Dan Lanning enters Week 4 matchup with a lot of respect for Deion Sanders, Colorado

Through the first three weeks of the season, the Pac-12 has shown they are one of the strongest and most entertaining conferences to watch across all of college football. And with a full slate of inter-conference scheduled for Week 4, the stakes rise and the action may get get even more exciting this upcoming weekend.

Oregon and Colorado will square off in one of those matchups representing one of three between ranked opponents in the Pac-12 in Week 4. And reporters didn’t wait long following Oregon’s Week 3 win over Hawaii to ask head coach Dan Lanning about his matchup with Coach Prime and the new-look Colorado Buffaloes.

“Well, I’m hoping you guys will stop asking me questions so I can go watch the rest of their game,” Lanning joked. “But no we’re excited to play a great opponent, this is gonna be an awesome atmosphere for Oregon Ducks and these are one of those marquee games that we’re really really excited about.”

Oregon will host one of the hottest teams in the country when Colorado visits them on Saturday, as new head coach Deion Sanders has completely shifted the culture of the program and given them more national attention than they could have imagined.

Like Oregon, the Buffaloes enter this matchup undefeated and ranked, as they’ll be fresh off of an intense 43-35 come-from-behind win in double overtime over rival Colorado State.

“So we know we’re gonna get everybody’s best, which is exactly what we want, and I’ve got a lot of respect for that team,” Lanning said. “It’s obviously a completely different team than it was last year, so let’s see what it looks like when we go out on the field. We hope we get their best and we’re certainly trying to give them ours.”

Lanning’s recent words sound a little bit different than the comments he made regarding Colorado’s program in late July, but there’s no doubt that Sanders’ enters this matchup a completely different team than the one that lost 49-10 to the Ducks last season.

Sanders’ retooling of Colorado’s roster is well-documented with over 50 players leaving the team through the portal and new additions taking their place. He quickly doubled Colorado’s win total from a season ago, as they achieved just one win last season and have already started off this season 3-0.

The sustained success of the Ducks will meet the newfound success of the Buffaloes on Saturday, as the two teams square off in an exciting Pac-12 matchup at 3:30 p.m. ET airing on ABC.