Harrison Simeon and Leo Rivera IV break down Colorado's 31-26 win over North Dakota State.
Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. had a career night in the black and gold’s 2024 debut, sneaking past the Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse North Dakota State Bison on Thursday night.
Off the field, however, Horn has been fighting a different battle.
“Jimmy is playing for pop, man,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said after the 31-26 win. “Jimmy just came back from court seeing his father’s sentence, man. And he’s gonna turn around and flip it and come out there and give you that?... That keeps him going because he’s trying to make it right for pops when he gets out.”
Horn’s father has been incarcerated for multiple years on drug-related charges, though Horn and Coach Prime have continuously pushed for his freedom. With a heavy heart, the speedster reeled in seven catches for a career-high 198 yards and a touchdown.
Behind his inspirational performance, the usual stars fell in line. Senior quarterback Shedeur Sanders completed 26-of-34 passing attempts, reaching 445 passing yards while tossing four touchdown passes and a once-in-a-season type of interception. Alongside Horn, Sanders found two-way superstar Travis Hunter for seven catches too, racking up 132 yards and tying a school record with three unreal touchdowns to begin his junior year.
Still, the big showings didn’t come without an early fight from the Bison and their quarterbacks. The Buffs knew that would happen.
“Both of those kids (Cam Miller and Cole Payton) played well,” Sanders said. “They did what they came to do. They were effective, not only throwing the ball, especially between the numbers, but running the football…They did a phenomenal job executing the offense.”
To open the game, the Bison’s offense was a well-oiled machine, scoring on their first three drives after taking the opening kickoff. NDSU struck first blood with a field goal, then put up back-to-back touchdowns. While the defense allowed the Buffs to score touchdowns in their first two drives in eight total plays, Hunter going for a 41-yard catch and run and Horn’s for 69 yards, a turnover on downs on CU’s third drive marked the first scoreless drive of the game. NDSU turned that into a field goal, taking a commanding 20-14 lead just under five minutes before halftime. Colorado punted a drive later.
With the fear of caving into the nation’s doubts, the Buffs’ defense stood on their head for the first time all night, forcing an NDSU punt right back. Having 56 seconds to maneuver a drive from their own 2-yard line, Sanders and Horn got into Bison territory just before the break to settle for a last-second field goal to cut the lead to three points.
In the second half, the back-and-forth scoring stopped.
While Colorado’s opening drive resulted in the aforementioned wonky interception, a pass hitting a fallen NDSU defender’s leg before finding the hands of linebacker Nick Kubitz for a touchback, a quick stop from the defense was all CU needed. The Buffs only gave up one more score for the rest of the ball game, though to Coach Prime's disliking.
“It’s complimentary football,” Shedeur said about the change in defensive energy after the break. “When we need (the defense) to show up, they’ll be there. When (the offense) got to show up, we’ll be there…We take these drives so seriously. You don't know what play could have been the play to decide the game.”
Sanders then found Hunter two more times in the endzone, both jump balls. The first drew “oohs” and “ahs,” but the second left jaws on the floor. Hunter lined up outside, ready for a fade on third and goal. Sanders placed the ball on the NDSU defender, the defender’s arms wrapped around Hunter while pushing the CU wideout down. Suddenly, the ball was in Hunter’s hands, Colorado leading 31-20 after the extra point.
While Gus Johnson wasn’t on the broadcast to recreate another iconic, season-opening call for Hunter, the play spoke for itself.
“Always,” Hunter said when Sanders was asked if Hunter was “open when covered.”
“Travis always open, because he understands how he's being covered,” his QB added.
Miller and the Bison fought to reclaim the lead, though the one score was all they got. It came at the feet of Miller, who ran 20 yards to the endzone to make it 31-26 game late in the fourth. It was his third touchdown of the game, the second he had run in. As a passer, he completed 18-of-22 passes for 277 yards.
After the two-point conversion came up short with just over two minutes to play, the Buffs mostly wasted the rest of the game clock. A first down incompletion forced CU to punt, but NDSU couldn’t get within Miller’s throwing range within the 31-second time frame, deeming the last-second Hail Mary completion useless.
“I'm excited for a win, but there's definitely situations in that game I personally could have handled better,” Sanders said. “Really, the main goal tonight is just recover a little bit and watch the film and see what we gotta improve.”
Those improvements will be displayed in the upcoming rivalry matchup against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday, Sept. 7. Kickoff is 5:30 p.m. MT on NBC.
Cover photo by Roberto Patrick Gerra/Sko Buffs Sports
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