The 2023 season certainly wasn’t an easy one for Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders to endure.

For the first time in his life, he was on a losing team, and few quarterbacks got beat up like he did in his first year in Boulder.

“Physically, it was difficult,” he told BuffZone during Big 12 media day on Wednesday in Las Vegas. “Just hits adding up.”

The hits and the losses added up, as the Buffs finished 4-8 (1-8 Pac-12) under first-year head coach Deion Sanders.

For this season, as the Buffs move to the Big 12 Conference, Big 12 media has picked CU to finish 11th place and the sportsbooks have set CU’s over/under for wins at 5.5. Having a healthy and more experienced Shedeur Sanders, however, is a big reason why the Buffs are confident they can exceed those expectations and find the winning touch again.

A year ago, Shedeur was sacked 52 times — the most in CU history and tied for the most in the country. He took such a beating that a fracture in his back caused him to miss the last game and a half. He didn’t miss a game during high school or his first two seasons in college.

“If I miss a game at this point, it’s obviously something,” he said.

The injury didn’t require surgery, but Shedeur had to rest for about a month and a half and he relied on CU’s trainers and strength staff to get him healthy.

“The program they put for me really helps me out a lot,” he said. “And I’m able to feel comfortable and feel great.”

Now he hopes to regain the winning feeling again.

Shedeur went 48-5 as a four-year starter in high school, and then 23-3 in two seasons at Jackson State. Enduring the struggles of last year was new for Shedeur, but he’s proud of how he handled it.

He still put up exceptional numbers, including 27 touchdown passes and school records for passing yards (3,230) and completion percentage (69.3%). And, he didn’t lose hope as a leader.

“When everything falls down, what type of person are you? What’s your principles? What are you grounded off?” Shedeur said. “Are you one to point the finger? Are you one to just say, ‘OK, what can I do better?’”

“I knew who I was. I don’t ever change. In any situation, I’ll never forget who I am, so it only just reminded me of who I was and it brought that guy out.”

As with most players, Shedeur saw things in his own game that could improve going forward and he’s worked on those aspects of the game.

“There’s always room for improvement,” he said. “Even (future Hall of Famer) Tom Brady would tell you that he always improved in an area. … I’m nowhere close to my ceiling, so that’s the difference when I say me and a lot of players is I’m not close to my ceiling at all. I’ve got a long way to go.”

Healthy and improved, Shedeur is also more comfortable in his surroundings — not just Boulder, but playing in a power conference at the highest level of college football.

“I got the layout of the land now, so we’re all in good hands,” he said. “Mentally, I really understand what we’re gonna get from teams. I’ve played a lot of football, so sometimes I may see too much. I may think some coaches and some scheme is greater than what it actually is, so it’s really about focusing on what is this team realistically gonna do and not question the what ifs and all that.”

Projected as a top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Shedeur is aiming for great senior season, sparked by the lessons learned in 2023 — and a new appreciation he has for success. The worst season he had gone through before last year was a 9-3 record during his senior year of high school.

“I feel like (the 2023 season) reminded me the feeling of winning, what it actually is,” Shedeur said. “I’d never been on the other side, of not having a winning season and losing more than three games in a year. So that made me value winning more and made me value it because it was taken away from me.”