally, a confident Buffs team was bitten by hubris and outworked down the stretch, and the coaching staff couldn’t stem the tide.

“The key now is that there starts to be some glue,” Neuheisel said. “It was easy to (sign up) for Year 1. Are you wanting to be a part of Buffaloes culture? Are you wanting to be a part of Deion Sanders’ culture?

“And I think it’s also key that, as opposed to saying it’s all about getting the best players coming … I think it more needs to be (about) complementary pieces with this too, going forward, rather than (Louis Vuitton) luggage.”

Step 4: Building (and keeping) depth

Coach Prime followed his Jackson State playbook to the letter, turning over more than half the CU roster in a historically short span. While clearing the decks created a blank slate, it also took big chunks out of potential depth down the stretch.

On the offensive line alone, three former CU starters — Casey Roddick Jr., Jake Wiley and Austin Johnson —recorded at least 93 offensive snaps each this season for Florida State, UCLA and Purdue, respectively.

“It’s simple to say, ‘We need to run the ball and stop the run.’ It’s what I hear nearly every week on the college football trail and what Prime has talked about a lot in this late-season swoon,” Fox Sports college football analyst Brock Huard said.

“The teams that do that year-in and year-out in college football and win 8, 9, 10 games are those that recrui and retain and develop their own. A program can plug-and-play and find transfer answers at the skill positions. But look at the top of most conferences — and in particular, the Pac-12 this year — and what do you find? Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah. All with fully-developed, grown men at the line of scrimmage who paid their dues and (their) time at those institutions.

“They’re not littered with offensive line transfers because that position is built on trust and familial bonds. Prime knows this. His 49ers and Cowboys teams had loads of perimeter superstars, but the essence and the backbone and the DNA of those teams were the stalwarts at the line of scrimmage.”

Do you believe now?

For Coach Prime and the Buffs, Year 1 was a mulligan, on several levels, a honeymoon that’s stretched for more than a year — record ticket sales, donations, attendance and merchandise sales.

The Buffs have a football identity again, along with Prime Time sizzle. Prime Time results, though, and a run at the expanded College Football Playoff field next fall, are going to require more steak. Especially up front.

“Sometimes it’s not even starting, it’s just competing and having that (attitude) that no one’s complacent and no one’s comfortable,” Sherman said. “If the O-line and D-line have those attitudes, I think the sky is the limit next year.”

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