ORLANDO, Fla. >> This was supposed to be Central Florida’s chance to make a statement.

Yet, all afternoon and evening at rain-drenched FBC Mortgage Stadium, it was Colorado that flexed its muscle and sent a message to the rest of the Big 12.

“I can’t even tell you how emotional I am about these young men and seeing what they could do when they put it all together, and seeing what we’re capable of doing when we put it all together,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said.

In the 17th game of the Coach Prime era, the Buffaloes had their most impressive performance and perhaps their most complete win, crushing heavily favored UCF 48-21.

“We played a tremendous team, and I’m proud of what transpired today,” said Coach Prime, who improved to 8-9 as CU head coach.

Shedeur Sanders threw for 290 yards and three touchdowns, Travis Hunter (89 receiving yards, one touchdown and one interception) was brilliant again and the Buffs (4-1, 2-0 Big 12) showed that they really do have a defense that can dominate at times.

The 27-point margin of victory was CU’s largest in a road game since a 34-0 win at Oklahoma State on Oct. 1, 2005, when current Buffs radio analyst Gary Barnett was the head coach.

CU did it on a day when UCF was in the spotlight, hosting Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff show. The Buffs did it in front of a stadium that sold out three months ago in anticipation of this game. And they did it despite oddsmakers favoring the Knights (3-1, 1-1) by two touchdowns.

“We don’t care about (being underdogs),” Coach Prime said. “Y’all, do. We’re underdogs every week. Ain’t nobody want to see us win; you know that, except for our fan base. … Ain’t nobody nationally want to see us get down. That’s just the nature of the game. We’re not mad about it. We’re not upset about it. We know who we are. We know how we get down.”

The nation cooled on the Buffs after their 3-0 start in 2023 fizzled to a 1-8 finish. Although the Buffs have been in high-profile TV spots all of this season, the nation hasn’t given the Buffs much attention as a legit contender in the wide-open Big 12.

After Saturday, the Buffs might command some attention for their play — and perhaps a few Top 25 votes.

Following a 50-minute delayed start because of lightning, the Buffs sputtered early, as Shedeur threw a rare interception on the third play of the game. No worries.

His 23-yard touchdown pass to Hunter with 3 minutes, 49 seconds to play in the first quarter got the Buffs on the board with a 7-0 lead, and they never trailed.

“Well, just because you start out rough, that’s not gonna make me forget who I am, who we are as a team,” Shedeur said. “That (interception) simply happened. It was like, OK, cool, now we just go back and play and make sure that’s not the reason why we lost the game.”

CU finished with 418 yards, mixing the pass and the run better than it has all season.

The Buffs finished with 128 rushing yards — along with two touchdowns — on 29 attempts to complement Shedeur’s passing.

“That’s what we want. We want that kind of balance,” Coach Prime said. “We desire that kind of balance. And I know these guys can do it, and I believe in them wholeheartedly.”

Defensively, CU shut down a UCF offense that came in No. 1 nationally on the ground (375.7 yards per game), No. 3 in total yards (570.7) and No. 14 in scoring (45.7 points per game).

The Knights finished with only 177 yards on the ground, with star RJ Harvey finishing with 77 — his lowest total in more than a calendar year.

While UCF couldn’t get its own offense on track, it also couldn’t stop the Buffs, who scored on seven of nine possessions after Shedeur’s interception, maintaining a double-digit lead throughout the entire second half.

“We knew we had to take away something, so just trying to stifle the run a little bit to get them to start over,” Coach Prime said. “But we knew we could score as well, so to keep up with our type of scoring that gets them out of their comfort zones and provokes them to throw the ball a little more than they would like to, because that’s not truly who they’ve shown that they’ve been.”

Saturday wasn’t what CU has often shown to be, either, but the Buffs found another gear in dominating the Knights heading into a bye week.

“We came out, adversity hit us fast,” said safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, who capped the win with a 95-yard fumble return for touchdown in the fourth quarter. “Nobody flinched, so I think we’re trending in the right direction. Everybody’s bought in. You can tell.

“The way we’re playing right now it’s definitely been the most complete win, I feel like, since we’ve been here and it’s just the beginning.”