It probably wasn’t how they drew it up, but Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes emerged victoriously from a dogfight against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, 31-26.
The Buffs and Bizon went toe-to-toe for four quarters and produced the most exciting game of college football’s defacto opening night — a contest that ended with a Hail Mary attempt that came up just a couple of yards short of giving NDSU an upset victory on the road.
Nonetheless, Coach Prime and the Buffaloes are now 1-0 to begin the 2024 season, and for the first time since October of 2023, they’re coming off a win. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
“Some of you are upset we got the W, some of you are really mad that we didn’t get the L, gotta wait until next week,” Sanders said in his post-game press conference on Thursday.
It almost wasn’t a “W” for the Buffs, though. With possession of the ball and a 1st-and-10 with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter, Shedeur Sanders threw a deep incompletion to wide receiver LaJohntay Wester. This was following a penalty from NDSU on the previous play, and with one timeout left, the Bizon were out of time as long as Colorado could run the ball on three consecutive plays.
However, the incompletion stopped the clock, and a few plays later, North Dakota State had the ball with around 30 seconds left — and that was nearly enough to win the game on a Hail Mary.
So, why the deep ball? Well, according to Sanders, it was Shedeur being a good teammate rather than thinking about clock management.
“Shedeur is such a good kid, sometimes it costs him, because at the end of the game we just want to run the ball,” Sanders said. “And he took a shot to LaJohntay because he wanted LaJohntay to have a big play because you got the other two guys, the dogs having a big day, and he knows he’s going to have a one-on-one matchup. He just didn’t put it out there far enough. I’m like ‘Dawg, come on, Dawg, not right now. It’s not time to be the good guy right now, it’s time to put this game away.’ But that’s what that was. He wanted what he wanted, let’s just put it like that. Usually he hits it.”
Coach Prime made sure to let his star quarterback know that next time, it’s probably better to just hand the ball off.
“You see that big thing up there? That’s a clock. Those numbers running down right there, that’s for you,” Deion Sanders joked that he has to tell his son. “Be smart. Be smart.”
Shedeur also acknowledged that he’ll need to manage things differently in the future.
“It was something I definitely would learn from,” Shedeur said. “There’s not too many mistakes you’re going to see me make twice.”
On the night, Shedeur Sanders ended 26-34 for four touchdowns and one fluke interception. The two biggest recipients of his monster night were Jimmy Horn Jr. (7 rec, 198 yds, 1 TD) and Travis Hunter (7 rec, 132 yds, 3 TD), who combined for all four of the Buffs’ touchdowns.
Despite a tale of two halves from the defense, this game was way too close for comfort for Colorado, even if it did come against a team that’s won nine national titles at the FCS level.
“You ever felt like you won, but you didn’t win?” Sanders said.
“I’m going to try my best to hold back my anger, but we got the W.”
