Colorado head coach Deion Sanders doesn’t like to compare a team from the past to his current team, but he certainly acknowledges there’s a difference.

“Once upon a time, it was just hope,” Sanders said. “Like, man, we hope we can stay in this game, we hope we can do this. Now it’s expectation. We really expect to win those games.”

During Sanders’ first season in Boulder, in 2023, there was a measure of satisfaction in taking ranked opponents such as USC, Oregon State and Arizona to the wire, even in a loss.

The mood around the Buffaloes (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) this week after a 31-28 loss to No. 18 Kansas State on Saturday at Folsom Field isn’t the same.

“That stuff hurts, man,” Sanders said. “It hurts because we expect to win. We don’t expect to compete, we expect to win.

“In all aspects of life on as well as off the field, I want our young men to expect to be successful, and that’s where we are right now. Thank God we have a bunch of like-minded men, as well as coaches, as well as support staff, that expect to be successful. That’s why it hurts so bad.”

Coming off that disappointing loss, which snapped a three-game winning streak, CU aims to get back on track when it visits Arizona (3-3, 1-2) on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.

“We need to self-reflect, go into that, correct those things, and have an even better game and play to our standard of football,” defensive end BJ Green said.

There were plenty of good things that came out of Saturday’s game. The passing game was clicking all night. Green and his mates got to the quarterback several times on defense. Penalties were kept to a minimum.

The not-so-good ultimately outweighed the good, though, as the Buffs were beaten in the trenches. K-State rushed for 185 yards and CU rushed for a program-worst minus-29 yards. The Wildcats also hit the Buffs on some big plays in the passing game.

“Everyone must take accountability in their efforts, their preparation, the habits that we incurred in the game, the things that we didn’t do well at — to really hold yourself accountable to those things,” Sanders said. “Let’s see you put it in to work today: weight room, film room, training room, to get help and ultimately out on the field so we can improve the areas of concern.”

Coach Prime even shook up the usual practice routine. Typically on Sundays, those who played at least 60% of the snaps the day before in the game wouldn’t practice. But that wasn’t necessarily the case this week.

“When you’re coaching, you’re always trying to up the level,” he said. “You’re always trying to take your team to the next level, take your business to the next level, take your life, your relationships, anything to the next level.

“When you sit, when you step out of it for a moment, and you think about it, you say, ‘OK, I know I’m trying to take care of the guys that played 60% of the snaps and give them a day rest,’ and you try to really develop some of the other guys that didn’t get the opportunity to play. But if you give up several sacks and you see the guys over there (resting), what does that say to the team? If we’re giving up deep balls and you over there chilling and your teammates looking at you like, ‘Hey, shoot, why aren’t out there? You need to be working on your game.’”

CU’s coaches wanted to challenge the players this week, knowing the expectations are higher this year.

“Work on their game, to take it to the next level, if they want to be pros,” Coach Prime said. “If you don’t, I understand. But when you came in, you said you do (want to go pro); we’re going to hold you accountable to that.”

The response has been positive, he said. After a day off on Monday, the Buffs “came out there with certainly a different attitude” on Tuesday, he said.

“Sometimes you get intoxicated a little bit with winning and start thinking that you’re really like that,” Coach Prime added, “and this Saturday was a wake-up call for a multitude of us.”