Colorado's Hype Stalls but for Coach Prime and the Buffs the Best Is Yet to Come

At the moment, the momentum has stalled. The Cinderella story, at least for a little while, is on hold.

Colorado, the talk of college football, finally lost a football game, and it did so emphatically on the road against a team it was never supposed to beat.

What transpired in Eugene on Saturday afternoon is the only normal result that Colorado, one of the sport's doormats over the past five years, has done so far. For about a month, this was the story, team and coach that captured the sport. And while that sentiment will undoubtedly cool in the wake of a deflating outcome, it shouldn't take away from the incredible progress that has been made.

Sometimes, the scoreboard lies. In this instance, however, it told the entire truth about a football game that was lopsided from the start.

Oregon scored 42 points; Colorado scored six. The Ducks totaled more than 500 yards of offense; the Buffaloes finished with 199 yards. Outside of an interception, Oregon was essentially perfect.

At halftime, the score was 35-0. Truth be told, the final score of 42-6 could have been significantly worse if the Ducks wanted it to be worse. It didn't help, of course, that Travis Hunter, Colorado's best player and two-way star, didn't play. Even if Hunter was healthy, however, the end result likely wouldn't have been much different.

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The Ducks will stay unbeaten as Pac-12 play picks up. Colorado will move to 3-1 with a home game against USC looming. That game will lose steam as a result of this outcome, although all eyes will likely remain on Colorado until further notice.

After the game, Deion Sanders, the vocal architect of this tremendous rebuild, didn't shy away from the outcome.

"We played like hot garbage," he told reporters.

Given the tone of the past few weeks, this was a dramatic departure from the confidence and electricity that had led to big ratings and significant attention. In true Sanders fashion, however, he couldn't help but let this aspect of his style shine through, even in a low moment.

"You better get me right now," Sanders added. "This is the worst we're going to be."

To the haters and the doubters, Saturday was vindication. This was a moment a month in the making. The hype that has been building since Sanders took the job finally took a hit. The fact that it took this long is, frankly, remarkable.

Sanders certainly hasn't been shy since arriving in Boulder. As such, his confidence and, now, the success have transformed Colorado, a program that won a grand total of one football game last year, into the most polarizing team in college football.

Celebrating this loss, however, feels misguided. For starters, college football needs more emotion, talk and compelling characters. Sanders has injected new life into his program and the sport as a whole—a development that should be appreciated.

Larger than that, though, he's brought immediate success to a dormant program. He tripled Colorado's win total from a season ago in the first three weeks of the year, helping overhaul a talent-depleted roster in record time.

A blowout loss to a good football team isn't the end of this story. Given how little time Sanders has been given to transform the program, this is simply the beginning.

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In the immediate future, the Buffaloes' path will stay challenging. After a home game against USC, Colorado still plays at UCLA, Oregon State, at Washington State and at Utah before the end of the season. All five teams entered Week 4 ranked inside the Top 25.

This year will not end in a playoff berth or a Pac-12 Championship. The fact that this must be said speaks to how dramatically the expectations have changed.

Long term, however, this program will be a problem for as long as Sanders is there. And if quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion's son, comes back to school next year rather than pursue the NFL, something Deion alluded to in an interview with Bleacher Report this week, the immediate future could be extremely bright.

In an era of change, Sanders is the ultimate conductor. The attention and swag has resonated throughout college football, and it will have an even greater impact in recruiting and the transfer portal.

For as long as Sanders stays as Colorado, the impact players will now follow. This was never going to be the year. That was clear in February, and it's plenty clear after Saturday. But a flare of future excellence has been shot straight into the sky for the entire football universe to see.

This isn't the end of Colorado's story or the attention it will garner. This is simply the next, inevitable chapter of a program on a rapid path to relevance.

There will be more losses, likely as soon as Week 5. But the impact of Colorado will continue to be significant, and the potential for future, immediate growth seems like a given.

Doubt 'em now if you please. Sanders is right in pointing out the obvious; now would be an optimal time.

But Sanders is also right about something else: The best is still to come.