ESPN considers whether Colorado is a CFP contender after Week 1

This weekend, Colorado beat TCU in one of the weekend’s biggest upsets. That win over a team that played for a national championship last season seemed to wake many people up nationally to Colorado and wondering just how far Deion Sanders can take this team in 2023.

During ESPN’s Get Up, Ryan Clark, Dan Orlovsky, and Heather Dinich discussed whether Colorado should now be considered a contender for the CFP.

“I haven’t seen enough,” Ryan Clark said. “I’m gonna be honest with you. When you look at what TCU had to replace offensively and the fact that the Colorado Buffaloes had a difficult time stopping them, you know when you go up against Caleb Williams and you’re playing Michael Penix Jr. and all of these quarterbacks who will be in Heisman talk, you’re going to have to play better football on that side of the ball.”

While it’s too early for Clark to call Colorado a CFP contender, he does think they’re for real.

“Like I said early on, though, they are for real,” Clark said. “They’re a team that can score on anybody.”

Both Ryan Clark and Dan Orlovsky praised Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. In particular, Clark touched on how he handled the game mentally, going through progressions and making decisions. However, Clark thinks that Colorado still needs to become better rounded to compete against tough Pac-12 opponents.

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For his part, Orlovsky agreed that it’s too early to talk about Colorado and the Playoff. However, Dinich did point out that the immediate schedule is going to set the Buffaloes up for success.

“So, when we look at what’s ahead, Nebraska — I don’t know about you guys but I’m gonna go Colorado in the Nebraska game. Colorado State,” Dinich said. “And then they go to Oregon and we saw what Bo Nix just did. Guys, the Oregon Duck is still doing push-ups. They scored over 80 points, 81 points. So, we’re talking about defense, you’ve got to be better defensively in order to make a statement and be a true contender.”

With that being said, Dinich is much more excited about Colorado’s prospects now.

“But I really believe this team could be undefeated heading into Oregon and that’s not something I would have said.”

Paul Finebaum on the impact of Colorado’s Week 1 win

Following that upset over TCU, analyst Paul Finebaum shared his thoughts on what Colorado’s win means.

“I mean you just have to give them so much credit. And forget Prime for a second. His players, his son, Travis Hunter?” Finebaum said.

“It just shows you what he does and what he means to a program. You can get all these other guys and you can run your team off. But, if you have superstars, and he does? It matters. [It’s] the kind of thing that can create an epidemic. That sets off alarm bells.”