With Shedeur Sanders at quarterback, the Colorado offense was explosive at times in 2023.

The offense wasn’t consistent enough, however, with the lack of a run game playing a major role.

Coming into this season, Sanders is back and he has a deep core of receivers to throw to once again. But, it is the unheralded backfield that could make the difference as CU returns to the Big 12 Conference.

Leading up to preseason camp, BuffZone.com will preview each position group for the CU football team and in this installment, we look at the running backs.

“All those backs are good, man,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said last week.

Coach Prime said the same about the group in 2023, but that talent at running back didn’t translate to production on the field. CU had the worst rushing offense in the country, with 68.9 yards per game.

Almost the entire group from last year is gone, via the transfer portal or graduation. There’s a new crop of running backs this year, and the Buffs expect to be better on the ground because of not only the talent, but the commitment to the run game and the ability of the revamped offensive line to open holes.

“We’ve got to be able to run the football,” Coach Prime said. “We’ve got to do some things that keeps us where we want to be.

Running the ball successfully, of course, starts with the offensive line. The Buffs struggled up front last year, but a new group of players on the line has turned heads this offseason.

“They’re the real deal,” said safety Shilo Sanders, who goes against the line in practice. “Way new attitude.”

If the holes are there, the Buffs have confidence they have the talent at running back.

Former walk-on Charlie Offerdahl, who earned a scholarship in the spring, and current walk-on Christian Sarem are the lone holdovers. They are joined by transfers Isaiah Augustave (Arkansas) and Dallan Hayden (Ohio State) and true freshmen Brandon Hood and Micah Welch.

“That’s an underrated piece that we have is the running back,” Shedeur Sanders said.

CU’s group doesn’t have the star power that others in the Big 12 have at running back.

Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II, Texas Tech’s Tahj Brooks, UCF’s RJ Harvey and Peny Boone, Kansas’ Devin Neal, Kansas State’s DJ Giddens and Cincinnati’s Corey Kiner all topped the 1,000-yard mark last year. Arizona’s Quali Conley has rushed for 1,934 yards the past two years at other schools, and six other schools bring back experienced starters.

The Buffs might have the most unknown group in the Big 12, but it’s a group that Shedeur is excited about.

“You’ve got some young guys that can tote the ball,” he said. “You got older guys that’s able to really run through holes and that played on big stages. So, you’re getting a lot of players that have already experienced big lights and understand what it’s gonna be like and what winning feels like and understands that. So, you’re set up for success.”

Augustave ran for 202 yards on 35 carries (5.8 per carry average) last year at Arkansas. Hayden ran for 553 yards at Ohio State in 2022 and 110 yards last year. Hood and Welch come in after highly productive high school careers. Welch arrived in January and had a good spring with the Buffs.

Coach Prime, however, said nobody should sleep on Offerdahl. He spent three seasons as a walk-on, rushing for 150 yards in 2022 before getting just two carries for 11 yards in an injury-riddled 2023.

“Just because Charlie Offerdahl had the title of a walk-on, you guys underestimate him, you look past him. I don’t,” Coach Prime said. “I look at a man for what it is; not where he came from but where he is right now. So forget the small beginnings. I think he deserved the opportunity. He’s not a walk-on anymore. He’s a scholarship player. And he’s the starter at this point. They gotta beat him out.”

That competition will ramp up when the Buffs begin preseason practices later this month, and there’s no shortage of talented backs vying for the starting role.

“It’s gonna shake out the way it shakes out,” Coach Prime said of the competition. “It don’t matter who started; it’s who finishes and who gets the job done.”