The odds don't favor Colorado making it to bowl eligibility in its first season under head coach Deion Sanders.
Yet the Buffaloes opened this season with a road victory at defending College Football Playoff runner-up TCU and quickly darted into the national top-25 rankings amidst an 3-0 start.
Coach Prime and Colorado have won just one in their past seven games, and they must try to upset Washington State and Utah -- both on the road -- to climb to 6-6 with a chance for bowl berth.
The second-half slump hasn't seemed to dim the aura around Deion Sanders's program.
After Texas A&M on Sunday fired Jimbo Fisher, the former Florida State national championship-winning coach, and in the process effectively lit $77 million on fire -- the sum Fisher is owed from his guaranteed buyout, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith proclaimed Coach Prime should be a prime target for the Aggies.
"I want to win, I want to win a game," Deion Sanders said, acknowledging he needed to address the "bull-junk." "You think I really sit down and think about that kind of stuff?
"What strikes you about myself that you guys really think I sit down and say, 'Oh, yes. Stephen A!' C'mon. I'm good. We got to win.
"Let's focus on this week, and we play Friday, so we lose a day of practice. We gotta focus."
After Coach Prime's record-breaking success atop the Jackson State program, where he guided the Tigers to consecutive SWAC titles in 2021-22, Sanders was hired last December by Colorado and athletics director Rick George.
The Buffaloes have become must-see college football this fall, despite struggling down the stretch to find wins. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders has transitioned sublimely to the Football Bowls Subdivision's Power 5 level after starring for FCS Jackson State.
But Sanders, once. a prized recruit at Florida State who's also seen his sons Shilo and Shedeur become highly recruited prospects, said he kept an answer ready if asked about his future plans.
"I fell them what I told them when they came," Sanders said. "I'm here. I'm here. I tell them my mother is here, my daughter is here, my three sons are here, my other daughter comes to every home game.
"We here. I get mail here. Pay taxes here. I'm here. I don't hear that. Maybe our recruiting staff hears it, but I don't hear it. I"m too honest with parents, and I am going to tell them the truth."
We here. #GoBuffs pic.twitter.com/dfZWIBJkCA
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) November 15, 2023
The Buffaloes (4-6) face Jake Dickert's Washington State squad Friday on the road; they close their season the following weekend at Kyle Whittingham's ever-steady Utah program.