The Colorado football team opens up the 2026 season with a massive opportunity.
Deion Sanders has raved about his new coaching staff all offseason, a staff that has some familiarity with the Buffs‘ Week 1 opponent. Colorado defensive coordinator Chris Marve coached against Georgia Tech and HC Brent Key in 2024, holding the Yellow Jackets to just six points.
“Having coached against him (Brent Key), prepared against him, recruited against him, I know exactly what he believes and what he’s preaching to his guys,” Marve said.
Revenge will be on the Buffs’ mind Thursday night in Atlanta. Coach Prime thanked God on Monday that Georgia Tech no longer has quarterback Haynes King, who was the difference in last season’s 27-20 win over Colorado.
“It was a tremendous battle last season and they had a quarterback who refused to lose,” Deion Sanders said. “I want to flip it on them. I really do.”
Here are three keys and a prediction for the Colorado football team’s season opener vs. Georgia Tech.
Stop the run
Georgia Tech listed three running backs and four tight ends as starters on its Week 1 depth chart. The Yellow Jackets are going to run the football. A lot. Michigan transfer Justice Haynes has the full attention of Coach Prime after rushing for 857 and 10 TDs (7.1 YPC) last season in just seven games.
“He’s dynamic,” Deion Sanders said of Georgia Tech RB Justice Haynes, who averaged 122 rushing yards per game in 2025. “He can score from anywhere on the field. He’s tough, physical. The kind can play.
“We have to do what we have to do to keep him contained. We are fully aware of wherever he’s going to be lined up on Thursday night.”
Brent Key is synonymous with a strong running game and that likely won’t change even with a new offensive coordinator (George Godsey). Georgia Tech rushed 47 times for 320 yards (6.8 YPC) vs. Colorado last season, with most of that damage being done by QB Haynes King (156 yards rushing).
Indiana transfer QB Alberto Mendoza doesn’t bring that type of impact as a runner, but he is mobile enough to be a threat with his legs. The narrative will begin to change if the Colorado football team can flip the script and contain the Yellow Jackets’ rushing attack (keep them under 200 yards).
Make Alberto Mendoza uncomfortable
Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key said on Tuesday that Colorado football defensive coordinator Chris Marve “has had success against us.”
When Marve was Virginia Tech’s DC in 2024, his defense shut down Key and the Yellow Jackets, holding them to just six points and scoreless in the second half. Most importantly, Marve’s unit forced two turnovers and allowed Georgia Tech to run for just 96 yards.
“Will there be carry over? I have no idea. I know we did not play well at all. We got whipped up front,” Key said Tuesday of that matchup against Marve and Virginia Tech in 2024. “We got whipped up front big time and we couldn’t handle it.”
Marve’s plan will once again be to control the line of scrimmage and force an inexperienced Mendoza into a mistake or two. The younger brother of the reigning Heisman Trophy winner has dropped back to pass just 27 times in his career. He makes second-year Colorado QB Julian Lewis sound like a seasoned veteran (118 career dropbacks).
The QB who avoids the critical error will be the reason their respective team wins. It’s on Lewis to protect the football the way he did as a true freshman and it’s on the the Colorado football team’s defense to make Mendoza see ghosts.
“I want to see how they get to the ball defensively because Marve has them flying to the ball,” Deion Sanders said Monday. “When you fly to the ball like that, you should see turnovers consequently.”
Exploit mismatches
Georgia Tech/On3 beat writer Kelly Quinlan recently told DNVR the position on defense he’s most worried about is the Yellow Jackets’ safeties.
“They’re just inexperienced there.”
The two starting safeties listed on Georgia Tech’s Week 1 depth chart are Tae Harris and Savion Riley, who combined to play just 175 snaps last season. For comparison’s sake, the Colorado football team’s starting safety duo of Randon Fontenette and Naeten Mitchell combined to play 1,577 snaps in 2025.
That’s a position group that Colorado OC Brennan Marion and the Buffs can take advantage of. Marion’s Go-Go offense is predicated on taking vertical shots in the passing game and he has the weapons to do it.
Georgia Tech’s starting cornerbacks aren’t much more experienced either with Daiquan White (268 snaps last season) and Jaylen Mbakwe (played WR at Alabama last season) as the top options. Julian Lewis and the Colorado football team’s pass catchers could have an efficient night, especially if the Yellow Jackets play off coverage.
“I don’t think their corners press,” Deion Sanders said Monday. “I think they play off (coverage), so it’s going to be fun.”
Colorado football vs Georgia Tech prediction
Georgia Tech enters Thursday night as 6.5-point favorites over the Colorado football team.
The Buffs are a bigger underdog in this matchup than they were in last season’s despite the Yellow Jackets losing their best player (Haynes King) and both of their coordinators to the SEC. Meanwhile, Colorado retained its QB, upgraded significantly at OC and built one of the most experienced defenses in the country via the transfer portal.
This game will ultimately be decided in the trenches. Did the Colorado football team do enough up front to fix what’s plagued them throughout the Coach Prime era? I believe they did enough to pull off a Week 1 upset against a team that could struggle with life after Haynes King.
Thursday night will also be a homecoming for Julian Lewis and 16 other Buffs who hail from the Peach State, something even Key acknowledged.
Colorado wins 31-30.
Follow Colorado Buffaloes beat reporter Scott Procter on X.
