No. 17 TCU played in last season’s College Football Playoff title contest, but Colorado is the program creating the overwhelming buzz leading into Saturday’s season opener at Fort Worth, Texas.

Deion Sanders, inducted into both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame as a player, is the new coach of the Buffaloes and attempting to turn the downtrodden program into a winner.

Colorado went 1-11 last season and Sanders — who refers to himself as “Coach Prime” — emptied the roster in a manner never seen before in college football history.

Only 10 of last season’s 84 scholarship players are still with the program — seven on offense, three on defense. According to BuffZone, there are 114 players in the program, including walk-ons, and 86 of them are in their first season at Colorado.

“I know it was a huge overhaul, but it had to be done,” Sanders told the publication.

Sanders was hired after going 27-6 in three seasons at Jackson State. He brought his two sons — quarterback Shedeur and safety Shilo — as well as highly regarded cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter from the Tigers.

He heavily worked the transfer portal but many prognosticators don’t expect such a philosophy to create an immediate turnaround.

“We’ve got a lot of doubters — I don’t know why,” Shilo Sanders said. “But we don’t have an underdog mindset. That’s how we’re coming. I’m not thinking we need to prove a lot. We just need to go out there and do what we do.”

The Buffaloes need to improve on defense. The unit ranked last in the nation in scoring defense (44.5) last season. Safety Trevor Woods (84 tackles) is the unit’s top returning player.

Shedeur Sanders is expected to pump up the offense. He started for two seasons at Jackson State and passed for 6,983 yards, 70 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He also rushed for nine scores.

The Horned Frogs (13-2 in 2022) routed Colorado 38-13 in last season’s opener in the first meeting between the schools.

But TCU coach Sonny Dykes said he won’t be watching that game film due to the roster shakeup.

“Obviously, that tape is not going to be worth anything,” Dykes said Monday. “I haven’t even watched it because there is no reason to.”

TCU is operating in a bigger spotlight this season after putting together a surprise campaign for the ages. The Horned Frogs crashed the four-team playoff and beat Michigan in the semifinals before being steamrolled 65-7 by Georgia in the national championship game.

Dykes allows the final game was ugly but doesn’t think reaching the title contest was a one-time occurrence.

“Anybody can have a good year every now and then,” Dykes said. “We want to be a program that’s consistently in the Top 25. We want to be a program that consistently plays for conference championships, that’s in a conference race in late November. We do those things, we’re going to be in the college football playoff conversation.”

Max Duggan had a magical season and was the Heisman Trophy runner-up but few people remember he wasn’t the opening-game quarterback.

Chandler Morris won the job but sustained a left knee injury in Game 1 that opened the door for Duggan.

Morris said he has a chip on his shoulder “because you go out and you win the job in camp and you get hurt in the third quarter like 27 plays into the game and you’re done.”

–Field Level Media

Nebraska tight end Arik Gilbert was arrested early Tuesday for suspicion of burglary in Lincoln, Neb., authorities said.

The former five-star recruit is a two-time transfer currently awaiting an NCAA eligibility ruling after previous stops at LSU (2020) and Georgia (2021-22).

Gilbert, 21, was arrested without incident and booked into the Lancaster County jail on a felony burglary charge, according to the Lincoln Police Department.

Officers responded to a burglary report about 2 a.m. local time and found the glass door to a liquor and vape store shattered.

They found Gilbert holding a bag containing more than $1,600 worth of stolen items, police said. Damage to the store was estimated at $650.

Gilbert was ranked by ESPN as the No. 6 overall recruit in the Class of 2020. He caught 35 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns as a true freshman at LSU.

He transferred to Georgia and appeared in just two games for the Bulldogs, catching two passes for 16 yards and one touchdown last season.

Because Gilbert already used his one-time transfer exemption, he is waiting on a waiver from the NCAA in order to be eligible this season.

Nebraska opens the season Thursday night at Minnesota.

–Field Level Media

Second-ranked Michigan is without suspended head coach Jim Harbaugh when it opens the 2023 season against East Carolina on Saturday at Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Wolverines (13-1 in 2022) don’t figure to miss Harbaugh, who serves the first of a school-imposed three-game punishment for his role in NCAA violations involving recruiting and coaching time. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter will run the Wolverines against the Pirates, who posted an 8-5 record last season.

“I’ve heard people comment that it’s a slap on the wrist,” Harbaugh said Monday of the suspension. “It’s more like a baseball bat to the kneecaps or to the shoulder.”

Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore is also serving a suspension Saturday due to the NCAA issues. Quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell will call the plays.

Campbell figures to often get the ball to returning first-team All-American running back Blake Corum against the Pirates.

Corum finished seventh in Heisman Trophy balloting last season when he rushed for 1,463 yards, the eighth highest single-season total in Wolverines’ history. He rushed for 18 touchdowns before effectively missing the final 3 1/2 games due to a serious knee injury.

Corum tore the meniscus, sprained the MCL and sustained a bone bruise in the second quarter against Illinois on Nov. 19. He attempted to play against Ohio State the following week but left after two carries and missed the rest of the season.

The injury prevented Corum from leaving for the NFL. He now sees the good side of the adversity.

“It took me a while to realize that this is just something small,” Corum said. “There’s a lot of people out there doing way worse than I was. A lot of people are quick to get down when something small happens, when there’s people out there really struggling.

“This is something I can come back from, and I got it repaired. Some people can’t repair a lot of things.”

J.J. McCarthy is again the quarterback. He passed for 22 touchdowns and rushed for five while guiding Michigan to the College Football Playoffs. The Wolverines lost 51-45 to TCU in the semifinals.

East Carolina is in reloading mode after losing four key offensive performers from a team that routed Coastal Carolina 53-29 in the Birmingham Bowl. It was the program’s first bowl victory since 2013.

Quarterback Holton Ahlers (3,708 yards, 28 touchdowns), running back Keaton Mitchell (1,452 yards, 14 TDs on the ground) and wideouts Isaiah Winstead (1,085 yards) and C.J. Johnson (1,016) all need to be replaced.

Mason Garcia (38 passing attempts over three seasons) and Alex Flinn (zero career attempts) are competing for the quarterback job. Coach Mike Houston has yet to announce a starter.

“You just go out there and compete your butt off,” Garcia told reporters. “Do what you got to do for the team. Everybody wants this team to be good.”

Whoever gets the call will be facing long odds as few people expect East Carolina to give Michigan a close battle in the first all-time matchup between the programs.

“The big thing with situations like that is that they can’t pay any attention to the outside world and what their opinion is,” Houston said. “They’ve got to focus on themselves.

“… It’s going to be the largest stadium any of them have ever played in so you must be able to handle that. You have to settle down and go play ball.”

–Field Level Media

The Miami Hurricanes have a lot to prove.

Coming off a disappointing 5-7 season in their debut under coach Mario Cristobal, the Hurricanes will open their 2023 season at home on Friday night against the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks in Miami Gardens, Fla.

The Hurricanes, favored by 17 points, are led by quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who is back for his third season as the starter. Slowed by injuries last year, Van Dyke for his career has completed 62.5 percent of his passes for 4,766 yards, 35 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 21 games (17 starts).

Henry Parrish Jr. is the Hurricanes’ top running back. He had a career-high 616 rushing yards last year, averaging 4.7 per carry and was voted to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference third team.

Slot receiver Xavier Restrepo is Van Dyke’s top target, but there’s also emerging talent Colbie Young on the outside.

Watch out for wide receiver Nathaniel “Ray Ray” Joseph, one of several true freshmen who figure to contribute to the Hurricanes this season. That list also includes starting right tackle Francis Mauigoa, offensive tackle Samson Okunlola, running back Mark Fletcher Jr., tight end Riley Williams, defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. and cornerback Damari Brown.

“This freshman class has over a dozen guys who don’t flinch,” Cristobal said. “They don’t sit back waiting to inherit a job. They want to go win one.”

The Hurricanes also added some key transfers, including center Matt Lee, who started 36 games at UCF; left guard Javion Cohen, who made second-team All-SEC at Alabama in 2022; linebacker Francisco Mauigoa, who was a standout at Washington State; and cornerback Davonte Brown, who started 31 games in three seasons at UCF.

In addition, the Hurricanes may have the ACC’s best safety duo in James Williams and 2022 first-team All-American Kamren Kinchens.

Meanwhile, the RedHawks finished 6-7 last season, losing starting quarterback Brett Gabbert due to a broken collarbone but still rallying to reach a bowl game.

The RedHawks lost to UAB 24-20 in the Bahamas Bowl.

Gabbert, who has 31 games of college experience including four starts last season, is back for his fifth year with the RedHawks. His career completion percentage is just 58.8 percent, but his touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio is impressive at 45-14.

The RedHawks, though, lost three key offensive players to transfers: running back Tyre Shelton (Louisiana Tech), second-team All-MAC center Rusty Feth (Iowa) and left guard Caleb Shaffer (Oklahoma). The RedHawks also graduated their top receiver in Mac Hippenhammer (54 catches, 769 yards and nine touchdowns), a second-team All-MAC selection.

On the plus side, the RedHawks gained transfer wide receiver Gage Larvadain, who caught 95 passes for 1,252 yards and seven touchdowns in two years for an FCS program, Southeastern Louisiana.

The RedHawks also brought in two other potential starters from the transfer portal: ex-Notre Dame receiver Joe Wilkins Jr. and former Kentucky center John Young, who will join three returning RedHawks starters on the offensive line.

Defensively, the RedHawks return seven starters from a unit that led the MAC in fewest points allowed (22.6). The biggest loss was starting cornerback John Saunders, who bolted to Ole Miss. He could be replaced by Southern Cal transfer Jayden Williams.

“We have a chance to be a really good football team,” RedHawks coach Chuck Martin said. “We’re excited about our first opportunity, playing one of the most storied programs in college football.

“This will be different for our kids to go across the country to play an opponent we’re not familiar with.”

–Field Level Media