Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes are well aware of how they were perceived coming into this season.

Media that covers the Big 12 Conference projected the Buffs for an 11th-place finish. Oddsmakers had the over/under win total at 5.5.

Several national publications put the Buffs near the bottom of the Big 12 and not reaching a bowl game.

CU blew those projections away weeks ago, but Coach Prime certainly isn’t basking in the glow of what his team is doing. The Buffs (8-2, 6-1 Big 12), who moved up two spots to No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday, are one of the great stories in college football this year, and they aren’t surprised.

“No, not whatsoever, because we expect to be here,” Sanders said after Saturday’s 49-24 rout of Utah.

“A lot of y’all didn’t expect us to be here, and don’t think we don’t know that, but we expected to be where we are. Matter of fact, we expected to be a little better.”

Losses to Nebraska on Sept. 7 and Kansas State on Oct. 12 still bother the Buffs, but Sanders said, “That’s in the past, so now we focus on one game at a time.”

The next game is Saturday against Kansas (4-6, 3-4) at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. (1:30 p.m., Fox). After a miserable 1-5 start, the Jayhawks are working on salvaging their season and have been one of the Big 12’s best teams in the past month.

KU lost at then-No. 16 Kansas State on a late field goal on Oct. 26, upset then-No. 17 Iowa State on Oct. 9 and went into Provo, Utah, on Saturday night to hand No. 6 BYU its first loss. Bowl eligibility is on the line for the Jayhawks, but much more is at stake for CU.

With two weeks to play, the race for the two spots in the Big 12 title game — to be played Dec. 7 in Arlington, Texas — is tight. CU and BYU are tied for first with 6-1 league marks, while Arizona State and Iowa State are lurking at 5-2. Five other teams are still alive at 4-3.

Lose one of the next two and CU could fall short of the title game, but that, of course, isn’t the mindset of these Buffs. Beat Kansas and they’ll be in great shape.

“Our expectations ain’t your expectations,” Coach Prime said. “Our expectations are our expectations, and we expect a lot out of ourselves. We practice with the type of intensity and passion and love and effort that you can’t help but be successful in what we do.

“When we don’t do things properly, it shows. We’re beating ourselves at times. Nobody’s beating us; we’re beating ourselves. And we just gotta focus on those little things and correct them so we could be flawless. That’s the goal, to come out here and be dominant offensively, defensively, as well as special teams.”

Coach Prime was happy with the dominance of the defense and special teams on Saturday. He was more critical of the offense, led by his son Shedeur Sanders, but then glanced at the stats at the end of the game. Shedeur went 30-of-41 for 340 yards and three touchdowns and the offense scored 42 of the Buffs’ 49 points.

“It’s hard to critique them,” Coach Prime said. “I was on Shedeur’s butt all day today, and I look up he’s 30-for-41. I think any coach in the country would accept that willingly.

“I guess I’m just a hard dad to please at times, as well as a hard coach.”

He’s not the only one feeling that way. The players aren’t satisfied, either, knowing they’re winning yet haven’t played a complete game.

“We’ve got to put it together, though,” Shedeur said. “We can’t keep saying this week after week and not do it. So we got to take more action of what we’re saying, we’re going to do, and personally, I take that responsibility for the offense not coming out ready to go.

“We’re going to watch the film. We’re going to understand where we went wrong and figure out how to fix those things and drill the fixes. The fact we didn’t have much success early on (against Utah), it’s a bittersweet feeling to me, but the job’s not finished. We just got to come out next week, ready to go.”

Notable

The Buffs are at No. 17 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The next CFP rankings will be announced Tuesday. … On Sunday, CU moved up two spots to No. 18 in the US LBM Coaches poll. The Buffs also moved into the Football Writers Association of America’s Super 16 poll, at No. 16. … With 10 catches on Saturday, the Buffs’ LaJohntay Wester topped the 300-catch mark for his career (307).