Contrast of rebuilding styles when Taylor’s Stanford Cardinal face Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes in prime time

Friday night's game at Folsom Field on ESPN has been sold out since mid-July

When Colorado and Stanford face off Friday night at Folsom Field, it will be a study in extremes.

In their first years at each school, Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders brought in 49 transfers, according to On3, while Cardinal coach Troy Taylor brought in five. When Sanders arrived, he told the leftover players to consider transferring out. When Taylor arrived, he told leftover players he wanted them all to stay.

But while other coaches have been critical of Sanders’s methods, Taylor said he respected Sanders’ approach.

“They play hard, and it’s pretty clear that they’re a better team than they’ve been in the past and I think they’ll continue to get better,” Taylor said. “So I’m not critical at all of what Coach Sanders is doing. He’s doing what everybody else is trying to do in terms of adjust and find some sort of a competitive advantage. And at the end of the day, our job is to graduate players and hopefully have a great experience and win football games, and there’s different ways of doing that, different philosophies to doing that. But that’s what he’s attempting to do.”

So far, the extreme changeover at Colorado has made a bigger impact. After finishing 1-11 last season, the Buffaloes are already 4-2 heading into Friday night’s game (7 p.m., ESPN) and briefly appeared in the AP poll. Stanford, which went 3-9 last year, is 1-4 (0-3 Pac-12) and has lost at home to an FCS school. Colorado is an 11 1/2-point favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

But Taylor knew going in that building the program the Stanford way would be a more gradual process.

“We are not Transfer Portal University. We’re just not,” Taylor said. “We’re going to have to do it with high school players. So it’s going to be a little different. It’s going to be kind of a longer build, because you can’t flip your roster.”

Though they both came from the FCS level, Sanders brought players with him from Jackson State – including his son Shedeur, who leads the nation in passing yards (2,030), and Travis Hunter, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2022 – while Taylor didn’t bring anyone from Sacramento State.

“How we’ll do it here at Stanford is going to be different than almost anybody in the FBS level,” Taylor said. “I can’t think of anybody that really is on par in terms of how we have to do things. I like that. I like being an outlier. It’s going to take a longer time, just because we’re going to have to deal with high school players. We’re going to have to develop those guys. And you know, when you’re a young player, there’s just going to be some hiccups. There’s going to be some heartaches that you’re going to have to deal with until they become more experienced.”

Sanders has also generated far more attention for his program.

While Stanford has had three games on the Pac-12 Networks and just one game on a major network (at USC on FOX), Colorado has been on FOX three times, ABC once and ESPN once and hosted both ESPN’s “College GameDay” and FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” The Buffaloes had the only spring game on ESPN, and saw their aggregate following on social media channels jump from 268,000 to 2.18 million since Sanders was hired.

“I think anytime we bring excitement like he is to college football, I think it’s awesome,” said Taylor, a graduate assistant with Colorado in 1995.

Colorado announced on July 20 that Friday’s game, which takes place during Family Weekend, was sold out. Three months earlier, it became the first school nationally to announce it was sold out of season tickets. Before this season, the last sellout at Folsom Field was in 2019.

“I’m super excited just to be in a primetime atmosphere,” Stanford sophomore defensive lineman Jaxson Moi said. “I like when the fans are hating. It’s a privilege to earn the hate and be respected by other teams, but we’re gonna have to go out there and earn that respect, because it’s not given. So just really excited to be in that environment and I know it’s going to be electric.”

Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Notre Dame and Tennessee are the only schools to play in front of a sellout crowd in every game this season.

It will be the second big crowd Stanford has faced this year, following its night game at USC.

Senior running back Casey Filkins remembers it being so loud at Washington last season that he couldn’t even hear his quarterback, Tanner McKee, even though McKee was standing right next to him in the backfield. But he said the offense relies on signals this year, so noise won’t be as big a factor.

Stanford, coming off a bye week, is looking to avoid its worst overall start since 2006, when the Cardinal began 0-9. The Cardinal hasn’t won coming off a bye since 2018. Their last win over the Buffaloes was in 2015 and featured 49ers running back and Christian McCaffrey.

KEY MATCHUP
The Cardinal offense continues to search for ways to get the ball in the end zone. They’re ranked first in the conference for field goals (11) and 12th for touchdowns (nine). Their 19.2 points per game would be the lowest since 1996 (19 points per game), according to Pac-12 research. They face a Colorado defense that has allowed the most touchdowns in the Pac-12. The Buffaloes have seen opponents score 35 or more points in four of six games.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Stanford: Justin Lamson, a dual-threat quarterback who made his first start against Oregon. He had 22 carries in the 42-6 loss to No. 8 Oregon, the most by a Pac-12 QB since Tyler Huntley had 25 for Utah versus West Virginia in 2017.

Colorado: Colorado receiver Xavier Weaver has 507 yards receiving through six games. He’s the first Buffaloes player since 2019 to eclipse the 500-yards receiving mark for a season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.