No. 18 Colorado vs. Colorado State Week 3 college football odds, props: Massive action yet again on Buffaloes as Jay Norvell calls out Deion Sanders
Colorado might be even more motivated Saturday vs. Colorado State.
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We aren't exactly breaking news here that the biggest college football storyline by far this season is Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes, who at 2-0 already have surpassed their 2022 win total under a different coaching staff. The No. 18 Buffs welcome both ESPN GameDay and Fox's Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday for their game against Colorado State, and Rams coach Jay Norvell may have provided some bulletin-board material with his team a 23-point underdog on the SportsLine consensus.
In a promotional video for ESPN, which telecasts the 10 p.m. ET kickoff (Fox doesn't have the game and is still in Boulder; that's the Coach Prime effect), here's what Norvell said in an obvious reference to Sanders, who wears his sunglasses, hat and usually a hoodie during recent press conferences and media appearances:
"We're excited, we had to do a bunch of ESPN videos and it's great. I loved it. But our kids came out of those videos really with a chip on their shoulder. They're tired of all that stuff. They really are tired of it. And I sat down with ESPN today, and I don't care if they hear it in Boulder. I told them, 'I took my hat off, and I took my glasses off.' And I said, 'When I talk to grown-ups, I take my hat and my glasses off.' That's what my mother taught me."
Interesting tactic by Norvell, considering Nebraska coach Matt Rhule seemed to throw some shade earlier this year on Sanders. The Buffs players took that personally for last week's game, especially Deion's son, star quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who is all the way down to +1800 to win the Heisman Trophy. The younger Sanders torched the Cornhuskers for 393 passing yards and three total touchdowns.
Shedeur has joined Koy Detmer as the only Buffaloes QBs to have consecutive games with 350 passing yards and three total TDs. Sanders is set at over/under 341.5 passing yards for Saturday and 3.5 TD passes – which has risen from 3.0, and it may or may not be a coincidence in the wake of Norvell's comments.
Excluding an all-Pac-12 2020 season, this is the first time Colorado has opened 2-0 with two wins over Power 5 conference opponents since the start of the Big 12 era (1993), and of course the Buffs are headed back to the Big 12 next year.
The sportsbooks were most exposed on Colorado in Week 1 against TCU and again last week against Nebraska, so the books took a bath. They will get crushed again Saturday if the Buffs cover that number, because they are taking easily the most action of any school in Week 3 -- 96% of the bets are on Colorado at BetMGM, for example. Colorado has won five straight in the series but they haven't played since 2019. The Rams have lost 16 straight road games against ranked foes.
On the odds to win the national title at BetMGM, Colorado took 3.8% of all tickets before the opener, the ninth-most of any school. After Week 1, that number rose to 6.7% (sixth most). Now it's 9.9% (second most) with Colorado down to +8000. It is the biggest liability for the book.
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