Bryan Fischer
College Football Writer
“Big Noon Kickoff” is starting off with a doozy of a matchup in Week 1.
On one side, you’ve got the No. 17 TCU Horned Frogs, the darlings of the 2022 season, who advanced all the way to the College Football Playoff championship game in its first season under coach Sonny Dykes.
On the other side, you’ve got the Colorado Buffaloes, who decided to deal with their 1-11 season by making the splashiest coaching hire of the offseason.
Enter Deion Sanders — aka “Coach Prime” — who not only brought his superstar quarterback son Shedeur Sanders with him from Jackson State, but who completely remade the Colorado roster.
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Think we’re kidding? Check out these stats on the Colorado roster flip, courtesy of FOX Sports research:
- 87 total newcomers (68 scholarship players and 19 walk-ons)
- The 68 new scholarship players are made up of 51 transfers and 17 freshmen
- There are only nine remaining scholarship players from last year’s team
- Only three returning starters from last season
- The roster is still short on scholarship players, with only 77 (NCAA allows up to 85)
Check below for some pregame reading, videos from the pregame show and more. Then return for our live coverage below, featuring analysis from FOX Sports’ Bryan Fischer!
Pregame scene
Horned Frogs fans are HYPED!
Rob Stone and Mark Ingram helped get the crowd fired up as “Big Noon Kickoff” started hour two at TCU.
A look inside TCU
Get an exclusive backstage glimpse as Sonny Dykes prepares the Horned Frogs to start building upon their 2022 national runner-up season.
Coach Prime is in the building!
“We’ve been saying, ‘We coming’ but now, we here. It’s time to do what we do,” Colorado head coach Deion Sanders told FOX Sports’ Jenny Taft as he arrived at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth for his first game leading the Buffaloes.
Checking in on the Heisman race
Coach Prime’s Colorado isn’t the only big story in the final year of the old Pac-12. USC quarterback Caleb Williams is ready to defend his 2022 Heisman trophy and is a 2023 frontrunner to win the award, which would make him the first back-to-back Heisman winner since Ohio State’s Archie Griffin in 1976. Brady Quinn and Matt Leinart discussed Williams’ chances.
Brett Yormark on Big 12 expansion
The Big 12 commissioner stopped by the Big Noon Kickoff set to talk about the direction of his conference after recently agreeing to add four former Pac-12 schools — including Colorado — effective next season.
Realignment: A matter of ‘when, not if’
Bruce Feldman breaks down the latest round of realignment that includes Stanford, Cal and SMU joining up with the ACC, analyzing what might come next.
Talk about an entrance!
Could a first impression have been done any better than new Big Noon Kickoff member Mark Ingram did it?
Pregame reading
Week 1 wagering: Chris “The Bear” Fallica shares his predictions from all the top games, including TCU-Colorado. Read more.
Think the Deion Sanders hype is out of control now? Wait until Colorado wins, Martin Rogers writes.
Is TCU ready for the next step? ‘We have to prove it’: After leading his Horned Frogs on a magical run to the CFP Championship game, Sonny Dykes believes he is building a program with staying power. We went to Fort Worth this offseason to find out what he’s doing to stay on top. Laken Litman has the story.
Colorado’s Travis Hunter is poised for stardom on both sides of the ball: NFL analyst and former player Bucky Brooks breaks it down.
Week 1 By the Numbers: All the key stats to know about Colorado-TCU and all the other top games this weekend. Read more.
NFL Scouts will be watching Shedeur Sanders, Marvin Harrison Jr., other top stars in Week 1: NFL Draft analyst Rob Rang explains what makes these players such good pro prospects.
Bonus reading!
How Cade McNamara, a “Michigan legend,” found a renewed purpose at Iowa: This story isn’t part of the “Big Noon” slate, but it’s nonetheless an epic tale from FOX Sports’ Michael Cohen that deserves your attention. Cade McNamara helped Michigan become the class of the Big Ten. Now he’s at Iowa and happier than ever. Here’s how it happened.
Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
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