QB Shedeur Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes set up the easiest touchdown of Nebraska Cornhuskers CB Tommi Hill’s career. It occurred during the opening quarter of Memorial Stadium’s NBC Big Ten Game of the Week between the two teams.

When Sanders dropped back to pass and made an incorrect throw to the right side of the field, straight into the waiting hands of Hill, who immediately trotted into the end zone for a pick-six, the Buffs were backed up in their own end zone, behind the Huskers 7-0.

PICK SIX NEBRASKA 😱@HuskerFootball pic.twitter.com/YYGTsj6f4o

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 8, 2024

The Cornhuskers are up 14-0 over head coach Deion Sanders’ squad after the game, with an extra point sealing the victory.

Hill, who switched to the corner position full-time last season and was named an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention for it, is Nebraska’s best corner this year. He was also selected, along with eight other Husker players, to Athlon’s 2024 All-Big Ten football team. Hill is projected to go in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft in a number of mock drafts.

In the Blackshirts’ season-opening victory over UTEP last week, Hill’s Pro Football Focus overall rating of 67.2 was eighth-highest. Despite recording just one assisted tackle, he managed to disrupt the Miners’ pass game throughout the whole contest.

Deion and the Buffs could run out of Nebraska if they play the way they did against NDSU.

Boulder, Colorado — When will you be able to trust your run game to stop North Dakota State?

With 1:41 remaining, the Bison still had a timeout in their back pocket; why throw it deep?

What occurs when a player the same size as the CU Buffs runs into them?

After CU defeated NDSU 31–26 in a prime-time season opener at Folsom Field, Buffs coach Deion Sanders questioned, “You ever felt like you won, but you didn’t win?”

With one minute remaining and down six, Shedeur Sanders is the quarterback in the nation you want to see holding the ball. With 1:40 remaining and up five, there aren’t many QB1s that give you greater anxiety about what might happen next.

There is magic in Travis Hunter. Shedeur is more resilient than a pair of western boots from John Dutton. After picking up the pace to take the lead, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur chewed up time to ensure the Buffs held onto it. Thanks to the changes made by new defensive coordinator Robert Livingston, CU nearly pitched a shutout in the second half.

Thank heavens, Nebraska Week arrives early this year. However, Coach Prime is in for a headache if he starts to act strangely when it comes to game management in Lincoln.

CU is unable to resist. Names shift. Trainers are not static. The Buffs are the Buffs. Clock be damned, win or lose with Shedeur Sanders. Accept it or reject it.

The Buffs’ signal-caller threw the ball four times when you were yelling at Coach Prime to run the damn ball with CU up five and trying to seal this one. With thirty-one seconds remaining, CU punted it back to North Dakota State.

“You’re one step closer to attending that bowl game!” Superfan Peggy Coppom heard Sanders say this over the stadium PA system.

One crazy, silly, unsteady step.

NDSU is half stubborn and half scrappy. However, this wasn’t a talent-based fight. Sundays in September of next year will see Hunter perform. The boys that ate Hunter’s dust for three hours, the hard-working guys in the North Dakota State secondary? They will be arguing with their fellow fantasy league players about who should claim No. 12 first.

Standing room only on the south side of the press box in Folsom. 29 scouts from 18 NFL teams visited Boulder. For the green team, they weren’t present. There are two top-10 draft picks for the Buffs. Bless the bison, but don’t.

Nevertheless, in Week 1, CU pitched a shutout in the third quarter—something it had only done once in 12 attempts the previous fall. You could observe genuine adjustments that were being made in real time. Shurmur had a strategy to ensure that CU didn’t blow the lead after he gained it. For the final thirty minutes of the game, Livingston rendered the Bison’s tight ends, a source of frustration, inconsequential.

After scoring freely on their first two possessions with the ball (161 seconds on their first drive, 44 seconds on their second), the Buffs chose to spice things up on their third crack.

It made an impression.

Dallan Hayden, an Ohio State import, went for six on first-and-10 at the CU 31, making a case for more playing time at tailback after his blitz pickups kept Shedeur upright.

Hayden for three on second-and-four. Easy conversion.

Hayden is stuffed in a third-and-one. This is something you can handle.

In summary, Hayden has become filled once more. I see, doctor.

Due to two penalties and mental cramping, NDSU was only able to muster three points for the gift. First and goal at the CU 9 was converted to third and goal at the Buffs 20.

According to an old coaching truism, college football teams typically see their greatest progress between Weeks 1 and 2.

CU is superior to this. Of course.

How much better, though?

Trey Lance’s NDSU is not NDSU. However, the Bison attacked CU’s backside right away. On second-and-eighth, Bison quarterback Cam Miller bided his time for tailback TK Marshall to get over the center of the field and get behind the Buffs’ linebackers. Marshall ran for 48 yards to the Buffs’ 24 yards, but sadly for CU, there were no safety within five yards of him.

You could almost hear Charles Kelly chuckling from the Plains behind the gasps at Folsom.

The first offensive drive for CU gave the impression that 2023 had never left. Not a team. Tempo. Shedeur for nine to Jimmy Horn Jr. LaJohntay Wester to Shedeur for 14. Shedeur to Hunter, alone in a one-on-one battle, all by himself, up the right boundary. As predicted, the prospect for the first round broke loose from one Bison defender, made a cut upfield, and outran the whole state of North Dakota to score a 41-yard touchdown.

The first drive by the Buffs covered 75 yards in 2:41. Their second ate up an additional 75 seconds in just 44 seconds. Shedeur unleashed a spectacular play on second-and-4 from his own 31, which Horn raced beneath, caught in midair, and took 69 yards for another spectacular six that would make a PlayStation player proud.

Hunter and the younger Sanders ignored each blow from the Bison, grinned, and proceeded to make the kind of maneuvers that make video game players hurl their controllers into the closest wall.

First-year NDSU head coach Tim Polasek described his squad as “good players.” “Excellent players.”

The Buffs will face a smaller, slower roster than any other during the season. CU permitted the Bison to linger. and linger. and linger.

Based on their 2-deep, NDSU’s defensive tackles weigh an average of 282.8 pounds.

The top three nose tackles for Nebraska? 295 lbs.

distinct weight class. distinct animal.

CU demonstrated on Thursday that it could manage success, in contrast to Stanford a year earlier. We’re going to find out soon enough how effectively the Buffs handle hardship.

Fifty-eight minutes of progress shouldn’t be erased by the last two minutes of insanity. However, aren’t they mostly where we left them? same pace. same aptitude. The same risks of a home run. same queries.