In the new age of college football it has become very clear how important defense is and how it changes games. Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders knows this from his time as a coach but also as a player when he was a lockdown corner in the NFL. 

There is one stat that was clear and had success among several playoff teams and their defenses that defensive coordinator Robert Livingston may want to replicate in 2026. 

The Importance of Third Down

In many ways entire games can come down to one play and who executes better on that play. Many teams can outplay their opponents for large portions of games, but if they fail to succeed on third down all that work can go to waste. 

As a defense, it is very difficult to get off the field by forcing turnovers every drive, and in reality it is unrealistic to expect that. The next best thing is winning on third down to force a punt. All this means is putting three great defensive plays together to get a stop. 

MORE: Breaking Down Colorado’s Updated Running Back Room

MORE: Projected Offensive Depth Chart for the Colorado Buffaloes Next Season

MORE: Deion Sanders Gives Blunt Response to Shedeur Sanders Pro Bowl Controversy

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2025 Playoff Teams Success on Third Down

One of the most important statistics in college football is opponent success rate on third down and many teams that qualified for the College Football Playoff in the 2025-2026 season exemplified that. 

There were seven teams that made the Playoff which ranked in the top 11 of opponent third down conversion percentage. These teams were Texas A&M, Oklahoma, James Madison, Texas Tech, Indiana, Ohio State, and Miami. 

All of these teams held their opponents to a conversion rate of 31.28 percent or less on third down. The two teams that played in the national championship were in this group. 

The national champion Indiana Hoosier held their opponents to a 30.10 rate which ranks eighth in the country. The Miami Hurricanes held their opponents to a rate of 31.28 which put them at 11th in the country. 

Having an elite third down defense definitely has its benefits and can lead to success at the top levels of college football. 

Colorado’s 2025 Defense

During the 2025 campaign, the Buffaloes ranked 34th in the country in third down conversion rate allowed at 35.22 percent. This was with a defense that was near the bottom of the country in rushing defense allowing 222.5 rush yards per game which was 135th in the country

The pass defense for Colorado was much better as it ranked 41st in the nation in passing defense, allowing 203.2 pass yards per game. This was their strength in 2025, but due to how vulnerable the rush defense was at times the distance on third down was short enough to run it. 

2026 Projection

The Buffaloes have looked at their weaknesses on defense, and as a result brought in players to fix them especially on the defensive front and in the linebacker corp. After these additions, the defense has enhanced its ability to create negative plays for offenses and allow the secondary to make plays on the ball in third down situations. 

With the defensive front expected to improve, as well as adding depth and experienced players all over the defense, this could be a year where Colorado takes a step up to become one of the more elite third down defenses. 

Stopping the run is one of the most important things when leading up to third down as well as on third down. If this issue truly has been addressed, the Buffaloes could land themselves into the top 30 in this stat and make a real push for the College Football Playoff. 

A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed 189 decomposing bodies in a building over four years and gave grieving families fake ashes was sentenced to 40 years in state prison Friday.

During the sentencing hearing, family members told Judge Eric Bentley they have had recurring nightmares about decomposing flesh and maggots since learning what happened to their loved ones.

They called defendant Jon Hallford a “monster” and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence of 50 years.

Bentley told Hallford he caused “unspeakable and incomprehensible” harm.

“It is my personal belief that every one of us, every human being, is basically good at the core, but we live in a world that tests that belief every day, and, Mr Hallford, your crimes are testing that belief,” Bentley said.

Hallford apologized before his sentencing and said he would regret his actions for the rest of his life.

“I had so many chances to put a stop to everything and walk away, but I did not,” he said. “My mistakes will echo for a generation. Everything I did was wrong.”

Hallford’s attorney unsuccessfully sought a 30-year sentence, arguing that it was not a crime of violence and he had no prior criminal record.

His former wife, Carie Hallford, who co-owned the Return to Nature Funeral Home, is due to be sentenced 24 April. She faces 25 to 35 years in prison.

Both pleaded guilty in December to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse under an agreement with prosecutors.

During the years they were stashing bodies, the Hallfords spent lavishly, according to court documents. That included purchasing a GMC Yukon SUV and an Infiniti luxury car worth over $120,000 combined, along with $31,000 in cryptocurrency, expensive goods from stores such as Gucci and Tiffany, and on laser body sculpting.

“Clearly this is a crime motivated by greed,” prosecutor Shelby Crow said. The Hallfords charged more than $1,200 per customer, and the money the couple spent on luxury items would have covered the cost to cremate all of the bodies many times over, Crow said.

The Hallfords also pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges after prosecutors said they cheated the government out of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era small business aid. Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison in that case, and Carie Hallford’s sentencing is pending.

A plea agreement in the corpse abuse case calls for the state prison sentence to be served concurrently with the federal sentence.

One of the family members who spoke at the hearing was Kelly Mackeen, whose mother’s remains were handled by Return to Nature.

“I’m a daughter whose mother was treated like yesterday’s trash and dumped in a site left to rot with hundreds of others,” Mackeen said. “I’m heartbroken, and I ask God every day for grace.”

As she and others spoke of their grief, Jon Hallford sat at a table to their right, wearing orange jail attire and looking directly ahead. The courtroom’s wooden benches were full of relatives of the deceased and also journalists.

The Hallfords stored the bodies in a building in the small town of Penrose, south of Colorado Springs, from 2019 until 2023, when investigators responded to reports of a stench from the building.

Bodies were found throughout the building, some stacked on top of each other, with swarms of bugs and decomposition fluid covering the floors, investigators said. The remains – including adults, infants and fetuses – were stored at room temperature.

The bodies were identified over months with fingerprints, DNA and other methods.

Investigators believe the Hallfords gave families dry concrete that resembled ashes.

After families learned that what they received and then spread or kept at home were not actually their loved ones’ remains, many said it undid their grieving process, while others had nightmares and struggled with guilt.

One of the recovered bodies was that of a former army sergeant first class who was thought to have been buried at a veterans’ cemetery, FBI agent Andrew Cohen said.

When investigators exhumed the wooden casket at the cemetery, they found the remains of a person of a different gender inside, he said. The veteran, who was not identified in court, was later given a funeral with full military honors at Pikes Peak national cemetery.

The corpse abuse revelations spurred changes to Colorado’s lax funeral home regulations. Lawmakers passed a bill in May 2024 that gave regulators greater enforcement power over funeral homes and require the routine inspection of facilities including after one shutters.

The AP previously reported that the Hallfords missed tax payments, were evicted from one of their properties and were sued for unpaid bills, according to public records and interviews with people who worked with them.

In a rare decision last year, Judge Bentley rejected previous plea agreements between the Hallfords and prosecutors that called for up to 20 years in prison. Family members of the deceased said the agreements were too lenient.