Paul Finebaum is walking back some comments he made to Stephen A. Smith about Colorado earlier this year.

Finebaum acknowledged his miss-step during a segment on First Take on Tuesday alongside Smith. Finebaum and Smith previously had a heated exchange over how the Buffs would perform in 2024.

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, Finebaum said he believed Colorado would miss the postseason altogether. Now, he’s close to believing Deion Sanders is a coach of the year candidate. That admission came with an apology to each of Sanders, Colorado and Smith.

“This is where I say to you, ‘I should have kept my mouth shut a couple weeks ago,'” Finebaum said. “I came after you, I came after Prime, and here I am scraping the egg off of my face. And I’m glad to be doing it because this is a fascinating story.

“If they can continue on this path, I’m not issuing qualifiers, I’m just saying, ‘if’, then Stephen A., I think your story about Coach of the Year is dead on,” Finebaum said.

Finebaum’s retraction comes a couple days after Colorado picked up a big road win over Central Florida on Saturday. The Buffs were significant underdogs in Vegas against UCF, but still came away with a 48-21 win over the Golden Knights.

Here’s the full clip of Finebaum, Smith and Shannon Sharpe talking about Colorado on ESPN: