Strike 3: The notion of a “Heisman Jinx” plaguing the team that features that season’s Heisman Trophy winner has largely been debunked over the past decade, coinciding with the start of the College Football Playoff era. Since 2014, Heisman winners are 9-6 overall in the postseason. That bodes well for the Colorado Buffaloes as they prepare for Saturday’s Alamo Bowl game against fellow Big 12 conference rival BYU. Don’t expect Travis Hunter to come off the banquet circuit under prepared to face the Cougars.

Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders has had his share of postseason attention and distractions as well. But he too, will play on Saturday and his performance will once again be far more instrumental to CU’s success than Hunter’s.

No Colorado players will be “opting out” of the Alamo Bowl as they head toward the NFL Draft. The Buffs will be down one starter and roughly a dozen more reserves who’ve already entered the Transfer Portal. Leading tackler Nikhai Hill-Green, who is Alabama-bound, will be missed against the Cougars. As for BYU, they’ll be without safety Crew Wakely, their only starter to enter the portal thus far. A dozen Cougar reserves have entered as well – all of this part of the inevitable roster purge every team will be dealing with prior to July 1 when new reduced roster size rules come into effect.

As with every non-playoff bowl game, motivation will be a huge part of the match up. CU’s collective attention may have been diverted by trips to New York and elsewhere, but for Deion Sanders, having this be the last game he will be able to coach both his sons is prompting some emotion. We won’t really know how important CU’s first bowl game since 2020 is to the rest of the Buffs until we see them in action.

Meanwhile, their competition will enter the game with something to prove after a pair of late season stumbles cost them a chance to participate in the CFP.

BYU, along with eventual conference champ Arizona State, Iowa State and CU all finished the Big 12 season with identical 7-2 conference records. But the Cougars and Buffs (who didn’t get the chance to play any of the other three teams) lost out due to tiebreakers. The big backbreaker for BYU was the head-to-head with ASU, where the Sun Devils bested the Cougars 28-23 in Tempe. That loss has left a bad taste in the Rocky Mountain spring water in Provo. Will the Cougars – still ranked No. 17 – come out with something to prove against Colorado?

Unlike the air-it-out BYU teams that front range fans were used to seeing annually when they routinely beat up on CSU, these Cougars are ground oriented. Head coach Kalani Sitake is from the Kyle Whittingham/Utah Utes coaching tree, meaning tough, physical hard-nosed football is his team’s preferred style. And that’s exactly the style of play that’s given the Buffs the most difficulty this season.

Before the season began, Shedeur Sanders said that for every Buffs opponent, playing CU was going to be their Super Bowl. While BYU vs. Utah in the Holy War won’t be topped in terms of emotion, the Cougars are reportedly more than a little amped up to face the star-studded Buffs. So in some ways, this Alamo Bowl is their Super Bowl, at least until they visit Folsom Field next fall.