After a blowout loss defined last season's collapse, Sanders promised changes were coming, and this offseason delivered them in volume rather than half-measures. Brennan Marion arrives from Sacramento State to run the offense, replacing Pat Shurmur, while Chris Marve gets promoted from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator after Robert Livingston's departure. The portal work was aggressive — 42 arrivals against 38 departures — headlined by Texas transfer WR De'Andre Moore Jr. and San Jose State's Danny Scudero, the two highest-value additions on a roster that lost WR Omarion Miller to Arizona State and watched QB Ryan Staub leave for Tennessee. Shedeur Sanders is gone, and the new signal-caller remains a genuine competition rather than a settled answer, which matters given only 40% of returning targets and 61% offensive line continuity. JP+ reads this group as roughly average on both sides of the ball with a special teams unit that grades out above average, but the defensive front carries real uncertainty — edge and coverage attrition are the specific concerns, with role loss numbers that put this group in a defensive-front-reset category analysts are watching closely.

JP+ projects 5.8 wins, comfortably clearing the market's over/under of 4.5 with 64% expected value, and the toughest stretch — Texas Tech and Utah at home, Arizona State on the road — will determine whether that number holds. Weber State, UCF, and Houston at home offer a plausible path to bowl eligibility if the new coordinators find answers quickly and the QB competition resolves into stable production. The gap between the market number and the projection comes down to portal investment translating into actual improvement, which is exactly the kind of unproven variable that made this roster a review priority. If Marion's offense clicks with Moore and Scudero as focal points and Marve stabilizes the front seven, Colorado threatens to outperform its recent history. If the defensive attrition proves too costly and the quarterback race lingers unresolved into September, a third straight difficult season is very much in play.