BOULDER — Coach Prime, you’re running out of time.
Time to fix clock management mistakes. Time to get the Buffs over the line, late, against a good team. Time to salvage the roughest stretch of CU’s football season.
But first, let’s get the elephant out of the way. Is there a bigger mismatch in college football right now than Deion Sanders vs. the clock?
CU’s 24-21 loss to No. 25 BYU turned into Georgia Tech II, in all the worst ways. Rushing quarterback running to daylight. Two timeouts burning a hole in Coach Prime’s pocket while a better running team bleeds out the clock.
With 6:45 left and CU trailing by three, the Buffs called a timeout. CU then came out of that to punt, which was … interesting. BYU burned 4:39 of what was left, Buffs QB Kaidon Salter threw a pick with 50 seconds to go, and that was that. Again.
Could someone get Coach Prime a timeout coach? A time manager?
Imagine where this CU season could be if the Buffs (2-3, 0-2 Big 12) learned how to finish games as well as they’ve been starting them.
Mind you, that won’t change much while the QB Keeper is still CU’s killer. At some point, the Buffs are going to make an opposing signal-caller earn it on the ground. Although Heaven only knows when.
BYU freshman QB Bear Bachmeier was last seen running down 10th Street, untouched, late Saturday night. This was after the Cougars signal-caller torched CU for 98 yards on 15 carries while completing 19 of 27 throws.
Tech QB Haynes King ran for 156 yards and three touchdowns. Houston signal-caller Conner Weigman ran for 83 and two scores. Take away two kneel-downs for minus-6 yards that ate clock at the very end and Bachmeier rambled for 104.
The latter looked like a baby Tebow out there, only without the funky arm action. At 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, he shifts to escape mode in about half a second, always leaning forward, legs always churning.
At one point late in the third quarter, the Cougars QB escaped what looked like about three Buffs defenders on second-and-10 at the CU 12, chugging and dancing what should’ve been a 3-yard loss into an 8-yard gain. Two plays later, on fourth-and-2 at the Buffs’ 4, Bachmeier found wideout Chase Roberts for a short toss in the end zone to give BYU its first lead of the night, 16-14 — a run of three straight unanswered scores.
He wasn’t done. Down 21-17, Bachmeier lined up on third-and-17 at his 35 with 52 seconds left in the third stanza. The frosh tucked, zoomed and slid for 16 yards, largely on his own. BYU converted the fourth-and-1 on the next play, extending the drive — one that finished with a 32-yard Cougars jet sweep for what turned out to be the game-winning score.
“That play,” CU safety Tawfiq Byard said, “is killing me right now.”
Don’t look at the October fight card, friends. Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht just ran for three touchdowns against Arizona. Utah’s got a QB who carries it 11 times per tilt. To start November, Wildcats QB Noah Fifita was responsible for as many rushing scores (three) going into the weekend as all of the Buffs’ tailbacks had put up combined.
It’s a shame, too, given how CU began the evening with its collective hair on fire. And that might’ve sold their tempo short — the Buffs raged as if someone had made them all watch a play-by-play of last December’s Alamo Bowl on a 10-hour loop. With no bathroom breaks.
The Buffs racked up 91 yards on their first eight first downs. CU’s first quarter-and-a-half of offense was arguably its best start in the two-plus seasons of offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur’s sometimes, um, unpopular reign.
The hosts weren’t just quick. They were clinical. CU marched 75 yards on 11 plays to start the game, with Salter conducting the offense at a hurry-up tempo. The faster CU went, the more comfortable its signal-caller looked, putting the bigger Cougars on their heels.
On second-and-goal from the BYU 3, Salter backpedaled to his left, spun away from a Cougars defender, cut back left and weaved through traffic to the end zone, giving CU a 6-0 lead five minutes into the game before the extra point.
CU’s second possession was even more frenetic than the first, spanning 62 yards on four plays and a touchdown in 83 seconds. Running back Micah Welch exploded for 27 yards on the first play of the drive, while wideout/all-purpose rocket Dre’Lon Miller took the direct snap out of the Wildcat formation for a 15-yard gain from the BYU 35, then a 5-yard score with 5:08 left in the first quarter that extended CU’s lead to 13-0.
Third drive: Two sacks. No points.
“We had a tremendous amount of opportunities, but we didn’t cash in on them,” Sanders reflected after the game, “and sometimes it felt like the moment was just too big for some of our athletes.”
Too big for some of the coaches, too. Especially at the end.
