SAN ANTONIO— The Colorado Buffaloes (9-4, 7-2 Big 12) lost to the Brigham Young University Cougars (11-2, 7-2 Big 12) 36-14 in a blowout ending to what was one of the most successful seasons in recent team history.
The traveling Colorado fanbase helped Colorado start off strong as they held BYU to a three-and-out to open the game. Despite the big plays that should have generated momentum, Colorado’s offense could not capitalize when given the chance. An incompletion on fourth down led to Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter getting into quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ face in frustration that he was not the target and CU’s opening offensive drive resulted in a turnover on downs.
That led to BYU’s first points of the game; a strong drive was capped off by a one-yard LJ Martin touchdown to put the Cougars on the board with a 7-0 lead halfway through the first quarter.
In response, the Buffs put up two false starts and Sanders took a massive sack to force a Buffs punt on fourth and 24 which BYU followed up with a field goal. To rub salt in the wound, the Cougars also recovered a surprise onside kick that silenced the Buffs fans and energized the BYU fans in the sold-out Alamodome.
Cornerback DJ McKinney did his best to stunt the momentum as he came down with an interception, but once again, the Buffs’ offense was inept. Sanders took a 20-yard sack to push Colorado to the edge of kicker Alejandro Mata’s range and he missed from 47 yards to keep the Buffs off the board.
On the subsequent drive, defensive tackle Anquin Barnes Jr. picked off a shovel pass to bring some life back into the Buffs, but the Colorado offense refused to put together a successful drive. Punter Mark Vassett was brought on the field again, and Cougars returner Parker Kingston brought it back for a 64-yard punt return touchdown to make it 17-0.
More Colorado mistakes and a complete lack of offensive functionality allowed the Cougars to go into halftime with a 20-0 lead following a buzzer-beating 54-yard field goal.
At the halftime mark, Colorado had only 61 yards to BYU’s 152, three first downs to BYU’s 11, and 2.8 yards per play to BYU’s 4.6. It was complete and utter domination.
Unfortunately for the black-and-gold faithful that traveled out to support their school in its first bowl game appearance in four years, that trend did not stop in the second half.
To open the half, Sanders threw an interception that halted any hopes of an opening drive and momentum-building touchdown to keep them in the game. BYU responded with another touchdown to make it 27-0.
Colorado showed some life as Sanders threw a 42-yard touchdown to Hunter and safety Cam’ron Silmon-Craig caught an interception in the end zone, but Colorado continued to fail to put points on the board and BYU could not be stopped on offense.
Sanders would throw another interception in response to a BYU touchdown that made the game 33-7 while BYU put up another field goal with just under six minutes remaining to make it 36-7.
As a consolation for their efforts, Sanders and the Buffs got one last touchdown with a two-yard Sav’ell Smalls reception.
The Buffaloes' offense was completely dysfunctional throughout the game. Despite three forced turnovers, Colorado could only muster 14 points in the last game of the Shedeur Sanders era, which was filled with high-scoring games and highlight reel plays.
Colorado only converted on three-of-nine third downs and only nine first downs. Along with that, they could only manage two rushing yards.
“They played a heck of a football game,” Colorado head coach Deion Sanders said of BYU’s victorious effort. “If we’re gonna get our butts kicked, I’d rather get a butt kicking from a coach who I love him to life. [Kalani Sitake] is a good man.”
With multiple recruits in attendance for this game, there was still reason for optimism for the future.
“It’s been wonderful seeing the guys come in with a hunger,” said Silmon-Craig of the new recruits. “I talked to one guy, I was like ‘alright so, it’s your first time getting yelled at by Coach Prime, so you’re getting broke in.’”
“It’s meant everything just to be here and play for this wonderful tradition, play for Miss Peggy, play for all these wonderful fans, it’s been everything,” he said of what his two years and Colorado have meant to him.
To follow up the disastrous 1-11 2022 season, Shedeur was at the forefront of a 13-12 two-year campaign that included a bowl game. Despite the bitter end to the year, Shedeur has orchestrated the revival of a program that was epically failing.
“It felt great representing Colorado and bringing it back to where it was in the past,” Shedeur said of his time at Colorado. “And we kind of re-laid the foundation of the program so now the other players are able to come in and take off and pick up from where we left off.”
In his last game with the black and gold, Hunter continued to be a gamechanger with 106 receiving yards, a receiving touchdown, and four tackles. The two-way Heisman winner has cemented himself as not just one of the best players in program history, but one of the best players in recent college football history.
Colorado now has lofty expectations as they get ready for life without the Sanders brothers and Travis Hunter. Along with them, big-time contributors such as LaJohntay Wester and Jimmy Horn Jr. are also moving on to the next level.
“We’ve established expectation,” Coach Sanders said of what has been established by this corps of players. “So now you expect us to perform a certain way, you expect us to win, you expect us to be exciting, you expect us to be a lot more disciplined than we displayed today. You just have expectations for us now.”
Coach Sanders will return to coach his first season without his sons on his team, and with five-star quarterback Julian Lewis in line to replace Shedeur, those expectations will be high.
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