SALT LAKE CITY — The elephant in the room had only one timeout left in his trunk for the final 19 minutes and change.

In a close game. On the road. With a backup quarterback.

“(There) was a substitution kind-of situation that went on there,” CU football coach Deion Sanders explained to me after a 23-17 loss to Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium early Saturday night.

“(And) I’ve got to protect us. I can’t let us — we can’t lose five yards. So we (were) gonna have to take a timeout (early in the third quarter). I understand what you’re saying. But in the prominent time, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do at that time.”

A 3-0 start doesn’t become 4-8 without the help of many hands. Including those at the very top. Utah — and, yeah, these are the Utes, it’s what they do — wound up hogging the ball, largely on the ground, for 16 of the game’s final 20 minutes.

With Travis Hunter cooking, the Buffs’ two-way star was stuck cooling his jets on the visiting sideline for 11 of the tilt’s last 15 minutes. Including the last 7:25, after Hunter, who finished with 107 receiving yards and a touchdown catch, had almost single-handedly helped the Buffs claw to within six points.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s obviously frustrating,” said CU freshman quarterback Ryan Staub, the kid who hung tough in his first collegiate start for the Buffs.

“Credit to (the Utes) They had a great game plan as well. So we scored (with 7:31 left) and left enough time. But they executed that last drive just really, really well.”

Yes, the scrappy Buffs — 20-point ‘dogs — got worn down late by a bigger, stronger team, same as it ever was. Yes, missed tackles. Yes, Pac-12 referees would fail just about any eye test conducted by the Colorado DMV.

But the elephant never went away, did it?

Let’s put it like this:

The Buffs in Year 2 of the Deion Sanders Experiment will go as far as Coach Prime, the game-manager, can take them.

Not Coach Prime The CEO.

Not Coach Prime The Recruiter.

Because the talent? Still coming. Four-star wunderkind Kam Mikell joined the party a few days back. And Sanders promised after the game Saturday that Mikell’s just a teaser for the fortnight to come.

We’re all learning about Coach Prime as we go, just as he’s learning about us. We’ve already learned this: Take the man at his word. When he says the transfer portal will be fruitful again, believe him. When he says changes are coming to the coaching staff, believe that, too.

But we’re also learning that he’s a 5-star recruiter with a 5-star name who’s a 2-star game-manager on the sidelines.

And this program isn’t going to get where Sanders wants it to go without more — or better — game day help.

One word: Stanford.

“If you were here a year ago, or if you saw kind of what we came into in the spring, (these kids) won. They won,” Sanders said of his first season at the helm, a 4-8 campaign that ended with six straight defeats. “Maybe not on the scoreboard, week-in, week-out, but they won. And we’ve got to build off the things that they’ve been tremendously successful with.

“We had a chance to win that (Utah) game. I like that. I really like that. Especially without a (veteran) quarterback. I like that.”

He should. And he’s right. But can you imagine how shook this Utes crowd would’ve been if Hunter had time for one more shot with the ball in his hands?

Of course, the peanut gallery on “X” will say after a 1-8 Pac-12 mark in ’22, all that hype landed CU another 1-8 league record in ’23.

Not that simple.

The Buffs played in eight games decided by eight points or fewer. They were in just two last year. (And won one of them, at home vs. Cal. Sorry, Montana Lemonious-Craig. Love ya. That wasn’t a catch.)

Here’s the rub: Of those eight this fall, the Buffs won three. And they ended up 1-5 in those one-score games during league play.

The Pac-12 was about fine quarterback play and fine margins. CU had plenty of the former. After another cold November night, another game close enough to swallow your soul, they’re still looking for the latter.

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