When the Colorado Buffaloes got off to a surprising 2-0 start, several notable sports media personalities such as Skip Bayless tabbed Coach Prime's son, Shedeur Sanders, as a Heisman hopeful while also circling the team's upcoming match-up with the USC Trojans and the Heisman Trophy favorite Caleb Williams. After all, Shedeur Sanders and Caleb Williams rank among the top five in college football in passing yardage and touchdown passes.
Today, Caleb Williams is viewed as the consensus number-one overall pick in next year's NFL draft, while Shedeur Sanders is projected to land with a team selecting somewhere near the bottom of round one. On Saturday, the Caleb Williams vs. Shedeur Sanders match lived up to the hype. Although Caleb outshined his Pac-12 counterpart with steller numbers (403 passing yards, 6 TD passes & a passer rating of 93.1), Shedeur nearly led his team on a miraculous comeback with impressive statistics of his own (371 passing yards, 4 TD passes & a passer rating of 64.5).
Unfortunately for Shedeur, two of the Buffaloes' best players were unavailable due to previous injuries sustained. Two-way player Travis Hunter missed his second straight game with a lacerated liver while Shilo Sanders also sat out with a kidney injury that he sustained against Oregon one week prior. Those critical injuries cheated college football fans out of a historic matchup several decades in the making: A defensive back vs. wide receiver battle between Deion Sanders' son (Shilo) vs. Jerry Rice's son (Brenden).
With the Buffaloes' starting defensive back Shilo Sanders watching from the sidelines, USC Trojans wide receiver Brendan Rice caught five passes for 81 yards, including a pair of touchdown receptions--reminiscent of his father, the NFL's all-time leader in touchdowns. Although Shilo does not line up at cornerback like his father once did, his prowess as a safety could have provided the Buffaloes with some much-needed help over the top against Brenden Rice and the Trojans' other starting wideout, Taj Washington.
Because Brenden Rice and Shiloh Sanders are both seniors, it is unlikely that fans will ever get to see them face off in a college football game unless their teams somehow meet in a bowl game, which is not looking good, considering that USC is undefeated while the Buffaloes are currently unranked. For now, fans will have to wait to see if Brenden and Shilo cross paths on the NFL gridiron so they can add their own twist to the legacy of what once was the greatest WR vs. DB matchup in the league's history. Who knows, maybe they will become teammates like their fathers once did during a magical Super Bowl season with the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. Interestingly enough, Brenden Rice spent his first two college football seasons with the Colorado Buffaloes, so they missed playing with each other by one year.
Source: YouTube
