Dammit, Deion. Didn't anyone ever teach you to duck?
Or, Duck, in this case.
Out to Eugene, Ore., yesterday went America's newest college football craze, Coach Prime and his spanking new Colorado Buffaloes, and here came exposure in its most painful form. The Oregon Ducks, a bonafide big-boy football team playing bonafide big-boy football, racked the Buffs from stem-to-stern, floor-waxing them 42-6 and revealing the sometimes stark difference between hype and reality.
The hype: That Deion Sanders had transformed Colorado from Alpo to Prime rib in the blink of an eye.
The reality: The new Buffs are a yea better football team than the 1-11 mess from last fall, but they're still a long way from competing with the elites.
They may have a rising star at quarterback in Deion's son Shedeur, but a football team's engine is up front, and up front they're not close to being on an elite level. Oregon rolled through the Buffs for 30 first downs and 522 total yards; Ducks quarterback Bo Nix torched them for 276 yards and three touchdowns -- two of them to wideout Troy Franklin, who ran unimpeded through the Colorado secondary for 126 yards on eight catches.
On the other side of the ball, meanwhile, Oregon allowed barely a sniff of daylight, crushing the Buffs run game (40 yards on 1.6 yards per rush), sacking Shedeur seven times and allowing just 13 first downs -- including just four in the first half, to go with 21 total yards.
Oregon led 35-0 at the break. The Ducks might have scored 70 if they'd kept the hammer down.
None of this means Sanders and the Buffs can't eventually get to Oregon's level. They very well could, given Deion's ability to attract talent. But what yesterday demonstrated is how long the road is to that level, and how upsetting TCU, beating a mediocre Nebraska team and needing overtime to dispatch winless Colorado State doesn't mean you're remotely close.
Reality. It does hurt sometimes.
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