BOULDER — Coach Prime needs to sign that security guard.
With 13:30 left in a 42-17 loss to Arizona State, CU Buffs fans were treated to the best tackle on the evening. Too bad it was by a guy wearing an orange vest.
As CU trailed, 28-17, some doofus in a Julian Lewis No. 10 jersey raced from out of nowhere and onto the logo at midfield. Fake Ju Ju then began shaking his booty for the less-than-capacity Folsom Field crowd.
What happened next was your defensive highlight of the evening. Which should also tell you how the evening went, more or less.
Our field-stormer got in about five wiggles when a CU security staffer, sprinting at full speed, laid him out with a near-perfect form tackle.
The crowd went nuts. And given the tackling they’d seen by the guys in the black jerseys and pads, could you blame them?
The Sun Devils (8-3, 6-2 Big 12) didn’t just run wild. They ran with the rage of a team reclaiming lost lunch money. Arizona State had 355 yards on the ground. Sun Devils tailback Raleek Brown accounted for 255 of them on 22 carries. It was the seventh game this season, and fifth time at home, that the Buffs (3-8, 1-7) gave up at least 200 rush yards to the opposition. And the third tilt of at least 300 surrendered on the ground.
Did we mention ASU also turned it over four times?
The Buffs were plus-three in the takeaway column. Sun Devils QB Jeff Sims was — well, pretty much Nebraska Conrhusker Jeff Sims (11-of-24 passing, 206 yards).
The hosts lost by 24.
That takes some doing.
That needs some changing.
“Start with me,” said third-year Buffs coach Deion Sanders, whose record at CU slipped to 16-20 overall, 9-17 in league play. “It’s everything.”
It’s personnel. It’s depth. It’s scheme. It’s chemistry. It’s philosophy. It’s coaching.
Oh, man, is it coaching.
You don’t know what you’re going to get from these Buffs. More to the point, it’s not clear Coach Prime knows what he’s going to get from the Buffs — play to play, week to week.
“We’re not happy with where we are,” Sanders said. “Not at all.”
It’s not effort. Not generally. After Tawfiq Byard left with an injury, the Buffs by the second quarter were without their top three safeties and two top boundary cornerbacks.
Yet the scrapping never stopped. Trailing 21-14 with 7:26 left in the third quarter, the beat-up Buffs defense forced a turnover, with Shaun Myers returning a Sims fumble to the Sun Devils’ 9-yard-line.
Then the calls got weird. With goal to go, the Buffs ran it on first down with Dre’Lon Miller for 3 yards. On second down, they handed off to Miller again for 4 more. On third-and-goal from the 2, Lewis dropped back and was sacked for a 3-yard loss. A delay of game call pushed the hosts into fourth-and-goal from the 10 and a 28-yard field goal by Alejandro Mata in his Folsom Field farewell.
Only in a 21-17 game, it didn’t take long for sublime to supplant the ridiculous. On the penultimate play of the third quarter, ASU’s Brown broke off a 20-yard jaunt on first down to his own 46, only for Buffs safety John Slaughter to poke the ball loose. Teammate Isaiah Hardge snapped it up to give the hosts the rock right back.
Alas, as these Buffs have proven, they can’t have nice things. Lewis bailed the offense out of second-and-17 with a screen pass to Sincere Brown on third-and-23 for a 33-yard gain.
So far, so good, right? Now, keep this in mind: At this point, the game was midway through the fourth quarter. CU was down four, at home, and driving. Dallan Hayden, the Buffs’ RB1, was averaging 6.5 yards per carry on his first 10 totes. Micah Welch, his backfield mate, was averaging 12 yards a pop.
So on first down, CU wideout Ronald Coleman was handed the ball and a lane for a 12-yard gain, and …
Wait.
Ronald Coleman?
Walk-on wide receiver?
First career carry?
Yep. Yep. And (checks notes) … yep.
Sure enough, Coleman fumbled, giving the rock right back to the Sun Devils at the ASU 12.
The guests didn’t refuse this gift. Brown broke free and zipped up the right boundary for an 88-yard score that put ASU up 27-17 pending the extra point. Warm up the bus.
“The gentleman who fumbled,” Sanders said after the game. “That’s on me.”
Yep. So is the crowd turning the clock back to 2022, electing to entertain themselves. So is Fake Ju Ju, racing to midfield untouched, dancing like no one’s watching, trying to save another lost Flatiron night.
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