Joel Klatt outlines Colorado's expectations without Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt outlined Colorado’s expectations for the 2025 season, the first Deion Sanders has without Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. It could be great, it could be a rebuild or it could even be average.

Colorado has to figure out its quarterback situation, fix the trenches once again and compete in a random Big 12 Conference. Klatt isn’t sure where it’s going to go, but the Buffaloes might be due for a small step back this fall.

There’s a long way to go before the season starts. Klatt broke down the positives from Deion Sanders as he heads into Year 3.

“I don’t see them taking a huge step back, maybe a small one,” Klatt said on The Herd. “So two things. One: they’ve recruited at a very high level, and they’ve brought in a couple of quarterbacks, Kaidon Salter, a quarterback that transferred in from Liberty. And they also got Julian Lewis, who decommitted from USC, is now Colorado. Deion has done a really great job, whether it’s been in the portal or in high school, recruiting to try to reload, they need to continue to get better at the line of scrimmage.” 

Salter comes in with a lot of experience for Colorado. His Liberty career was mostly positive and could be the veteran presence the QB room needs while Lewis develops.

But, Lewis has a lot of potential and could be the long term answer, even as soon as this fall. It’ll be a massive decision considering Colorado competes in the wide open Big 12.

“The more difficult part for me, and I know this sounds crazy, even more so than replacing Shedeur and Travis is the Big 12 … if you look at right now, what Vegas says about the team that they think is the worst team in the Big 12, the over-under is set at 5.5,” Klatt said. “If you look at the team that they think is the best team in the Big 12, the over-under is set at 8.5. 

“So you’ve got basically 14, 15, 16 teams within three games of one another. That’s what I think is the most difficult part of the Big 12 and why it’s so difficult to predict. Could Colorado be a four win team? Maybe. Could they be a nine win team? Maybe that this conference is just so deep and bunched together with a lot of quality programs.”