BOULDER — Anyone looking for bulletin board material this week in anticipation of Saturday’s Colorado-Nebraska matchup in Lincoln (5:30 p.m., NBC) may be hard-pressed to find anything worthy of a thumbtack.

Instead, CU-NU rivalry week — long one of the most heated matchups in Buffaloes history — kicked off with nothing but words of praise for the opponent from both camps.

Said Colorado’s Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders at his Tuesday press conference: “I have a ton of respect for (NU coach) Matt Rhule. He’s in,  I call it, our class of coaches. We all took on a tremendous test (in 2023), along with (Arizona State coach Kenny) Coach Dillingham and several others. So I feel like we’re a fraternity. So I root for that class of head coaches that came in that year … I love what he’s accomplished in his college coaching career. I look for them to be physically tough, imposing and try to run the football. They have a freshman quarterback that had a pretty good day last week, but we have to do what we do.”

Nebraska’s Rhule, meanwhile, was effusive with his praise of the Buffs in his Monday press conference.

“I don’t think there’s any secrets here about what they’re capable of, they’re dynamic playmakers,” Rhule said. “They’ve rebuilt the offensive line, they’re big, they’re physical, and defensively they play man coverage. They pressured a bunch in the second half to slow down North Dakota State. They play really hard. They fly around, they’ve got really good players and a well-thought-out scheme and well-coached team.”

Not to say the coaches and players haven’t acknowledged the rivalry.

Sanders noted, “I’m pretty sure you’re not going to see anybody on the team wearing red anywhere this week.”

The feeling appears to be mutual in Lincoln, where Rhule said, “I’m not going to not wear black this week and I’m not going to not say their name.”

But wardrobe rules aside, there appears to be little ill will from either camp. Rather, both coaches are far more concerned with how their respective teams will perform in the second week of the season.

The Buffs opened the season last Thursday with a come-from-behind 31-26 win over North Dakota State. After some first-half struggles, the Buffs made some halftime adjustments and took control in the second half for the win. Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders had an outstanding day, finishing with 445 yards and four touchdowns passing while receivers Travis Hunter (7 catches, 132 yards, three touchdowns) and Jimmy Horn Jr. (7-198, one score) were difference-makers.

Nebraska, meanwhile, overcame a relatively slow start to defeat UTEP at home, 40-7. The Huskers scored 23 unanswered points in the second quarter behind a strong run game to take a 30-7 lead at the half and coasted to the win. Freshman QB Dylan Raiola threw for 238 yards and two scores and three different NU backs ran for at least 50 yards as the Huskers piled up 223 yards on the ground.

Now, the stakes for both teams get considerably higher this week.

Colorado has won three straight over its former Big Eight/Big 12 rival and a fourth in a row would no doubt boost the Buffs’ national standing. The Buffs received one point in Tuesday’s latest AP national top 25 and a win in Lincoln would almost certainly improve that total next week.

The Huskers, meanwhile, would love to end their losing streak to Colorado and also improve their status in the national polls (NU had 27 points in Tuesday’s poll).

The Buffs are fully aware of what will be necessary to collect a win in a raucous, hostile Memorial Stadium environment. What Coach Prime wants to see is a continuation of last week’s second half.

“I think the defense played phenomenally well,” he said. “Second half, all the kids were in shape. We didn’t look like we were exhausted, tired. Thank God for our conditioning. Penalties, we did a great job on that as well as the team as a whole. Specialists performed well as expected, and overall, thank God for the ‘W.'”

Colorado did indeed take a big step forward in the second half. CU outscored the Bison 14-6 after intermission, and after a first half of seeing NDSU dominate time of possession, kept that statistic virtually dead even after the break. The Buffs’ second half included a punishing 7-play, 80-yard scoring drive that took 8:10 off the clock and produced the winning score.

Defensively, CU limited NDSU to just one score in the second half and while the Buffs did give up 207 offensive yards, 88 of those came on the Bison’s desperation final drive.

“I think we corrected a lot of things in the second half,” Coach Prime said. “We were able to contain the run a lot better. Played solid gap control. Chidozie Nwankwo (defensive tackle) did a phenomenal job and our linebackers got to the point of contact and made the plays. And I think the secondary is pretty darn good. We just have to not give up short passes. We just got to be a lot more physical and a lot more on point in understanding down and distance.”

But one area Coach Prime said he wants to see produce more improvement is the rushing attack. Colorado had just 59 yards on the ground against NDSU and on a key series in the first half, the Buffs failed to gain 1 yard on two consecutive plays, resulting in a turnover on downs.

“I just wish we could turn it up, be a lot more physical on the run,” he said. “Demand that we dominate our assignment on that particular play so that we can consistently run because we have several backs that can flat out do it … But we gotta take what the opposing defenses give us and they were vulnerable regarding the pass a week ago. So we had to do what we had to do.”

BUFFS BITS: The Buffs averaged 4.76 million TV viewers in their opener, marking ESPN’s most-watched game on the opening Thursday of the season since Ohio State-Indiana in 2017 (5.13M) … Colorado started two true freshmen in the season opener, a first in program history. Making their debuts as true freshman starters were OT Jordan Seaton and WR Drelon Miller. Miller, by the way, is already showing some solid versatility both as a receiver and running back and could continue to see a key role in the future … Coach Prime said injured safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig might be cleared Wednesday to play Saturday … There were 31 NFL scouts in the press box for the game … The NBC crew for Saturday’s contest in Lincoln will consist of Paul Burmeister on play-by-play, Colt McCoy as analyst and Kathryn Tappen on the sidelines.

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Story by Neill Woelk, Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com. Content courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder.