Dan Lanning spoke the truth about Colorado football earlier this year when he was asked about the university leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12.

“Not a big reaction,” he said before the season. “I mean, I’m trying to remember what they won to affect this conference. I don’t remember. Do you remember them winning anything? I don’t remember.”

Those comments made headlines then. And they’ve resurfaced again this week with No. 10 Oregon preparing to host No. 19 Colorado at Autzen Stadium.

Throughout Colorado’s 0-3 start, Deion Sanders has used anything and everything as fuel to motivate his team. They’ve taken things personally and adopted his “us against the world” mentality.

So far, they’re 3-0. It’s hard to argue with the results.

Against TCU, the Buffs let out an offseason’s worth of frustration after they’d spent the summer months being told this experiment wouldn’t work.

Against Nebraska in a rivalry game, NU coach Matt Rhule’s offseason comment that he wouldn’t have a camera follow him and his program everywhere was taken as disrespect toward Sanders — whose son has documented every step of the way on YouTube.

Against Colorado State, comments from coach Jay Norvell that his mother taught him to take off his hat and sunglasses when speaking to adults was taken as a direct shot at Sanders.

With the Buffs turning their attention toward the Ducks, many have wondered if Sanders will latch onto Lanning’s offseason comments.

“At the end of the day, obviously I wasn’t talking about Deion’s team,” Lanning said Monday night. “I was talking about the past and the future for our team, but if that serves as material for them, great.”

But he certainly doesn’t regret what he said.

“No. I don’t regret anything that I’ve said for this program,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to have any bearing on the game or the success of the game.”

To that end, if the Buffs did choose to use those comments as fuel for the fire now, it would look a little strange. Travis Hunter — one of Colorado’s very best players — has already stated he had no issues with Lanning’s stance.

“What he’s saying is we still gotta prove ourselves. Just because we got a lot of guys, it don’t mean anything. We’ve still got a lot to prove to people,” Hunter said before the season. “He’s not saying anything bad, he’s just saying we didn’t win anything. Yeah, we know we didn’t win anything, but we coming.”

Kickoff on Saturday is set for 12:30 p.m. PT on ABC.