Utah is CU’s bowl game now. And there’s no reason for Shedeur Sanders to play in it.
Hold on. Hold on. We don’t quit.
There’s a time and a place for macho, Coach Prime.
And Salt Lake City next Saturday ain’t it.
We’ve seen enough.
More than enough. Washington State came into Punishment On The Palouse with the Pac-12’s third-worst pass rush. The Cougars had racked up just 17 sacks over their previous 10 games.
They’d piled up four in the game’s first 12 minutes, setting the tone for a 56-14 blowout. They’d knocked out the younger Sanders, CU’s QB1, five minutes into the second quarter.
Wazzu’s defensive line? Nice bunch.
The Utes’ defensive front? Straight nasty.
Utah heads into the weekend averaging almost twice as many sacks per game (three) as the Cougs did before they ran over, around and through the CU pocket in a 56-14 beatdown. Utes defensive end Jonah Elliss, son of former NFL great Luther Elliss, rolled into Saturday with 12 sacks all by himself.
We don’t …
Quitter? No. 2? Come on.
If Shedeur was a quitter, he would’ve stayed down at Arizona State. He wouldn’t have come out for the second half vs. UCLA.
Shut him down.
We don’t …
Not suiting up for Utah isn’t quitting. It’s self-preservation. It’s not just responsible coaching. It’s responsible parenting.
“I’m pretty sure I haven’t talked to (Shedeur) about it,” Deion Sanders, who coached a miserable game with miserable, flu-like symptoms, told reporters. “But I’m pretty sure he wants to finish.”
I’m sure he does. But why risk the year that counts? Because it’s not this one. It was never this one.
The wheels are off. Kentucky transfer Kavosiey Smoke, who’s carried the ball twice all season, is saying the quiet parts — “selfish ball” — out loud. The Buffs’ single-season passing yardage record is already Shedeur’s, coach. Let Gavin Kuld go out and Tebow this bad boy to bed. Based on what we saw in Pullman, dude could use the reps.
The minute Shedeur left the scene, Game 11 was like watching the 2022 Buffs all over again. Not even Travis Hunter (four catches, one receiving TD, one pass breakup) could prop up that much knock-off Louis luggage. Well-coached teams show signs of improvement in November. The only sign on the Buffs’ sideline was a metaphorical one, in flashing neon letters, that read, “TOO COLD. CHECKED OUT.”
It’s time for Sanders to pull down the curtain and get ready for what Project Prime was really all about:
2024.
Year 2. The sequel.
In a Big 12 where the marquee names are … what, Kansas State? Oklahoma State? Iowa State? The Utes?
Come on.
The marquee name is you. The marquee program is yours. The marquee quarterback is Shedeur.
But not if he’s too busy rehabbing old wounds.
Not if he can’t hit the ground running.
Or even walking.
We don’t …
Forget the noise. Forget the haters. As Shedeur left the field for the last time, the Wazzu student section, celebrating their last home game as a Power 5 program, chanted “overrated” with sadistic glee.
The Buffs (4-7, 1-7 Pac-12)?
No kidding.
But Shedeur?
No way.
What do you lose by playing it safe in Salt Lake? Other than another game?
Sanders’ first season is already framed by progress, even if the success is mostly superficial and financial.
CU needed a fast start to this fall, largely because nobody had any film, other than Jackson State or Kent State footage, to work from. Taking out then-ranked TCU planted a flag in the opener — “Do you believe now?” — for all the world to see. And kicking Nebraska up the backside in the Buffs’ home opener in Week 2 affirmed it.
But 3-0 became 4-2, which became 4-7. Because while the Prime Method brings five-star recruits, Kirk Herbstreit and Urban Meyer to your campus, it doesn’t promise an instant, functioning offensive line.
Once the Buffs started getting hurt, and once teams got enough film, CU might be in trouble.
Sure enough, the Buffs got hurt. And look out below.
Prime ran off guys who weren’t Louis Vuitton enough. He also ran off a ton of depth. At Jackson State, you could out-skill and out-talent your way around that.
Not in this Pac-12.
Not this fall.
Not in Pullman.
And yet none of that changes the fact, Friday notwithstanding, that CU has come light years from this time a year ago. All while being nowhere near physical enough in the trenches to be taken seriously as a CFP contender.
Business decision, coach. Business. Decision.
We don’t …
Do you really want to see Utah finish what Wazzu started? You want to expose your most valuable asset to a meaningless game in front of an offensive line allowing five sacks a game?
Shut him down, Prime.
The Buffs have nothing more to prove. And neither does Shedeur. To anybody.
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