Colorado Buffaloes at Northwestern Wildcats

Colorado is trying to convince everyone last season was a fever dream. Northwestern just wants credit for actually being good.

Bush’s Picks

COLONU

COLONU

OverUnder

Best BetNorthwestern

Northwestern is the more finished product walking in — a bowl-winning roster with a returning workhorse back and a defense that already knows its identity. Colorado is asking a brand-new coordinator staff and an unsettled quarterback room to gel fast against a team with real continuity. Back the Wildcats here as the side with fewer moving parts.

Colorado

• +66 new roster pieces, fresh OC/DC hires bring optimism
• +Sanders raves about Julian Lewis's "unbelievable" ceiling
• +motivated bounce-back after ugly 2025 collapse
• −finished just 3-9, 1-8 in Big 12 last season
• −run defense ranked 133rd of 134 FBS teams
• −QB competition (Lewis vs. Wilson) still unsettled entering fall

Northwestern

• +coming off 7-6 season and a bowl win under Braun
• +Komolafe returns after 941 rush yards, 11 TDs
• +defense anchored by Fitzgerald, a top-25 caliber unit
• −leaning on transfer QB Aidan Chiles, new to the offense
• −sixth-toughest schedule in the nation this year
• −playing this stretch at a temporary Martin Stadium facility

Julian Lewis is Colorado's presumptive starter after an offseason battle with Utah transfer Isaac Wilson, and Deion Sanders has already gushed about a ceiling he calls "unbelievable." Across the field, Northwestern is leaning on senior transfer Aidan Chiles to run David Braun's offense, a veteran arm the staff hopes brings the poise this program has lacked at the position. Both quarterbacks are new to their gigs in some form, which makes this an early gut-check for two staffs trying to prove their offseason bets were the right ones.

Colorado's bigger issue in 2025 wasn't the passer, it was stopping the run — the Buffaloes finished 133rd out of 134 FBS teams against the ground game. Now they're staring down Caleb Komolafe, who ran for 941 yards and 11 touchdowns a year ago and scored in 9 of Northwestern's last 10 games. If Colorado's new defensive staff hasn't fixed that leak by this point in the season, Komolafe could have a field day. Northwestern, meanwhile, breaks in this matchup at a temporary facility built at Martin Stadium, with the real Ryan Field still weeks from its October debut.

Show fees

6:30 PM CT

Spread

ML

Total

COLO Colorado

NU Northwestern

None of that stops this from being a legitimate measuring-stick game for both programs. Colorado is trying to prove last year's 1-8 Big 12 finish was an aberration fixable with 66 new roster faces and fresh coordinators; Northwestern is trying to show its bowl-winning 2025 season wasn't a one-off under Braun.

Colorado Buffaloes

Sep 12?vs Weber State—

Sep 3?@ Georgia Tech—

Northwestern Wildcats

Sep 5?vs South Dakota State—

Colorado's roster overhaul cuts both ways — new talent everywhere but almost zero returning chemistry, which is exactly the kind of thing that shows up in September before it gets ironed out later. Northwestern doesn't have that problem. Braun's defense returns its emotional center in Robert Fitzgerald, who piled up 114 tackles a year ago, and the Wildcats aren't asking a rebuilt unit to learn on the fly.

Colorado Buffaloes

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

Northwestern Wildcats

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

This is early enough in the season that neither team's record will mean much yet, but the tape from this one says a lot about which rebuild is actually ahead of schedule. Colorado is talking a big game after last year's collapse; Northwestern would rather just keep winning quietly.