Why Utah's Kyle Whittingham Is Not Taking Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes Lightly

The Colorado Buffaloes and coach Deion Sanders will travel to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes on Saturday, Oct. 25. Colorado is coming off a bye week while Utah just fell to the BYU Cougars on the road.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and the Utes will not be overlooking Colorado and their 3-4 record. He claims that they are a team that doesn’t reflect their record.

Kyle Whittingham: Colorado A “Much Better Team Than Their Record Indicates”

Colorado Buffaloes Utah Utes Deion Sanders Kyle Whittingham Coach Prime Big 12 Football Conference Salt Lake City Bowl Game — Sep 6, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham looks on before the game against the Cal Poly Mustangs at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Whittingham spoke to reporters about the upcoming matchup between the 3-4 Buffaloes and 5-2 Utes.

“I know they’re 3-4, but the combined record of those four losses of the teams they’ve played is 25-3. They’ve played some really good teams. They are a much better football team than their record indicates, I can tell you that for certain,” Whittingham said. “We got to be at our best and be ready and got to have a great week of preparation like always.”

He also credited "Coach Prime" and his staff.

“They’re well coached. I think Coach Sanders has done a great job there,” Whittingham said. “He’s obviously charismatic and a highly energetic guy that’s got just a ton of juice.”

Whittingham is one of the most respected coaches in the country. He has been the Utah coach since 2005 and has an overall record there of 172-87. Utah under Whittingham has been a model of consistency. Before their 5-7 season in 2024, the Utes had rattled off 10 consecutive winning seasons including winning the Pac-12 championship back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022.

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Colorado Seeking First Road Win of 2025

As Whittingham noted, Colorado has lost to some of the best teams in the country. The Buffaloes have lost to 7-0 Georgia Tech, 6-1 Houston, 7-0 BYU, and 5-2 TCU. Three of these losses; Georgia Tech, BYU, and TCU, came down to the wire.

Their three wins this season were over Delaware, Wyoming, and Iowa State. If they were to defeat Utah, it would mark Colorado’s first road win of the season and improve their Big 12 conference record to 2-3. It would also get them one step closer to making a bowl game for the second straight season.

Colorado quarterback Kaidon Salter is coming off his best game in Boulder in their upset win against Iowa State, where he threw for 255 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another 57 yards.

Utah’s Quarterback Question vs. Colorado

The Utes lost to BYU to drop to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in Big 12 conference play. The loss will now make it very difficult for them to get to the Big 12 championship game.

Utah is led by quarterback Devon Dampier, whose status is currently up in the air for the Colorado game. Whittingham commented on this as well in his press conference and was asked if he will consider going to the backup.

“We’ll just check the availability report, comes out Wednesday. We just have to wait a few days to see how these guys are healing up from the game,” Whittingham said. “That’s a distinct possibility, I can tell you that.”