Joel Klatt explains what success would look like for Colorado in 2024

Joel Klatt continues to be high on what Colorado could do in 2024.

On Monday, Klatt defined what success looks like for 10 teams this season, including the Buffaloes, during the latest episode of his show. That started with a preface that it’s difficult to determine that for them specifically due to the constant changes for them and then the overall coverage of them.

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“This is one I think a lot of people are wondering about,” said Klatt. “Colorado? CU is going to be one of the hardest teams to project year-over-year as long as Coach Prime is there and their roster is so transfer centric. It’s just going to be difficult because we don’t exactly know what they are, who they are to be quite candid.”

“Now, I think to be fair to Colorado – and most people are not. Most people are not. I totally understand if you want to say like, ‘Hey, Joel, you played there! You’re just on the bandwagon!’. That’s fine but I believe that that’s negating the facts,” Klatt said. “Everybody just wants to throw dirt on this program, you know, or just sing their praises from the rafters. It seems like it’s totally hyperbolic. The pendulum is wildly one way or the other.”

With that said, Klatt remains very optimistic about this season because of how he views what they did last season. Colorado may have gone just 4-8 overall in the debut of Deion Sanders but they lost five of those in one-score fashion, including three of those to ranked opposition.

That, along with what they’ve brought back and added this offseason, is why Klatt doesn’t see how their projection couldn’t eventually include a bowl berth.

“Here are the facts. Last year, they played six games against ranked opponents. I would categorize them getting blown out in only one of those games. Oregon blew them out. Colorado got blown out by Oregon. In the other five games they played against ranked opponents, they were in a one-score game in the fourth quarter. Nobody wants to talk about that!” said Klatt. “For me, I just think that Colorado was better than most people believed last year. They lost some games that they shouldn’t have. They might have won a game that they shouldn’t have as well. You could say that about the TCU game early. But five one-score games in the fourth quarter against ranked opponents and they’re better this year.”

“Their over-under in Vegas is only 5.5. That’s way too low,” Klatt stated. “You’ve got one of the best, if not the best, college quarterbacks in the game. You’ve got probably, I think, the best skill position player in the game in Travis Hunter. They’ve upgraded dramatically on the line of scrimmage, which is exactly where they needed to upgrade.”

That would suggest that the definition for Klatt would be six wins. However, it goes further than that as he officially has them winning eight, if not competing for nine, in what would be their best finish in nearly a decade.

“They go to a bowl easy and I say eight wins for Colorado is the definition of success,” said Klatt. “My definition for success for Colorado is eight wins. That far surpasses what Vegas thinks that they’re going to do.”

Colorado is going to be a story regardless of if they succeed or fail this fall. It’s going to be a successful one for Klatt, though, as he has them meeting his determination of them at eight victories.

“Yes – Colorado is in a bowl game,” said Klatt. “I’m giving them eight.”