Finally, it’s game week.

After nearly a full month of workouts, and a busy few days as students returned to campus and Colorado hosted hype events like Friday’s Kickoff Luncheon, it has become time for the Buffaloes to turn their focus to an actual opponent.

That opponent is FCS power North Dakota State, which visits Folsom Field on Thursday night (6 p.m., ESPN) in the opening game of Year 2 for CU under head coach Deion Sanders.

As of Saturday afternoon, some tickets still remained for Thursday’s kickoff against a squad ranked second in the FCS preseason coaches’ top 25. Following a preseason marked by a late staff change with the departure of now-former special teams coordinator Trevor Reilly, battles between Sanders and media members, and a whole lot of sweat out on the practice field, the Buffs are more than ready to keep the focus on the field.

Sanders held his final pregame media session on Saturday at the Champions Center.

“I’m excited about what I’ve seen in practice,” Sanders said. “I’m excited about what I feel like we’re going to see next Thursday. Because right now, these guys are tired of hitting each other. They want to hit some other colors right now.”

Given the Thursday kickoff, Saturday’s media event was the last planned session for fans to hear from Sanders until after the battle against North Dakota State. It put a ceremonial cap on the preseason, one that, in typical Coach Prime fashion, was full of headlines that had little to do with the product that will be on display Thursday night at Folsom Field.

In the wake of several terse exchanges with local media members at CU’s fall sports media day on Aug. 9, the Denver Post reported this week that the Buffs’ athletic department was forbidding one of the Post’s lead columnists from asking questions to Sanders and players, due to what Sanders and CU perceives as unfair personal attacks within the Post’s columns.

Internally, things grew even weirder in recent days.

Reilly, the Buffs’ special teams coordinator last season, explained to Sports Illustrated and ESPN radio in Salt Lake City that he resigned from CU due to disagreements with how the program was handling its fundraising for name, image and likeness (NIL) ventures. Reilly also said he traveled to the Middle East to solicit financing agreements in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, while CU explained in a statement to BuffZone that Reilly “acted on his own accord.”

The Prime Era has offered no shortage of headlines and plot twists. Yet in a few days, the only talk Buffs fans will care about is how quarterback Shedeur Sanders, two-way standout Travis Hunter, and the rest of the Buffs perform in the opener of the 135th season of Colorado football.

“North Dakota State, they’re a very storied program with a lot of history. They’ve won a lot of games,” said CU’s Hank Zilinskas, the Buffs’ presumptive starter at center. “They’ve won a lot of games against some great schools. They have that mentality where they’re going to come in, they don’t care who they’re playing; they’re going to play their butts off. We’re getting ready for a physical game. But I think coach (Pat) Shurmur, coach Phil (Loadholt) and the rest of the staff have put together a great plan. We’ve got a lot of great things planned to beat them on Thursday.”