BOULDER • Quick: Someone tell Deion Sanders the temperature in Boulder reached 54 degrees on Saturday.

A decade after the embarrassment that was the 2012 Colorado football season, the Buffaloes are once again 1-11.

Just as it did 10 years ago, the season ended with a loss to Utah, only this one was much, much worse than the 42-35 defeat on that November day in Boulder. This time, CU lost by a final of 63-21. Coincidentally, this was also the first time CU allowed over 60 points in a game since a 70-14 loss to Oregon in 2012.

The only difference between that disaster and this one? There’s no head coach to fire. While Jon Embree was let go two days after the 2012 season, Karl Dorrell has been gone since the second day of October.

But there will be another coaching search for the Buffs. Could athletic director Rick George really persuade Sanders to come fix this mess? Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman reported earlier today that Sanders has been offered the job and has “legitimate interest” in the position.

Or will it be a proven winner in Bronco Mendenhall? Or even someone else?

Either way, the CU football team will look a lot different when the 2023 season kicks off against TCU on Sept. 2. There were 18 players that were honored during Saturday’s pregame Senior Day festivities. Some of them have remaining eligibility; some of them do not. Regardless of how many players the new coaching staff is able to retain, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there are a couple dozen new faces on campus when spring practices begin.

“I’m going to be here for these players,” interim coach Mike Sanford, whose own personal future is uncertain as anyone’s, said postgame. “Ultimately, I just want to continue to serve this group of players for as long as they’ll have me. I don’t know exactly what the future holds.”

No matter what the future holds, Sanford is proud of the work this group of players did over the past two months. The day he took over following the firing of Dorrell, Sanford said his No. 1 goal was to do everything he could for the players. He believes he did just that.

Not that he needed any validation, but sophomore offensive lineman Noah Fenske came up to Sanford after the game and told him, “Coach, you made football fun for me for the first time in my life.”

“That meant more to me than anything that probably could’ve ever happened,” Sanford said. “This group of players made football fun for me again, as hard as that probably is to understand from the outside looking in.

“This profession is really hard. There’s a lot of challenges with it. To have a group of players do what they did and continue to fight, I’ll never forget this. I’m so grateful to this group of players. It really has been the most enjoyable season of my life.”

If this season needed any more challenges, the Buffs did something they haven’t since before World War II: start a fourth different quarterback in the same season. With J.T. Shrout unavailable, former Houston transfer got the start over Drew Carter, who came in during garbage time last week at Washington.

“I think that’s a little bit indicative of our season,” Sanford said.

With Owen Mccown sitting out the rest of the season to preserve his redshirt, Kopp and Carter were the only two scholarship quarterbacks at Sanford’s disposal. That showed on the scoreboard. The Buffs managed just 185 yards, most of which came in the second half when the game was completely out of reach and Utah had completely emptied the bench. But considering where Kopp was just a few months ago, Sanford was proud of his effort.

“There was a time where, legitimately, he was the sixthstring quarterback on our roster,” Sanford said. “He went through a pretty long period in fall camp, even into the first four weeks of the season, where he had the ‘yips’ throwing the football. I thought he managed the game admirably well. He’s playing his first college snaps in game 12 against the best defense in our conference.”

The game wasn’t without its lasting memories, especially for a few of the seniors. Offensive lineman Frank Fillip caught a touchdown pass to cap the season and to cap his career that, like many of the seniors that stuck it out through five or six years, featured a lot of losing.

“There’s probably not a class ever that’s had this crappy of a six years,” said senior tight end Brady Russell, who also played his last college game Saturday. “The amount of stuff we faced together, our record might not show it, but I’m just really proud of those guys.”

Sanford said he jokingly told offensive coordinator Clay Patterson that if he didn’t call the play to get Fillip the ball that he’d fire him after the game.