What Kickoff Time vs. Utah Utes Means for Colorado Entering Bye Week

The Colorado Buffaloes will kick off their next game in a late-night slot.

Oct 3, 2026; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders before the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Folsom Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Colorado Buffaloes have two weeks, and now some additional hours, to prepare for the No. 12 Utah Utes. The Big 12 announced on Monday that kickoff for that matchup will take place at 8:15 p.m. MT, or 10:15 p.m. EST.

This will be Colorado’s first kickoff in a late-night slot this season, but it's nothing the Buffs are unfamiliar with. Colorado played in this time slot a number of times in 2025, including against the Utes.

How the Colorado Buffaloes have fared in late-night kickoffs

Oct 25, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders looks on during a time out in the game against the Utah Utes during the second quarter at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Colorado’s matchup against the Utes in 2025 is one it’d certainly like to forget. Colorado was in a very similar situation to the one it finds itself in now. It had just battled a ranked conference opponent and was coming off a bye week to play the Utes. But the Buffaloes clearly hadn’t used their bye week as well as they would have wanted, as they were trounced 53-7 in Salt Lake City. 

Colorado was outclassed on both sides of the ball in that game, and it led to an unraveling throughout the rest of the season.

But there were also instances in late-night games for the Buffaloes where they seemed to thrive off the environment. Particularly, in a home game against the then-No. 25 BYU Cougars last year, Colorado took it to Kalani Sitake’s squad, which eventually made an appearance in the Big 12 Championship at the end of the season. The Buffaloes lost that game by just three points, giving fans an unfortunate amount of false hope for the season to come.

The Colorado Buffaloes’ matchup with the Utah Utes

Oct 3, 2026; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes linebacker Gideon Lampron (44) reacts to his play in the third quarter against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Folsom Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This season, Colorado’s matchup against Utah looks quite a bit different. Although the Utes bring back many players from last year’s matchup, Colorado is bringing an entirely different identity to this game. 

The key difference in this game is Colorado’s defense, as it is unlikely to allow the same dominance that Utah saw against CU last season. Colorado’s defense was dominating the then-No. 12 Texas Tech Red Raiders for almost the entirety of the two teams’ Week 5 contest, holding them to just 15 points until the final three minutes of the game.

That unit has been successful in each of Colorado’s games with the exception of its matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats in Week 3. 

However, Colorado’s offense still has plenty of work to do.

What the Colorado Buffaloes have to work on during the bye week

Sacramento State Hornets head coach Brennan Marion listens to one of the assistant coaches yell at players on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings, South Dakota. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Buffaloes’ offense has been spinning its tires in four of its five games this year, largely due to two factors.

First, Colorado has failed to find a reliable answer at quarterback, as redshirt freshman Julian Lewis played with far too much hesitancy and junior Isaac Wilson put the ball in harm’s way with regularity. The last new option they have is true freshman Kaneal Sweetwyne, a dual-threat quarterback from Lehi, Utah. 

Putting a freshman quarterback in against a defense of Utah’s caliber could be setting him up for failure, though, as it's unlikely he would escape without any hits to his confidence.

But the Buffaloes’ other concern has been offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, who has put together poor performances in each of Colorado’s games against Power Four opponents. Colorado has the lowest-scoring offense in the Big 12 and the third-lowest-scoring among Power Four teams.

Add in the fact that his playbook just became public information, and Marion has a lot to get done this week. Kickoff at Folsom will say a lot of things about how he handled that bye week and what the rest of Colorado’s season is going to look like.

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