Kirk Herbstreit says Pac-12 coaches are 'anxious' to face Colorado in 2023

A year ago, Colorado was at the bottom of the Pac-12 in the midst of the Karl Dorrell era. But Dorrell is now out and Deion Sanders is in as head coach — and he made an entrance fit for Prime Time.

Sanders didn’t hide his intentions when he left Jackson State to take over at Colorado. His “Louis” luggage comments have been well-documented, and he lived up to that promise as the Buffaloes saw plenty of roster turnover. Fifty-eight players left the program and 48 came in as Sanders transformed the roster makeup.

He’s also generating plenty of excitement around the program, and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said Colorado is becoming a circled matchup for other Pac-12 teams as a result.

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“Without naming names, I do know that there are a lot of Pac-12 coaches that are anxious to play Colorado,” Herbstreit told Pat McAfee on The Pat McAfee Show. “I think there are a lot of people that are excited. … That’s what makes it so exciting is there are a lot of people — before, you didn’t even know Colorado was playing. And now, every week, you’re gonna be like, ‘Who is Colorado playing this week?’ I’m very, very intrigued to see what happens with him not just this year, but in the future.”

Kirk Herbstreit: Colorado is a ‘fascinating study’ of the transfer portal era

Sanders has used the portal like no other coach before him in this era. The unprecedented amount of players who transferred out was the topic of many a conversation around college football.

For Herbstreit, he pointed to Colorado’s offseason as one that will be talked about for the long time as the portal gets studied more.

“I think in this era of the transfer portal, I don’t know if there’s a more fascinating study than Colorado,” Herbstreit said. “I remember [Sanders’] first speech when he talked about the ‘Louis luggage’ he has coming in, and he brought it in. And he had a lot of guys that left and I don’t know the exact numbers of the turnover between where they were last year and how many new faces they have this year. But the that’s going to be fascinating.”

That said, there’s a buzz around the Buffaloes that hasn’t been there in a long time. But it will all come down to how the pieces fit together — a conversation that took place last offseason when Lincoln Riley used the portal at USC.

“I mean, it’s basically obviously, just a new roster, you know,” Herbstreit said. “And if you’ve seen them play since last time they were good — I think Pat, you and Pacman [Jones] were in school was the last time they put a competitive team on the field. So any kind of change is probably a good thing.

“But you always wonder how is the team like that gel? We saw SC do that with Lincoln Riley. Not to that level, but they gelled pretty well. And you know, they had a good year. Michigan State a couple years earlier made a lot of changes. So it can happen.”