Colorado football got off to an extremely hot start during its first season with Deion Sanders as head coach. However, it finished the year at 4-8 and missed out on a bowl game.
One day before Coach Prime and the Buffaloes began the year with their third-straight win, FanDuel Sportsbook asked a hypothetical question on social media. The post, which compared 2023 Colorado to 2019 LSU, was silly when it went live at 8:35pm ET on Sept. 15. It is sillier now.
Whomever runs the FanDuel X account knew what she or he was doing in terms of engagement. People were quick to jump all over the post and laugh. The humor is even more rich today.
Colorado’s 3-0 start came crashing down in the worst way possible. Deion Sanders had an opportunity to take his team to a bowl game in year one with three additional wins against: Oregon, USC, Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona, Washington State and Utah.
The odds were in his favor! And then everything went south.
They got their fourth win against the Sun Devils but lost by three to the Wildcats, and by three to the Cardinal in overtime. It was the ultimate crash and burn for a college football program that brought ESPN to campus in September, even if a four-win record would have been impressive before the season started.
On the other end of FanDuel’s post, 2019 LSU did not lose. It may have been the best team of all time!
Let’s compare the two offenses, just for fun:
- Points per game
- 2019 LSU: 48.4
- 2023 Colorado: 28.17
- Total touchdowns
- LSU: 95
- Colorado: 42
- Total first downs
- LSU: 418
- Colorado: 254
- Rushing yards
- LSU: 2,502
- Colorado: 1,382
- Passing yards
- LSU: 6,024
- Colorado: 3,536
- Yards per game
- LSU: 568.4
- Colorado: 363.6
- Third down conversion percentage
- LSU: 49.73%
- Colorado: 38.64%
- Sacks
- LSU: 35 for 221 yards
- Colorado: 56 for 492 yards
That doesn’t even include the defenses…
The Tigers allowed an average of 344.3 yards per game in 2019. The Buffaloes allowed an average of 453.3 yards per game in 2023.
I think we’re done here. LSU -55.5?