Lincoln Riley praises Colorado for program's transformation under Deion Sanders

Lincoln Riley was the latest head coach to praise Deion Sanders for his job turning Colorado around this season.

USC and Colorado play each other this week though, so the good feelings might stop there. The Trojans will visit Boulder to try and remain undefeated while Colorado wants to bounce back after a blowout loss and the hands of Oregon.

Riley started with praise of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

“Yeah, he’s playing really well,” Riley said on Trojans Live. “You know, he’s a really good player. They’ve done a nice job with their scheme, they’ve done a nice job surrounding him with some really good weapons and he’s really just a terrific distributor, you know, and that gets those skill guys the ball and they do it in a lot of very efficient and creative ways. And so he’s largely played very, very well this season.”

The work of Deion Sanders is hard to ignore. The Buffaloes went 1-11 last season and are already 3-1 through four games in 2023. Plus, Colorado was ranked No. 19 going into Week 4.

“The improvement’s drastic, you know, you got to give their staff a lot of credit,” Riley said. “You got to give all the different players that came in there a lot of credit. We kind of know how that feels. Right? 

“And you know, we’re all smiling about it right now. They’ve undergone you know, something that’s a lot more similar than it is different and so you gotta give them credit and, you know, they battled and obviously, playing them at home and all that will be a great challenge and it should be a lot of fun.”

Colorado was a heavy underdog against Oregon on the road last weekend and despite hosting USC, it’s no different for Sanders’ crew. According to FanDuel, USC is a 27.5-point favorite against Colorado. 

Of course, the national stage will be in Boulder, with Big Noon Kickoff having the pregame show and broadcast crew being in town.

Following Saturday, the next time we see Colorado and USC on a football field, it will be as non-conference opponents. Not that they shared the Pac-12 for too long but conference realignment is tearing them apart beginning in 2024.

Colorado is off to the Big 12, hoping to be the premier program of the conference. No matter how the rest of the season plays out, Sanders will be riding into the next chapter with a ton of momentum. Maybe he will even be looking to compete for a Big 12 Championship in Year One.

As for USC, they are joining the Big Ten — being the original mover out of the Pac-12 alongside crosstown rival UCLA. The Trojans surely have some unfinished business in the Pac-12, wanting to win the conference they have been a member of since 1922.