BOULDER — Coach Prime needs to sign that security guard.
The Buffs turned the clock back on Saturday night. Only on Senior Day 2025, that clock somehow landed on 2022. As Arizona State backup tailback Jason Brown Jr. capped a 21-0 fourth quarter for the Sun Devils, you could almost hear the ghosts of Karl Dorrell and Maddox Kopp cackling in the autumn wind.
“We’re not happy where we are,” said third-year coach Deion Sanders, whose Buffs (3-8, 1-7) dropped their fourth straight contest, a 42-17 thumping at the hands of the Fighting Sparkys. “Not at all.”
Neither are the natives, Coach. We’ve somehow reached the point where the locals cease to be entertained by the product and decide, with all the liquid courage of an English soccer crowd, to amuse themselves.
With 13:30 left, Buffs fans were treated to the best stop of the evening. Too bad it was by a guy wearing an orange vest.
As CU trailed, 28-17, some doofus in a LaJohntay Wester No. 10 jersey raced from out of nowhere and onto the logo at midfield. Fake Wester decided to shake his booty for the less-than-capacity crowd.
Our field-stormer got in about six wiggles when a CU security staffer, sprinting at full speed, laid him out with a near-perfect, two-armed tackle.
The crowd went nuts. And given the technique 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 piled up 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 gave up at least 200 rush yards to the opposition. And the third tilt in which they surrendered at least 300 on the ground.
Did we mention ASU also turned it over four times? And that Sun Devils QB Jeff Sims was — well, pretty much Nebraska Cornhusker Jeff Sims (11-of-24 passing, 206 yards)? Did we point out the fact that the Buffs were plus-three in the takeaway column? And still lost by 24?
That takes some doing.
“Start with me,” said 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 Sanders knows what he’s going to get from the Buffs, either — play to play, week to week.
“We’re doing a good job,” Coach Prime said, “of beating ourselves.”
Only they’re doing it from the top down. You can see the effort. You just can’t decipher a plan. Or a point. After Tawfiq Byard left with an injury, the Buffs by the second quarter found themselves without their top three safeties and two top boundary cornerbacks. They kept swinging.
“There (are) no excuses,” Sanders countered. “Everybody’s injured.”
To wit: 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.
From there, though, it 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, freshman QB Julian 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 ridiculousness to supplant the sublime. 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 a lifeline.
Alas, as Sanders’ third CU team keeps proving, they can’t have nice things. Lewis — who said later he’s a “Buff through and through” and doesn’t plan to leave — bailed the offense out of third-and-23 with a screen pass to Sincere Brown 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. Why get cute?
But cute they got. On first down, CU’s Ronald Coleman was handed the ball and a lane for a 12-yard gain, and …
Wait. Ronald Coleman?
Walk-on wide receiver?
First-ever CU 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. “That’s on me.”
So was the mess. So was Fake Wester, racing to midfield untouched, dancing like no one’s watching, trying to save another lost November Flatiron night.
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