West Virginia running back Cyncir Bowers (23) runs against Houston during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)

West Virginia coaches and players have a lot to do during the week. They have to correct the past and then quickly prepare for the future. There are only a couple of days to do so. This is similar for journalists. Sunday and Monday are for looking at what happened in the past, and then you quickly have to move on to the game ahead.

You can look at stats, box scores and watch some highlights, but you don’t get the nitty-gritty details that a full-time beat writer would.

So, we reached out to the Colorado football beat writer for the Denver Gazette to get the finer details on the Buffaloes before their matchup with WVU. Here is what beat reporter Tyler King had to say about Colorado:

Strengths

The strength of the offense has always been the offensive line. Colorado has a future NFL first-round caliber guy at left tackle, Jordan Seaton. The transfers brought in, especially in the middle, have helped. The Buffaloes had one injury last week that kind of threw a wrench in everything. Left Guard, Xavier Hill, missed the game, but he’s been really good all year. Overall, the offensive line has improved from the last couple of years.

Colorado has a couple of running backs that it leans on. Dallan Hayden, he’s a senior veteran, a former Ohio State transfer, could make an impact in the game.

Receiver-wise, Omarion Miller is easily Colorado’s top wide receiver. He had the only two touchdowns last week against Arizona. Joseph Williams is a Tulsa transfer who’s had some big plays throughout the year. Same with Sincere Brown. He’s a veteran guy.

There aren’t really any standouts on defense. The one standout player all season, he’s one of the few players Colorado hit on in this transfer portal class, is safety Tawfiq Byard. He’s the younger brother of Kevin Byard, who is the safety for the Chicago Bears now. Tawfiq has easily been Colorado’s best defensive player.

Weaknesses

The linebacker play has been bad, and the defensive line has regressed. Colorado is not getting to the quarterback at all. If West Virginia wants to establish the run, it should be able to, because the Buffs’ defensive line just hasn’t put up any resistance these past two games.

The secondary, which was supposed to be a strength coming into the year, with players like D.J. McKinney and Preston Hodge at cornerback, who could be NFL players. Neither of them has played great this year.

The Buffalo defense is really rough. If West Virginia was able to put up 45 points against Houston, it should have another explosive week against Colorado. Colorado’s biggest weakness is its defense as a whole because it really can’t stop anybody.

Colorado’s loss to Arizona

This one was a little bit more unique. Colorado has gotten blown out since Deion Sanders was hired, but not at home. The Buffaloes were 10-7 at home coming into this last game, and all seven of those losses were by one score or less. Colorado has always been competitive at home, even when it played USC and Caleb Williams two years ago. The Buffaloes only lost by seven, and they lost once at home last year. They’ve always been competitive at home.

Losing by 35 points was pretty rare. Seeing the stadium clear out the way it did, the fans were booing in the first quarter because of how bad the offense was. Quarterback Kaidon Salter wasn’t doing anything.

The crowd got back into it when true freshman Julian Lewis came into the game. He had one long touchdown pass. But the game was already over at that point.