Colorado Buffaloes Fans Will Love This 2026 Season Prediction

In the 2024 season, the Colorado Buffaloes experienced great success with a 9-4 record with a consistent lineup, limited injuries, and great talent. However, in 2025, Colorado was not able to repeat that success.

ESPN analyst Bill Connelly has released statistical trends on turnover luck, expected win totals, and roster turnover on a year-to-year basis, in looking ahead to 2026. In many respects, the Buffaloes appear to have potential for a much better showing next season.

Turnover Luck

The 2025 season for the Buffaloes culminated in a 3-9 record, which was due to a variety of factors, including multiple injuries, shuffling the lineup on a week-to-week basis, and the team as a whole struggling to perform.

On the turnover side, when a team struggles to get turnovers one year, the luck and randomness often shift for them the next season. Colorado hopes that trend holds true for them in 2026.

With the team struggling to perform, the Buffaloes had limited production in generating turnovers in 2025. Last season, Colorado was minus two in that area, which was a major reason they couldn’t get off the field on defense in 2025.

Heading into 2026, the projection for the Buffaloes is to be plus 2.7 in that margin. If Colorado can create those turnovers, it will not only get them off the field but also help them to win a lot more games with better field position, momentum, and more scoring opportunities.

Tight Games

Another reason the Buffaloes struggled to find success in 2025, with a record of 3-9, was their inability to win tight games decided in the fourth quarter. Last season, Colorado went 1-3 in the one-possession games. This included beating Iowa State and losses to Georgia Tech, BYU, and West Virginia.

Winning close games is very difficult to do, and in many ways, the teams that have been able to win these close games have built a strong culture that helps them to succeed consistently in these tight games.

Under Colorado coach Deion Sanders, there has been significant roster turnover, which has created a difficult situation for Sanders to build a strong culture at Colorado. However, this spring, prioritizing a different kind of player seems to be helping the Buffaloes trend in a better direction than in the years past.

Lineup Consistency

Coach Prime’s reliance on the portal has created a lot of inconsistencies in the lineup for the Buffaloes on offense and defense, as portrayed by the ratio of players who started most games and then players who started few games.

In the 2025 season, Colorado had six players start all the games or miss just one game, but conversely, had 13 players who started one to two games. This created a ratio of 0.46, which was tied for 129th in the nation last season.

There were several reasons why Colorado was unsuccessful last season, but changing the lineup frequently definitely did not do the Buffaloes any favors. Colorado suffered significant injuries in 2025, but there were also players who significantly underperformed, which forced Coach Prime and the staff to make changes to the depth chart.

But that did not discourage Colorado from heavily relying on the transfer portal to add depth and experienced players to the roster. The Buffaloes have added a significant number of transfers, and in total, they combined for 182 starts in the 2025 season, giving them a lot of experience to rely on for what lies ahead in 2026.

Because of the lack of success in the past season and recruiting cycles, coach Sanders opted to shift his approach to recruiting. This time around, Sanders decided to prioritize a blend of experience and production in the portal, which is indicated by many of the additions Colorado has made across the roster.

While experience does not guarantee success for the Buffaloes, finding players who have that experience and have produced on the field does give Colorado a much better chance to be a competitor in the Big 12 next season.

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