Colorado Buffaloes and TCU Horned Frogs pregame notes

All the tidbits and fun facts to get you ready for kickoff.

Colorado Football

Here’s some select notes provided by the sports information departments from Colorado and TCU

TCU Notes

TCU takes the field for the first time since playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship when it opens the 2023 campaign at home versus Colorado. Big Noon Kickoff Show will be on-site. The Horned Frogs are 2-0 all-time with BNK at their game, defeating Texas Tech at home and winning at Baylor last season.

Last year’s Horned Frogs became the first program from the state of Texas to reach the College Football Playoff and first from the Big 12 to play in the CFP National Championship. With its 51-45 semifinal victory over Michigan in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, TCU is one of just seven programs nationally to have won a CFP game.

Ranked No. 17 by the Associated Press and 16 in the USA Today Coaches poll, TCU has its first preseason rankings since 2018.

TCU is opening its season against Colorado for

the second straight fall and one year to the day of last year’s meeting. The Horned Frogs won 38-13 on a Friday night in Boulder in 2022 in the first-ever gridiron meeting between the schools, giving Sonny Dykes his first win as TCU’s head coach.

Dykes is 2-1 against Colorado as a head coach. Prior to last season’s 38-13 win in Boulder, his previous two games versus the Buffs came when he was at Cal. His 2014 Golden Bears team won 59-56 against Colorado, after dropping a 41-24 contest in Boulder in 2013.

TCU’s eight-game home winning streak is the sixth-longest among Power 5 programs.

The Horned Frogs will play nine of 12 regular-season games in Texas and not leave the state until an Oct. 7 contest at Iowa State.

Dating back to 2003, TCU has a nine-game winning streak against Pac-12 opponents. During that stretch, the Horned Frogs are 2-0 at home, 3-0 on the road and 4-0 at neutral sites.

The Horned Frogs are 77-40-9 in season openers in their history, having won eight of the last nine and 17 of the past 20.

TCU has won 20 of its last 21 home openers.

TCU safety Mark Perry, last year’s second- leading tackler for the Horned Frogs with 84 stops, played three seasons (2019-21) at Colorado. He had a team-best three interceptions for the Buffs in 2021 while placing third on the team with 72 tackles.

TCU offensive lineman Willis Patrick played for Colorado Head Coach Deion Sanders at Jackson State last season. Patrick started all 11 games he appeared in and was a key part of the Tigers’ 12-1 team that averaged 37.7 points and 445.5 yards per game.

TCU was fifth in the Big 12 preseason poll. 4The Horned Frogs were picked seventh last season, before playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Jordy Sandy is again donating $20 to Fort Worth’s Hope Center for Autism for each punt inside the 20-yard line, while place-kicker Griffin Kell is doing the same amount for each made field goal. Sandy has a 9-year-old cousin with autism back home in Australia. Last season, he totaled $360 in donations with 18 punts inside the 20. Kell will be in his first season with donations on his made field goals.

Colorado Notes

The Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders Era for the Colo- rado Buffaloes officially gets underway.

The Buffs will appear on FOX's Big Noon window for the first two games of the season, the first time in program history appearing on Network TV in the first two games.

Colorado's Folsom Field will host its 100th season of Colorado Football, beginning week 2 when Nebraska comes to Boulder.

Colorado was the first team in the nation to sell out of its season ticket allotment, doing so on April 17.

Colorado features 87 newcomers on its 2023 roster, including 68 scholarship newcomers. Nine scholarship and 25 overall players return from last season.

Coach Prime is 27-6 as a collegiate head coach, including a 23-3 record in his final two seasons at Jackson State with two SWAC Championships and two appearances in the Celebration Bowl.

Colorado sold out its Spring Game, season ticket allotment and has fully sold out of two of its six games this season.

Colorado has added more than 1M followers to its football social media accounts since Coach Prime was hired.

CU had the only spring game on ESPN and is one of just four programs (Nebraska, Notre Dame and Texas Tech) on network TV the first two weeks of the season.

CU has seen a 525% increase in merchandise sales.

A Win Would...

Be the first win over TCU in program history (0-1).

Improve CU to 84-45-5 in season openers.

Give CU seven wins in the last eight openers.

Be the first season opening victory on the road

since 1995 (43-7 at Wisconsin). The only other road games in that time frame were 2011 and 2015 at Hawaii.

Give CU 212 wins vs. current members of the Big 12 and 239 victories over teams that will be mem- bers of the Big 12 next season.

STREAK: TCU 1

LAST: TCU 38-13, 9/2/22 in Boulder Coach Prime vs. TCU: 0-0 Sonny Dykes vs. Colorado: 2-1

Seven of CU’s 18 assistant coach and quality con- trol analysts have served as a head coach at the college or professional level.

CU’s 87 newcomers, 68 scholarship newcomers, 60 overall transfers, nine scholarship returnees, 25 overall returnees and three starters returning lead the nation.

CU’s incoming transfers amassed 29 more touch- downs, 30 more sacks and seven more intercep- tions in 2022 than the Buffaloes did as a team.

The Buffs have just 36 combined starts and 195 games played returning from last season, easily the lowest in program history. But CU’s roster features 461 games started and 1,245 games played at the college level entering 2022, easily the highest numbers in CU history.

CU will open the season on the road for the fourth time in the past 40 seasons. CU has won six of the last seven season openers.

The TCU game will be the 399th game in CU history against teams that will comprise the Big 12 starting next season. CU is 16-9 against Arizona, 3-10 against ASU, 9-7 against Baylor, 8-3-1 against BYU, 1-0 against Cin- cinnati and Houston, 49-15-1 against Iowa State, 42- 25-3 against Kansas, 45-20-1 against Kansas State, 26-20-1 against Oklahoma State, 0-1 against TCU, 5-5 against Texas Tech,m 32-34-3 against Utah and 1-1 against West Virginia. CU and UCF have never played. CU’s game at Arizona State will be the 400th against teams that will comprise the Big 12 next season.