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FORT WORTH, Texas — On the primary weekend of the 2023 season, hype gave technique to historical past.

Deion Sanders arrived in Texas with 86 new Colorado gamers — an unprecedented rework — and took down No. 17 TCU 45-42 within the Horned Frogs first recreation since a Faculty Soccer Playoff nationwide championship recreation look.

The Buffaloes had been a 21-point underdog, giving Coach Prime the primary win by a underdog of greater than 20 factors in his full-time FBS teaching debut because the 1978 FBS/FCS break up.

“We’re gonna constantly be questioned as a result of we do issues which have by no means been accomplished,” Deion Sanders mentioned. “We do issues which have by no means been accomplished and that makes folks uncomfortable.”

The cornerstone stars of Sanders’ switch congregation — Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, who each got here with him from Jackson State — undoubtedly made the Horned Frogs uncomfortable. Alongside the way in which, they erased years of futility for Colorado in only one recreation:

• Sanders accomplished 38 of 47 passes for 510 yards, probably the most passing yards by a participant in his FBS debut over the past 25 years, whereas additionally changing into the primary Colorado quarterback ever to high the 500-yard mark. He threw extra touchdowns Saturday (4) than Colorado did in six street video games final season (3). Over the previous three years, Colorado had been one among three Energy 5 groups with out a 300-yard passer.

• Hunter performed 129 snaps and have become the primary Division I participant within the final 20 seasons to have 100 receiving yards (he completed with 119 on 11 catches) and an interception in the identical recreation. He additionally had three tackles and a go breakup.

“We had some guys that singled themselves out with their enjoying and their enjoying potential,” Sanders mentioned. “A variety of guys you doubted — one among them from an HBCU — I feel he had 510 yards passing in a Energy 5 soccer recreation. And he occurs to be my son, and I am pleased with him, tremendously.”

Hunter, the previous five-star recruit who was one of many first to purchase into Sanders’ imaginative and prescient at Jackson State, wore a shirt with a montage of photographs from Deion Sanders’ Corridor of Fame enjoying profession. Like his coach, he took the identical alternative to say that none of this was sudden.

“Soccer is soccer regardless of who’s enjoying. You bought to go on the market and dominate whoever’s of their means,” he mentioned. “I went on the market and dominated. Lots of people doubted me as a result of I rated myself as No. 1 on the Heisman watch listing. Now individuals are praising me. They did not know what I may do. They’ve lastly seen what I’ve seen, my imaginative and prescient and the coaches’ imaginative and prescient for me.”

Deion Sanders agreed, saying he believes he has to advertise his gamers.

“We had a few guys who ought to be a front-runner for the Heisman proper now,” he mentioned. “Who did that? Who did what they did right now?”

Dylan Edwards, one of many jewels of Sanders’ first Colorado recruiting class, for one.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound freshman from Derby, Kansas, completed with 177 all-purpose yards and 4 touchdowns, changing into the primary FBS freshman over the previous 20 seasons with three receiving TDs and a dashing TD in his collegiate debut.

Sanders mentioned he coached Edwards in youth soccer when the freshman was 7 years outdated, which led to the four-star recruit choosing Colorado over gives from faculties like Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Oregon. In reality he decommitted from Notre Dame to signal with Colorado.

“Do not let the scale idiot you,” Deion Sanders mentioned. “Dylan appears within the mirror like ‘Shallow Hal.’ When he appears within the mirror he sees a 215-pound man that is most likely about 6-4. That is the way in which Dylan addresses life.”

The Buffaloes additionally had 4 100-yard receivers, a primary at school historical past. Hunter and Edwards had been two. The opposite two, Jimmy Horn Jr. (11 catches, 117 yards and a landing) and Xavier Weaver (6 catches, 118 yards) are transfers from South Florida.

It wasn’t all so magical. The Buffaloes gave up 541 yards, surrendered an 86-yard kickoff return and had a discipline objective blocked. Shedeur Sanders missed two deep balls to Hunter by inches, and Hunter simply missed what may’ve been one other interception.

The grand experiment seemed just like the shot within the arm Sanders promised when he was employed, snapping a 27-game street dropping streak towards top-20 opponents in entrance of 53,294, the biggest crowd in TCU historical past. The hype is gone. The Coach Prime period has already modified the fortunes at Colorado.

“These younger males in there proper now, they consider,” he mentioned. “Not all of them believed earlier than. However proper now, they got here up one after the other, two by two, and mentioned, ‘Coach, we consider.’ Now they consider. Now Boulder believes, folks within the entrance workplace, folks within the constructing, the followers, the scholars, now everyone desires to consider. I am good with that. We acquired room.”