Colorado’s preparation for Saturday’s Pac-12 game against California likely focused as much on its own team as on the visitors.

Buffaloes interim head coach Mike Sanford Jr. spent much of their bye week connecting with players in individual meetings with the hope none will leave the program following the Oct. 2 firing of Karl Dorrell.

Players on teams with a head coach fired during the season have an immediate 30-day window to enter the portal. For Colorado, that window opened up Oct. 2 and closes Nov. 1.

“If you look around college football already, you’re getting some people done with game four, game five of the season,” said Sanford, who coached Western Kentucky in 2017 and 2018. “The portal is rapid. It’s players that have played four games that are already kind of looking into, ‘I’ve used my four games, I have a redshirt year, I’m going to go in the portal.’

“We got ahead of that. We talked about it, we spoke specifically about where you particularly stand and I was very candid, they were very candid, and I felt really good about just the entire team’s willingness and desire to stay here.”

Colorado (0-5, 0-2) plays its first game after the Dorrell firing against Cal (3-2, 1-1) in an expected sellout in Boulder because of Family Weekend festivities.

The Buffaloes rank last out of 131 FBS schools in run defense (294.2 yards per game) and 129th in pass efficiency defense (168.04 opponent QB rating) and scoring defense (allowing 43.2 points per game).

The Golden Bears are also coming off a bye week after losing 28-9 at Washington State on Oct. 1.

Jaydn Ott, a freshman who ran for 274 yards and three touchdowns the previous week in a 49-31 win over Arizona, had 69 yards on the ground against the Cougars but set career highs with seven catches for 41 yards.

“We need to run the ball better, block better — everything,” said Cal coach Justin Wilcox, whose team finished with 32 yards rushing in the loss to WSU. “Overall, we need to score more than that. Everybody knows that.”

–Field Level Media