Having started his college football career at Colorado, USC wide receiver Brenden Rice said he believed the Buffaloes were a "sleeping giant" of a program that just needed to be awakened.

"And Deion Sanders was able to come wake them up, and I'm happy for that," Rice said.

Sanders and his Buffs have been one of the stories of the college football season, coming off a 1-11 season, having the new coaching staff turn over the majority of the roster in one offseason and then starting 3-0 and climbing into the national rankings a 42-6 loss at Oregon last week.

Whatever Colorado (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) does over the rest of this fall, it will remain interesting with Sanders at the helm, but this game against No. 8-ranked USC (4-0, 2-0 Pac-12) will reveal a lot about where this season is headed for the Buffs.

Another lopsided loss like the one last week to Oregon and it will become clear that for all the buzz the Buffs have created they are still early in the rebuild process. Of course, if Colorado is able to upset USC, well, that's another story.

The Trojans and Buffs have a prime television window at 9 a.m. PT Saturday from Folsom Field (10 local time in Boulder, Colorado, and 1 p.m. on the East Coast).

To get you set for kickoff, here is a breakdown of what USC is up against this week ...

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Coach: Deion Sanders, 1st season (30-7 career, including three seasons at Jackson State)

So far this season: Colorado turned the college football spotlight on itself with a 45-42 season-opening road win over TCU, the national runner-up from last season. The Buffs then beat Nebraska, 36-14, and Colorado State, 43-35, before packed home crowds before the 42-6 loss at Oregon last weekend. That knocked the Buffs from No. 19 to out of the national rankings.

Series history: USC is undefeated all time against Colorado at 16-0.

Colorado has the most one-dimensional offense in the country, but that one dimension is pretty damn good.

Offensive coordinator Sean Lewis was the head coach at Kent State the last five seasons, where he showed his ability to build proficient offenses. He's garnered more attention this fall for what he's done with the Buffs passing attack, led by quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who is completing 76.9 percent of his passes for 1,410 yards, 11 touchdowns and 1 interception.

The Buffs are without five-star two-way talent Travis Hunter, who continues to recover from an injury sustained in Week 3 vs. Colorado State. But they still have plenty of weapons in the passing game, led by wideouts Xavier Weaver (34 catches for 461 yards and 2 TDs) and Jimmy Horn Jr. (27-243-2). Running back Dylan Edwards has also been dynamic in the passing game, with 17 catches for 169 yards and 3 TDs.

The problem is Colorado has the least productive rushing offense out of all 133 FBS teams, averaging just 55.75 yards per game behind a porous offensive line that is giving up 5.75 sacks per game (second-worst nationally).

This is what coach Deion Sanders said this week when asked about committing more to the run game:

"That's just like asking your wife are you committed to a good meal every night if she can't cook. We've got to be able to cook the meal before we could commit to it. We gotta be able to cook the running game before we commit to it," he said.

The Buffs also have one of the most vulnerable defenses in the country, which was exposed in a big way last week as Oregon piled up 522 yards, completed 30 of 35 passes (with 1 INT) and averaged 6.3 yards over 38 rushing attempts.

None of that bodes well for a matchup against USC's prolific offense.

Safeties Trevor Woods and Cam'Ron Simon-Craig have 2 interceptions each to lead an opportunistic secondary, but the Buffs are going to be without Travis Hunter at cornerback and starting safety Myles Slusher while safety Shilo Sanders (26 tackles, 1 INT return for TD, 1 forced fumble) is questionable.

Outside linebacker Jordan Domineck (2 sacks) and defensive end Taijh Alston (1.5) are the only Buffs with multiple sacks.

Deion Sanders had a substantial rebuilding job to do on both sides of the ball and filled the roster with a lot of players from lower levels of college football or guys who hadn't yet proved much elsewhere, so it's not a surprise that this roster has some obvious holes.

USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch:

"Just really impressive and the film speaks for itself. And I’m sure they’re frustrated to miss some opportunities this past weekend, but in totality -- you go through cut ups and everything else – I think you see an explosive offense and a quarterback and someone with an 80% completion percentage, which obviously raises eyebrows. The ability to extend plays and still throw the ball downfield is obviously alarming as you watch it, and some skill guys to get that ball to, so again, very impressive. You so badly want to say they’re not good at X, they’re not good at Y, that’s just not been the case as you go through the video. So, very impressive at the quarterback position, but he’s got some weapons to get the ball to."

USC offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Josh Henson:

"They're multiple in what they do, they can kind of attack you from anywhere. This scheme, I've seen having coached in the SEC before. This kind of comes out of the Alabama tree. They're going to play down the middle of you up front. They're not going to go around you, they're going to play right htrough you, so we've got to be good at playing through the middle of people.They've got a good pass rusher on t he edge, No. 44 (OLB Jordan Domineck), he's a talented guy. I think one of their best charactersitics is just how hard they're playing as a defense. They're running to the ball, they swarm, they play very hard and so obviously they'll be cranked up with their atmospehre Saturday and we've got to be ready to go bring an intense game to the field."

Oregon scored touchdowns on six of its first seven possessions last week against Colorado with the lone exception being an interception. The Ducks had their 42 points with 9 minutes left in the third quarter in an utterly dominating performance.

USC's pass rush vs. Colorado's offensive line

Again, the Buffs give up the second-most sacks of any team in the country and Oregon racked up 6 of its 7 sacks during the second and third quarters to put the game away last week.

USC sacked Arizona State's Drew Pyne 7 times in the fourth quarter alone last Saturday and finished with 8 sacks and 14 tackles for loss overall.

The Trojans need to win this game at the line of scrimmage.