They’re unscarred enough to be mentally cowed by no one, not even the biggest of opposition, and not Oregon this weekend or USC the next, in what will be the last season where the Pac-12 is the Pac-12 as we know it.

And they’re a big enough target, because Coach Prime purposely and deliberate puffs their collective chests, for underdogs to come at them unreservedly and with nothing to lose, with Colorado State and its head coach Jay Norvell writing the blueprint for that specific approach.

Colorado rallies from an 11-point deficit

They’re a two-layer story in some ways. For neutrals, Colorado is irresistible when faced with big-name, storied programs, the narrative of the swaggering upstart challenging the established order too tasty to avoid.

It feels suddenly and markedly different when the role is reversed, as it felt like Colorado lined up as the bully last weekend. This is by no means a scientific study, but don’t be surprised if many observers who wanted the Buffaloes to win their first two games against TCU and Nebraska also wouldn’t have minded seeing them unseated at home against the Rams.

In truth, it is all part of the rollercoaster journey, and Sanders is in no mood for the tale to get stale and for the spotlight to shift anywhere else. His words and actions are sometimes so bombastic to reach the very brink of being dislikable, except then he pulls it back because he’s just that charismatic, and he’s letting us in on the joke.

And then – special prize if you saw this coming – he does things that are part-genius, part-adorable and absolutely part of the entertainment, like getting his mom to give one of the pregame speeches.

There is everything at play here. 

Coach Prime, gosh, even the nickname would be absurd if conferred on anyone else who didn’t have the ability to back it up, talks more like a WWE superstar than a traditional college football coach, and he doesn’t care if you like his hat and sunglasses or not.

There is fire in the words of one of his sons, Shedeur, the emotional pulse of the team, and humor in the talk of another, Shilo, who’ll make you chuckle as long as he’s not thwacking you with a tackle and knocking the ball loose.

“I think we were just out there fighting for hats and sunglasses,” Shilo Sanders told the Washington Post, in response to Norvell’s pregame comments casting UV 400 shade on his father’s habit of permanently wearing shades and headgear.

When you talk about Colorado, you tend to spend a lot of time talking around the edges of football, for that’s where we look to be entertained — are you not? The cold press of reality is emphatic in stating that this weekend should be the biggest test to date, as Oregon is coming in having won its three games by a combined 127 points, compared to Colorado’s 33, and with QB Bo Nix shaping up as a potential Heisman finalist.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning doesn’t seem likely to copy the Norvell route of providing a shred of bulletin board fodder this week, perhaps wisely. 

“We’re excited to go play a great opponent,” Lanning told reporters. “This is going to be an awesome atmosphere, and this is one of those marquee games that we are really excited about. So, we know we’re going to get everybody’s best.”

Two-way star Travis Hunter is out with an injury, which is a major blow for the Buffaloes, but consider that this is Colorado’s ideal scenario, taking ferocious aim at a team logic says they won’t beat. Logic? That sounds like something that can be predicted, accounted for, and which makes all kind of sense.

That’s not what we’re dealing with here, not with this story, which by its very definition is different, we just don’t fully know how yet.