Game at a Glance
Matchup: Colorado Buffaloes at Utah Utes
Kickoff: 8:15 p.m. MT
Where: Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City
Capacity: 51,444 (FieldTurf)
TV: ESPN
Radio: KOA (850 AM/94.1 FM)
Odds: Utah by 13.5
Series: Utah leads 35-33-3
Pressure was on the Colorado Buffaloes going into an Oct. 11 matchup against then-No. 22 Iowa State at Folsom Field.
Head coach Deion Sanders and his players knew the trajectory of their season could hinge on that result.
“It was kind of vital (to get the win),” Sanders said after his team’s 24-17 victory that day. “I mean, your season could go this way or that way.”
At 3-4 (1-3 Big 12), there’s still pressure on the Buffs. They’ve got to go 3-2 in the last five games to reach bowl eligibility. There was a sense, however, that the win against Iowa State turned the tide on the season. It snapped a two-game losing streak and potentially created some momentum.
Now, the Buffs have a chance to find out if that game two weeks ago was a season-changing result as they visit Utah on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
“Tremendous,” Sanders said this week of the impact a win against Iowa State could have. “Because you gotta understand, you believe. You believe. The thing about it, we played this team (Utah) a year ago and we were successful. So let’s start right there.”
Since the Buffs and Utes joined the Pac-12 together in 2011, Utah has dominated the series. CU and Utah played 57 times from 1903-1962, but then didn’t square off for 49 years until 2011. CU won that game 14 years ago in Salt Lake City, but the Utes have gone 11-2 against the Buffs since.
Under Sanders, however, the Buffs have fared well. They lost a close game, 23-17, to the Utes in 2023 in Salt Lake City and rolled past them 49-24 last year in Boulder.
While this is arguably a better Utah team than in the past two years, those results give Sanders and his players confidence.
“We believe,” Sanders said. “It’s not like we’re going into that game not believing that we can win, because we’ve done it. So we’re gonna try our best to do it again with a greater margin. That’s the game plan. That’s how we go about it.
“(The Utes) are a good team, well-coached team, and I love everything about ’em, but we’re going in there with one thing in mind and that’s to come out dominant.”
On paper, the Utes are the better team. They’ve been ranked as high as No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 and sat at No. 23 before a three-point loss to rival BYU last week.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham isn’t overlooking the Buffs, though. CU has four losses, but those four teams are a combined 25-3. CU had a chance in the fourth quarter to win three of those games.
“They are a much better football team than their record indicates, I can tell you that for certain,” Whittingham said of the Buffs. “We’ve got to be at our best and be ready.”
So do the Buffs. They finally beat a quality opponent when they knocked off Iowa State, but have to be even better to get a win in one of the Big 12’s toughest road environments.
“You need to win and be consistent in what you did to win those particular games,” Sanders said. “And what we did to lose those games, identify it and try to invoke change.”
The Buffs believe the change began happening before the Iowa State game. Now they have a chance to prove that wasn’t an aberration.
“We’ve most definitely been getting better, and there’s still room for improvement on that,” quarterback Kaidon Salter said. “But overall, as a team, I just know that this team right here, we never quit. All those games that we’ve lost, we always bring the fight, and every game that we did lose was always a close game that just shows how destined we are to go out there and try to win these games.
“We have a team full of dawgs that just don’t quit. We don’t give up, and that’s something that we just got to continue to keep working at and being better at on and off the field, just not quitting and going out there playing our best every single play, one play at a time.”