Colorado’s football team might be better this year due to quarterback Kaidon Salter’s dual-threat abilities, improved offensive line size, and emerging talents like DeKalon Taylor.
However, the team could also struggle due to potential NIL funding disparities with competitors, past inconsistency issues stemming from roster turnover, and the significant loss of NFL-caliber players like Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders.
Coach Deion Sanders believes this is his best team yet as they open the season against Georgia Tech.

BOULDER, CO – Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has been trying to tell everybody about this for months.

His team this year in Boulder is “better” than before, he said in March.

He took it a step further on Wednesday, Aug. 27.  

“I think this is the best team we’ve ever assembled,” Sanders said on the Colorado Football Coaches Show.

How is that even possible after the Buffaloes finished 9-4 last year but since have lost a Heisman Trophy winner and arguably the best quarterback in school history?

He actually could be right. Or dead wrong.

With the Buffs set to open the season Friday at home against Georgia Tech, here are three reasons his third season at Colorado will be his best yet, along with three reasons it won’t.

No. 1 reason Colorado is better: Kaidon Salter

The transfer quarterback from Liberty isn’t necessarily better than last year’s quarterback, Shedeur Sanders. He’s just different. And different can be really good when you have a play-action QB who is as big of a threat to run or throw on any play.

Salter led Liberty to a 13-1 season in 2023, when he passed for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns and also ran for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns.

This is his final year of eligibility, and he might split some time with heralded freshman quarterback Julian Lewis. But if Salter has a season like 2023, the Buffaloes will compete for the Big 12 Conference title.

No. 2 reason Colorado is better: Hulks in the trenches

This team added weight where it matters. Last year, Colorado had 15 players appear in games who weighed at least 300 pounds, ranking 46th among teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, according to Stats Perform. This season, the Buffaloes have 22 active players listed at that weight, tied for 25th in the FBS.

The list includes the entire projected starting offensive line, highlighted by two monster bookends at tackle: returning star Jordan Seaton (6-foot-5, 330 pounds) and Tennessee transfer Larry Johnson III (6-7, 350).

“He’s a mauler,” offensive line coach Gunnar White said of Johnson.

This will help Salter and a running game that ranked last in the nation in yards per game the past two seasons.

No. 3 reason Colorado is better: ‘TrackHawk’ and more

The Buffs have new depth and emerging stars who will have more room to shine this season after the departure of four NFL draft picks, including two whose NFL jerseys are now on sale on campus for $149.99: Shedeur Sanders and Heisman winner Travis Hunter.

On defense, cornerback DJ McKinney has NFL skills and was the “other” cornerback last year, overshadowed by Hunter even though he played the most snaps on defense (840).

On offense, a new speed demon called “TrackHawk” has turned heads in the preseason. His real name is DeKalon Taylor, a transfer from Incarnate Word. Taylor is the fastest player on the team and will catch and run with the ball much like his position coach once did: Marshall Faulk, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

“If you blink, you might miss it,” Taylor said after practice in August. “That’s how I describe my offensive play.”

No. 1 reason Colorado is worse: Underfunded roster?

It’s harder to win when other teams have so much more money to pay players. Colorado is expected to pay its players up to the $20.5 million limit for their names, images and likenesses (NIL). Some Colorado players also have attracted additional endorsement deals with Taco Bell and others.

But Colorado also is among some schools that cut ties with its NIL donor collective to streamline fundraising in-house. By contrast, the collective that supports Big 12 foe Texas Tech has raised $63.3 million since it was formed in 2022, as reported in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

‘It’s a staggering sum of money,” Texas Tech donor Cody Campbell said recently. Such collectives can pay players in addition to what the school pays them out of its $20.5 million limit.

No. 2 reason Colorado is worse: Inconsistency

Deion Sanders’ last two teams could look good for a week or two before laying a big egg the next. Sometimes their personality varied from one half to the next. Remember that time in 2023 when they led Stanford 29-0 at halftime but lost in double overtime, 46-43?

This kind of inconsistency is arguably a function of having so much roster turnover. With so many new players, they’re searching for their identity without much prior chemistry. In 2023, they brought in 68 new scholarship players out of an overall roster limit of 85. In 2024, they started the year with 50 new scholarship players. This year Sanders said his roster of 105 includes 49 newcomers, including non-scholarship players. To his credit, Sanders improved on this since 2023, when the Buffs finished 4-8.

No. 3 reason Colorado is worse: Still no Travis or Shedeur

New stars may emerge, but let’s be real. In Hunter’s case, he was the team’s leading receiver, best cornerback and the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft. In Shedeur Sanders’ case, he accounted for 82% of the team’s total yards last season.

That kind of weaponry is hard to restock without transitional hiccups. If Deion Sanders does as well or better without those players, he should be in the mix for coach of the year.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who championed the ‘Kicking the Stigma’ initiative, passed away in May after multiple alleged undisclosed relapses.
Irsay’s story highlights the insidious nature of addiction and the shame that prevents many from seeking help.

Addiction is insidious.

It does not care who you are, what you look like, where you live or how much money you have in your back account. It does not let go easily, sometimes lying dormant for years before resurfacing with a vengeance. For every person who beats it, once and for all, there are hundreds more who never escape its grip.

It is an evil, devious and dangerous thing, and much of its power stems from the shame and secrecy that every addict knows all too well. Addiction is often seen as some moral failing rather than the disease that it is, preventing those in its hold from seeking help or acknowledging a problem.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay knew this, all this, better than most. And the revelation that he had suffered several relapses in the years before his May death, relapses he kept quiet at the same time he was trying to end the stigma of addiction, does not diminish all the good that he did.

Rather, it’s a reminder of the importance of his “Kicking the Stigma” initiative and the imperative that it continues.

“A lot of people don’t understand the disease,” Irsay told USA TODAY Sports in 2014. “They think you choose an addiction. At the same time, I’ve had many, many years of continual recovery. What’s really important is that you can be honest and talk about an illness.”

No one chooses to be an addict, just as no one chooses to get cancer or heart disease or poor eyesight. Our lifestyles can be a contributing factor, as can our genetics. Irsay often said he came by his addictions naturally, his father and his grandfather both being alcoholics.

But we do not shame people with congenital heart disease or shun people with breast cancer. We do not question why someone got arthritis or ask someone with diabetes why they can’t control their blood sugar. Their afflictions are seen, rightfully, as medical conditions, the whys and hows of which are irrelevant. Instead of judgment, we show compassion and empathy.

Addicts are not given the same grace. They’re seen as weak or selfish. Rehab is often considered to be punishment as much as it is life-saving care. When that’s the way the world sees and treats you, what incentive is there to get clean? To resist the temptations to which you might be predisposed?

When addiction is deemed a personal failing, of course you’re going to try and hide it. If you know the world is going to judge you, wouldn’t you, too? If you know you’re going to be blamed for your affliction, would you be willing to share it?

Irsay is to be lauded for his openness about his struggles. But there is a powerful lesson to be had from the secrecy he felt compelled to keep at the end of his life, too.

Irsay knew exactly who and what he was. He was an alcoholic and a prescription drug addict — opioids, mostly, though the Washington Post said he’d been using ketamine in the months before his death. He’d been to rehab “at least 15 times.”

He knew the best way to treat addiction and mental illness, which often go hand in hand, was to bring it into the open. To stop the shaming and the blaming and focus on finding treatments that work and support for those struggling.

Report: Former Colts owner Jim Irsay overdosed, received ketamine treatments before death

Since 2020, Kicking the Stigma has committed $32 million to nonprofits specializing in mental health. Some are focused on addiction and recovery. Others address the anxiety and isolation that can fuel an addiction.

“We’ve got to quit stigmatizing,” Irsay told NFL.com in 2021. “We have to find a way to stop badgering and torturing and chasing down people like they are criminals. It’s so horrendous. It’s no wonder a lot of people die.’

Irsay now included.

Irsay might have been a billionaire NFL owner, with access to all the help that exists. But he experienced the same kind of recriminations as every other American who suffers from addiction. Embarrassment that he couldn’t kick it. Fears it could cost him his job; after his operating while intoxicated arrest in 2014, Irsay was suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for six games and fined $500,000.

That Irsay didn’t want to admit to more relapses is understandable. There was, seemingly, so much at stake in his sobriety. For him. For the Colts. For Kicking the Stigma. For all those people to whom he’d given hope.

That Irsay relapsed and didn’t feel he could be open about it doesn’t mean he failed. It means we all did.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

The 2025 Ryder Cup will be held at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, from Sept. 26-28.
Six members of Team Europe have automatically qualified: Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Højgaard, and Tyrrell Hatton.
Captain Luke Donald will announce his six captain’s picks on Sept. 1.

The 2025 Ryder Cup is less than a month away, with some of the biggest names in golf set to grace the links at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York in late September.

Team Europe will be aiming to defend its title after a 16.5-11.5 victory last year in Italy. That victory extended a pronounced run of European dominance at the Ryder Cup, with Team Europe claiming 10 of the past 14 tournament titles.

While Team Europe will have six players automatically qualify via the season-long Ryder Cup points standings, team captain Luke Donald has a difficult decision to finalize in the coming days. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy – who was Team Europe’s top point scorer in the 2024 edition of this event – will unsurprisingly be called on to lead the way, but the Masters champion cannot win the biggest team event in men’s golf on his own.

Here’s what to know about the Team Europe roster at the 2025 Ryder Cup:

Who is on Team Europe for 2025 Ryder Cup?

Six players qualify automatically for Team Europe’s 2025 Ryder Cup roster, all based on the Ryder Cup points standings. Those figures pull from the results of PGA Tour and PGA European Tour events throughout the season.

Team Europe captain Luke Donald will select six players of his choosing, but these are the six that are locked in for the squad that will take on the United States at Bethpage Black in late September:

Rory McIlroy
Robert MacIntyre
Tommy Fleetwood
Justin Rose
Rasmus Højgaard
Tyrrell Hatton

Ryder Cup Team Europe: Who will Luke Donald pick?

Team Europe captain Luke Donald will have to select six players to fill out his 12-man roster for the 2025 Ryder Cup. Donald is scheduled to announce his picks at 9 a.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 1, live on the Golf Channel or on Fubo (which is offering a free trial for new subscribers).

Watch 2025 Ryder Cup Team Europe roster announcement on Fubo (free trial)

While half of Donald’s team is set in stone based on performance in 2025, the Team Europe captain can pick any player he’d like to fill out the other half of the roster. That said, given the Ryder Cup’s prestige and level of difficulty, he’s expected to look mostly toward the top performers available to take on the United States.

Here’s a list of the top 10 players in the current Ryder Cup points rankings who didn’t qualify directly for the squad:

Shane Lowry
Sepp Straka
Ludvig Åberg
Viktor Hovland
Matt Fitzpatrick
Matt Wallace
Thomas Detry
Marco Penge
Aaron Rai
Jordan Smith

How to watch Ryder Cup 2025: Time, TV channel, streaming

The 2025 Ryder Cup will be carried on the NBC family of networks, but a full TV schedule has not yet been confirmed. Here’s what we know about where the tournament will be broadcast:

Date: Friday, Sept. 26 to Sunday, Sept. 28
Location: Black Course, Bethpage State Park (Farmingdale, New York)
TV: NBC, Golf Channel and USA Network
Steam: Peacock, Fubo (free trial to new subscribers)

Watch the 2025 Ryder Cup on Fubo (free trial)

Everything is fine with the Dallas Cowboys, according to Jerry Jones. 

In fact, without Micah Parsons, Jones thinks his team might be better after he decided to trade Parsons to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday.

‘This gives us a better chance to be a better team than we have been the last several years while Micah has been here,’ Jones told reporters. ‘Nothing negative on Micah.

‘We can win more games than we would have, had we gone the other route and signed Micah.’

Winners, losers of Micah Parsons trade: Ample fallout for Cowboys, Packers

Parsons signed a four-year deal worth $188 million ($136 million guaranteed), which makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league. The Packers sent two first-round picks and defensive lineman Kenny Clark to Dallas to complete the deal.

Jones, who appeared to call Parsons “Michael” multiple times throughout the news conference, said the team could flip either of the two first-round draft picks acquired from the Packers for 2026 and 2027 for other deals.

“Those draft picks could get us top Pro Bowl players,’ he said.

Jones added: “Nothing says we can’t use those picks to go get somebody right now. Don’t rule that out.”

To start the news conference, Jones spent plenty of time talking about run defense.

‘Without being too broad, we did think it was in the best interest for our organization, not only in the future but right now, for this season,” Jones said. “We gained a Pro Bowl player in an area that we had big concerns in, on the inside of our defense.

“The facts are, specifically, we need to stop the run. We haven’t been able to stop the run in key times for several years.”

The pass-rushing depth, per Jones, was why comfortable moving on and that adding Clark would overall improve the defense – even with the loss of Parsons.

“It was a prerequisite, and we only picked teams … that could pay Micah and had top (defensive) tackles,” Jones admitted. 

“In addition to the depth, you could scheme pressure as well,” Stephen Jones, the team’s chief operating officer, said. “…But what is tough to scheme, is stopping the run.” 

Jones said he has nothing but good feelings regarding Parsons. ‘I really like Micah,’ he said.

Micah Parsons trade signals dreaded rebuild for Dallas Cowboys

“There’s not an ounce of vindictiveness, there’s no bad feelings on my part about the fact that we didn’t come together on an agreement,” Jones said.

One thing Jones didn’t want to discuss was why, if he indeed entertained trading Parsons as early as the spring, that didn’t occur prior to the draft.

In the end, Parsons was ‘an asset we got four great years out of.’

But it was the next four years that led to Jones throwing up the caution flag.

‘That’s quite a commitment,’ said Jones, referring to the deal Parsons sought, ‘and none of that counts about what he did for the first four years.’

Jones also confessed that his repeated comments about his lack of desire to trade Parsons was a negotiating tactic with other teams.

Micah Parsons trade reactions pour in over shocking Cowboys-Packers deal

“Do you really think if I wanted someone to be interested in (Parsons) I would say ‘Oh I want to trade him?’ It’s the opposite. And I thank you for writing it,” Jones said.

Jones recounted a quick story from the offseason when Parsons returned from an international trip straight to the Cowboys facility to talk business. According to Jones, Parsons wanted to talk brass tax that night, but Jones encouraged him to wait until the next morning. Stephen Jones was involved during the talks, he said.

“That was a very genuine negotiation, I changed the amounts, and then we left and he called back,” Jerry Jones said.

“Of course, the rest is history,’ Jones added. ‘When the time came to say let’s go, he said, well, let’s start the negotiation. Again, nothing in the world am I criticizing Micah at all.”

Jones, who said he still plans on negotiating with players, wouldn’t provide a timeframe but talked to Green Bay several times over several days, he said, but came to a head Thursday.

“I would say that certainly it was still up in the air (Thursday) morning,” he said.

What wasn’t up for debate, he said, was the consideration to trade Parsons “as a complete organization, that if we could get this done, with our terms, that we would make the trade.” 

Playing Parsons would be ‘problematic,’ he said. ‘I suggest we get ahead and run the ball.’

Apparently, that’s what Jones wants.

‘I’m excited,’ Jones said. ‘We got what we wanted.

‘Things are good here.’

Southern California football coach Lincoln Riley is under pressure after back-to-back disappointing seasons, including a 7-6 record in 2024.
Quarterback Jayden Maiava, who took over late in the 2024 season, returns as the starter and has focused on improving his leadership and consistency.
USC faces a critical mid-season stretch that will likely determine whether they are a contender or pretender.

LOS ANGELES — As Penn State’s Ryan Barke sealed an overtime victory against Southern California on a game-winning field goal, Trojans coach Lincoln Riley dropped to his knees. 

It was another game that slipped through his fingers. For the third time in four games during the 2024 college football season, USC had lost a fourth-quarter lead, causing the Trojans to fall to 3-3 and ending any realistic chance of making the College Football Playoff.

Afterwards, it was Riley who took full responsibility for it.

“We’ve got to be able to finish, and it all falls on my shoulders at the end,” Riley said postgame. “That’s part of why they call me head coach.”

All of those things are true. That’s why there’s now a lot more pressure on those shoulders.

Riley heads into what is surely a make-or-break season for the Trojans, desperate to restore their status as a nationally relevant program while their head coach gets his mojo back.

As painful the Penn State loss was, the misery didn’t end there for USC. The following week, it strangely blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead at Maryland, dropping Riley’s season record to below .500 for the first time in his career.

The Trojans were able finish 7-6 with a bowl victory, but that’s not a successful season for USC given its lofty history and considering how much it pays Riley. The stumble comes after Southern California went 8-5 in 2024 following a 6-0 start. Those 13 losses in the past two seasons are three more than he had combined in five years at Oklahoma before his surprising exit to Los Angeles.

Heat rising for USC, Lincoln Riley

Closing out games would certainly help.

“What last year revealed is there’s not any part of the program that’s not pretty good, or on the doorstep of being pretty good. If not, you don’t have the chance to win damn near every single game you played in the fourth quarter,” Riley said. “Are we working on in-game situations and emphasizing that, talking about that? Of course, we are. 

“But the reality is, every part of this program needs to be a little bit better to take the steps of where we want to be, and I think that has been a huge emphasis point.”

For all the talk about its inability to finish games, how USC ended the season may have turned it around. It was the team down by double-digits in the fourth quarter of the Las Vegas Bowl against Texas A&M when it completed a comeback win. 

That victory was orchestrated by quarterback Jayden Maiava, who transferred from UNLV prior to the season and didn’t win the job in fall camp. But with the season falling apart, Riley benched starter Miller Moss and handed the keys to Maiava and he finished the season 3-1.

Keys to USC offense belong to Jordan Maiava

Riley could have easily said thanks to Maiava and sought another quarterback in the transfer portal. But he wasn’t ready to ask for the keys back, believing Maiava is his guy.

Maiava isn’t your typical USC quarterback. He’s not much of a Hollywood person. He’s from the Pālolo neighborhood of Honolulu and the first Polynesian starting quarterback in Trojans history. He’s mostly quiet, but now with a full offseason knowing he’s the guy in charge, his actions have become loud. 

“We challenged him – in a lot of ways – to come out of his shell and really take ownership of this group, and he’s done that,” Riley said. “You’ve just seen more and more as times gone on, he’s been more vocal with the guys. Just kind of his attitude, his confidence, his kind of the swagger that he carries himself with is just very, very different.”

In order to better understand Riley’s offense, Maiava spent the offseason studying people that mastered it, watching highlights of Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield and Caleb Williams all during their Heisman Trophy campaigns. He trained at 3DQB, a camp renowed for training elite quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford and Drew Brees.

Southern California offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Luke Huard said Maiava is extremely hard on himself, and one thing they had to focus on in the offseason was to be at peace with things that don’t go his way. To help that, Maiava read “Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness” by Tim Grover. It taught him to keep a neutral mindset of never getting too high or too low at critical moments. Mix that with the meditation he does and Maiava is a much different person than the one that was just trying to stay afloat at the end of the season.

“He knows what this team now needs out of him, and he knows how to give it to him,” Riley said.

USC football made other offseason changes to fix problems

Other changes were needed, and it started in the weight room. Riley let go of his longtime staff member Bennie Wylie and named Trumain Carroll his new strength coach. 

The changes were night and day for some players, as Carroll has stated players needed to earn the right to run the steps inside the prestigious Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Coaches and players have applauded Carroll, believing he has brought accountability and discipline into the program. 

There’s also the witty Rob Ryan, returning to college coaching after 25 years in the NFL to coach the team’s linebackers and assist Trojans defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn. 

Lynn said Ryan’s experience is something that can’t be replaced, and while the college game has sure changed a lot since he’s last been in it, Ryan has brought his fun yet intense nature to a defense that made great leaps in 2024.

“It’s on now,” Ryan said. “There’s no excuse. We got to be great, and I know we will be.”

The journey to greatness for USC begins with rather easy start in September that will have the Trojans as significant favorites in their first four games.

But it’s very similar to last season, when USC looked like a real contender in its first two games before the heartbreaker at Michigan eventually pushed the season off the rails. September ends with a road trip to College Football Playoff contender Illinois. The Trojans get a week off before Michigan comes to Los Angeles, and then have to play at rival Notre Dame, where they haven’t won since 2011.

By the end of October, we’ll know where USC stands. The Trojans could be 7-0 and a national championship contender. But they could be also be 4-3 and out ouf the playoff race that would further increase the heat on Riley. 

So we’ll find out who USC really is. Last season offers some optimism. Five of the six losses were by seven points or less and holding late leads would have made for a completely different outlook.

The Trojans don’t want another season of ‘what if?’ They believe they’ve made the necessary changes to do so.