College Football Picks 9/3 – Colorado @ Georgia Tech

by Thomas Quaynor at Wannamakeabet.com

Week One of the 2026-27 College Football season kicks off tonight with the Colorado Buffaloes (3-9, 1-8 in the Big 12 last yr) visiting the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-4, 6-2 in the ACC last yr) at Bobby Dodd Stadium on ESPN. This will be the second all-time meeting between the schools. The teams first met last year in Week One with Georgia Tech hanging on for a 27-20 victory at Colorado. The Yellow Jackets rushed for 320 yards in that win. 

Both teams are looking to rebuild for different reasons. Colorado hopes to bounce back from a disastrous 2025 season where they finished 3-9 overall and won only one conference game. They ended the 2025 campaign losing 5 in a row and 7 of their last 8. Georgia Tech is looking to reload after finishing with an impressive 9-4 record — its most wins since 2016 — and losing its dual-threat, superstar quarterback Haynes King to graduation/NFL. 

Georgia Tech is a 6.5-point favorite and the total is 50.5.

GAME STORYLINES: COLORADO

On December 3, 2022, the Colorado Buffaloes made nationwide headlines when they hired NFL Hall of Famer Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders as its head coach. Coach Prime’s arrival in Boulder was met with astronomical fanfare due to his boisterous personality and his exceptional record at Jackson State in 2021 and 2022. Sanders compiled a 22-3 (.880) record in his two years at Jackson State — his first two years as a head coach at the college or NFL level.

Deion Sanders three years at Colorado has been a mixed bag of results. It began on an extremely high note after Colorado outlasted No. 17 TCU 45-42 on the road in a thrilling season-opener in September 2023. Colorado started the 2023 season 3-0 and appeared to have a large segment of the country fixated on Colorado football over those three weeks.

Unfortunately, things unraveled quickly for the Buffaloes as they would go on to lose 8 of their last 9 games to finish 4-8 in 2023. Despite the poor finish to the 2023 campaign, Sanders increased Colorado’s win total by 3 games over the horrific 1-11 season they registered in 2022 prior to his arrival. 

The next two seasons saw Colorado post records of 9-4 in 2024 and 3-9 last season. The Buffaloes were actually in the hunt for a birth in the 2024-25 BCS playoffs until an upset loss at unranked Kansas in the second-to-last game of the regular season dashed those hopes. Colorado’s fantastic 2024 season was led by the dynamic duo of 2024 Heisman Trophy winner and two-way (WR/CB) superstar Travis Hunter and prolific quarterback Shedeur Sanders — Coach Prime’s son. The departure of both players played a huge role in last season’s disappointing 3-9 record. 

Despite the hoopla and hysteria brought on by the arrival of Deion Sanders, he enters the 2026 season at what could be considered a crossroads in his coaching career. Sanders is coming off his worst season at Colorado last year and is just 16-21 (.432) in his three years at the school. And he’s essentially building from scratch again in 2026 as he’s hired two new coordinators — Offensive Coordinator Brennan Marion and Defensive Coordinator Chris Marve — and brought in 40 players from the transfer portal. Colorado’s transfer portal class ranks amongst the top 20 according to most recruiting outlets.

A big reason for optimism this year is the return of true sophomore quarterback Julian Lewis. Lewis was a five-star recruit and widely considered the No. 2 overall prospect in the high school class of 2025. He could’ve transferred to any of the BCS elites, but elected to stay in Boulder. Lewis passed for 589 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions on 55.3 percent completions across 4 games last year. He’ll be given the keys to the offense this season, and expectations will be sky high for the former five-star Georgia product. 

The aforementioned, newly-hired Brennan Marion takes over as Colorado’s offensive coordinator after one year as head coach at Sacramento State, where he finished 7-5 — after inheriting a 3-9 team. Marion was successful running the up-tempo, “Go-Go” offense at Sacramento State last year and at UNLV as the offensive coordinator from 2023-2025. 

Colorado brought in a trio of highly-touted wideouts from the transfer portal, who are expected to excel in Brennan Marion’s Go-Go offense. The talented trio of wideouts are San Jose State’s Danny Scudoro (88 catches for 1,297 yards, 10 TD’s last yr), Miami of Ohio’s Kam Perry (43 catches for 976 yards, 6 TD’s) and Texas’s DeAndre Moore Jr.(38 catches for 532 yards, 4 TD’s). Scudero led the nation in receiving yards last year, while Perry’s 22.5 yards per catch led the MAC.

The Buffaloes have the potential to be an explosive offensive — similar to the record-setting 2024 unit that featured Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter — with Julian Lewis throwing to three talented and college-tested wideouts in Danny Scudoro, Kam Perry and DeAndre Moore. 

GAME STORYLINES: GEORGIA TECH

Last season, Georgia Tech registered one of their most successful seasons in recent history when they finished 9-4. The Yellow Jackets started the year 8-0 and ranked No. 7 in the nation. They appeared to be in a great position to make the BCS playoffs and compete for a national championship, but a late-season swoon saw them lose 3 of their last 4 games which vanquished their BCS playoff hopes.

Georgia Tech’s great success a year ago was led by the effervescent play of dual-threat, superstar quarterback Haynes King. The incandescent King passed for 2,951 yards with 14 touchdowns to 6 interceptions, while rushing for 953 yards and 15 touchdowns. He was named the 2025 ACC Player of the Year. King was not selected in the 2026 NFL draft, but was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Carolina Panthers and made their 53-man roster. 

Replacing the enormous production of Haynes King was a daunting task for Georgia Tech, but they may have found a suitable replacement in redshirt sophomore Alberto Mendoza — the younger brother of 2025 Heisman Trophy winner and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft Fernando Mendoza. The younger Mendoza transferred to Georgia Tech from Indiana, where he spent the last 2 seasons alongside his older brother Fernando. 

Alberto Mendoza played sparingly in his two years at Indiana, backing up his big brother Fernando last year after redshirting as a true freshman in 2024. He passed for 286 yards and threw 5 touchdowns to 1 interception, while rushing for 198 yards across 6 appearances a year ago. Mendoza is also a very good runner — similar to the departed Haynes King. It will be interesting to see how he fares tonight as he replaces a legendary player in Haynes King, while carrying the burden of living up to the lofty standards set by his big brother Fernando, who completed a stellar season (undefeated National Championship, Heisman winner, No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft) last year. 

Georgia Tech will feature a strong 1-2 combo at running back in returning senior Malachi Hosley (697 rushing yards, 7 TD’s last yr) and Michigan transfer Justice Haynes (897 rushing yards, 10 TD’s w/MICH). On Monday, Haynes was anointed as the RB1 on the depth chart, but I’d expect to see a lot of Hosley in the mix against Colorado. The Yellow Jackets are likely to deploy a run-heavy offense again this year.

At wide receiver, Georgia Tech’s three starters will be Elon transfer Isaiah Fuhrmann (46 catches for 907 yards, 9 TD’s last yr as a SOPH) and returning sophomores Jordan Allen (22 catches for 304 yards) and Dalen Penson. The 6-foot-4 Fuhrmann was one of the top wideouts in FCS last year at Elon. Penson was switched from cornerback to wide receiver during the offseason, and impressed the coaching staff enough that they named him a starter. 

THE PICK: COLORADO (+6.5)

This one is difficult to forecast because both teams are largely unproven as the offenses will be starting mostly transfers and returning players who did not get a lot of playing time last year. I’m going with the underdog only because Georgia Tech is a bit more unproven as an offensive unit than Colorado is. Take the Points…Georgia Tech 27, Colorado 25!