Two Big 12 programs coming off ugly seasons close out the year in Boulder, both leaning on brand-new starting quarterbacks to prove last year was the outlier.
Bush’s Picks
UCFCOLO
UCFCOLO
OverUnder
Best BetUCF
UCF brings the more battle-tested quarterback into this one — Barnett's a portal veteran with real starts under his belt, while Colorado is still finding out what it has in a redshirt freshman. That experience gap matters more late in a season than it does in September.
UCF
+Portal QB Barnett III brings proven starting experience
+Frost has a track record of fast turnarounds
+31-man transfer class targeted older, tested players
−Finished 2-7 in Big 12 play in 2025
−Lost 4 of last 5 games to close last season
−Missed a bowl game despite a one-win improvement
Colorado
+New OC Brennan Marion brings an uptempo scheme change
+Julian Lewis is a former 5-star getting a full runway
+Sanders publicly confident heading into Big 12 Media Days
−Finished 3-9 overall, 1-8 in Big 12, 15th in conference
−Lost proven starter Salter to the NFL Draft
−Offense was historically inept when it didn't score 24+
This one's a proving-ground game at the most important position on the field. UCF handed the keys to Alonza Barnett III, a James Madison transfer Scott Frost called "a winner and a proven winner," brought in specifically to replace Tayven Jackson after he hit the portal. Colorado, meanwhile, is finally letting Julian Lewis run the show after the former 5-star sat behind Kaidon Salter for most of 2025. Both guys are new to the job. Neither has had to do it against this level of competition for a full season.
Frost knows what a fast turnaround looks like at UCF — he inherited a winless team in 2015 and had it undefeated two years later. He's hoping the 31-man transfer class, built around older, proven players rather than upside projects, gets the Knights bowling again after back-to-back misses. Colorado's got its own reset in motion: OC Pat Shurmur is out, replaced by Brennan Marion and his uptempo "Go-Go" scheme, which is as much a bet on scheme fixing an offense that went 0-17 under Deion Sanders whenever it didn't hit 24 points as it is a bet on Lewis himself.
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UCF UCF
COLO Colorado
Sanders isn't hiding from where his program sits. He came out of Big 12 Media Days blunt about it — "we better win" — after a 3-9 finish that ranked Colorado 15th in the conference. That's the backdrop for a Friday night game that, this deep into November, could mean plenty for bowl math on either side depending on how the fall breaks.
UCF Knights
Nov 20?vs Iowa State—
Nov 13?vs Arizona State—
Nov 6?@ Kansas—
Oct 30?vs Baylor—
Oct 9?@ Oklahoma State—
Oct 2?@ Houston—
Sep 25?vs TCU—
Sep 19?vs Georgia State—
Sep 12?@ Pittsburgh—
Sep 3?vs Bethune-Cookman—
Colorado Buffaloes
Nov 20?@ Cincinnati—
Nov 13?vs Houston—
Nov 6?@ Arizona State—
Oct 30?vs Kansas State—
Oct 16?vs Utah—
Oct 2?vs Texas Tech—
Sep 25?@ Baylor—
Sep 19?@ Northwestern—
Sep 12?vs Weber State—
Sep 3?@ Georgia Tech—
Recent form.
UCF's swing in 2025 tells you what this team is capable of and what still trips it up: Frost's group opened 3-0 before dropping four of its final five, the kind of finish that keeps a roster out of a bowl game even with a better record than the year before. If Barnett stabilizes things the way JMU saw from him, UCF has the look of a team that closes better than it opens for once.
Colorado's issue was never really about talent evaluation — it was about answers at quarterback. Salter's departure for the NFL Draft removes the incumbent, for better or worse, and hands Lewis a full runway. A redshirt freshman with WOW recruiting hype getting his first real extended run, on a rebuilt offensive staff, on the road-heavy back half of a Big 12 slate, is exactly the kind of variable that makes late-November games like this one genuinely hard to project.
