BOULDER — The kids wanted Ju Ju. The moment wanted JoJo.
With 1:55 left in a seven-point game, CU faced a third-and-16 at its 29-yard line. You give the ball back to Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht, and anything could happen. Georgia Tech proved that. So did BYU.
Buffs coach Deion Sanders and Pat Shurmur, his offensive coordinator and play-caller, didn’t give the Cyclones that chance.
CU QB Kaidon Salter dropped back and found wide receiver Joseph “JoJo” Williams streaking open over the middle of the field. The Buffs quarterback nailed Williams in stride for a 38-yard gain to the Iowa State 33. And that was that.
“Had to go get it,” Sanders said of the decision, and the catch, that helped his Buffs knock off No. 22 Iowa State, 24-17, to improve to 3-4 overall, 1-3 in Big 12 play. “Yeah. We had to go get it.”
Gutsy call. Confident throw. A trust fall straight into the arms of a giddy student section at Folsom Field.
It was Salter’s 16th completion of the day. A day that began with the undergrads chanting for his replacement, freshman QB Julian Lewis, somehow ended with those same students looking to carry him off the field.
“I feel like that’s one of my best attributes — playing the next play,” Salter reflected after throwing for 255 yards and two scores. “I can go out there and do some bull (crud) like last game (at TCU) and play the next play.”
In this game, short memories tend to have longer shelf lives. Salter threw three picks in Fort Worth. Instead of dwelling, he kept swinging. The Buffs’ frustrating 2025 has life again. Life and a postseason purpose.
“This team right here, we never quit,” Salter said. “We have a team full of dawgs that just don’t quit.”
The Buffs go as Salter goes, for better or for worse. As a roster, CU isn’t just better than its 3-4 record. It’s tougher.
Give Coach Prime 11 Tawfiq Byards, and you can start printing College Football Playoff tickets. Byard, a sophomore safety, played much of the second half Saturday with one of his mitts taped after re-aggravating a broken hand. On a third-and-goal 90 seconds into the fourth quarter, the CU defensive back leapt high to pluck a Becht pass out of the air with one good hand, returning it 18 yards the other way.
“Came back, gotta finish,” Byard reflected. “(Becht) threw the ball right to me. I made a play.”
There would be more. With 7:15 left, the Buffs were nursing a 21-17 lead. Cyclones coach Matt Campbell faced a fourth-and-1 at his own 18. He went for it, only for Iowa State tailback Abu Sama III to run headlong into a wall of Buffs. CU pushed the corn-fed pile backward, taking over on downs.
“I love my defense,” Salter said. “They fight. They fight real hard.”
Salter finally started landing some haymakers himself after halftime.
On CU’s second play of the second half, No. 3 dropped back on second-and-7 and lofted a rainbow to a wide-open Omarion Miller, who walked into the end zone from 70 yards out to give the hosts a 13-10 lead before the extra point.
Trailing 17-14 with 9:17 left in the third stanza, Salter went to work again after a Cyclones penalty and a 30-kick return gave him a short field. The Buffs senior completed four out of five throws, scrambled for a 13-yard pickup, and converted two third downs, capping a 52-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Williams in the back of the end zone.
It was a surreal end to a game that started with something of a Halloween vibe, in that it felt as if it was played almost entirely in CU’s coffin corner. The Buffs’ first three possessions started at their own 5, their own 13, and their own 10.
On third-and-5 from his own 25 with 10:55 left in the second quarter, Salter whiffed on an open Zach Atkins. On the Buffs’ next possession, he misfired on a throwback screen to the right that was off from the jump, even though it had a phalanx of linemen waiting to form a convoy.
Shurmur went into turtle mode awfully early after that big fourth-down stop gifted his offense the ball at the Cyclones’ 18. The Buffs ran it three times, taking only 1:54 off the clock rather than going for the final nail, letting Alejandro Mata kick a 29-yard chippie for a 24-17 cushion.
Turns out that was enough.
More than enough to start the party, anyway.
“PLEASE CLEAR THE FIELD,” the public address announcer begged the students as they raced onto the artificial turf. “PLEASE CLEAR THE FIELD.”
They ignored him.
“THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION,” the voice continued.
“Streets are different when you win,” Sanders cracked as he left his news conference.
Trust is a two-way street. And the Buffs dance into the bye with a season that’s on the road to somewhere again.
