BYU made the final game of Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders’ Colorado careers one to forget.
The No. 17 Cougars blew out the No. 23 Buffaloes 36-14 in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night as Colorado was overmatched in nearly every facet of the game.
BYU (11-2) led 20-0 at halftime as many of the flaws that had plagued Colorado through the first two years of Deion Sanders’ tenure reared their ugly heads. The Buffs (9-4) couldn’t get a run game going and the offensive line struggled in pass protection too. After BYU led 10-0 in the first quarter, the Cougars sealed the game when Parker Kingston returned a punt 64 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.
The blowout happened even as BYU QB Jake Retzlaff threw two interceptions and backup Gerry Bohanon threw one in his only pass attempt.
Hunter, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner, got his highlight with a 43-yard TD in the third quarter on a nicely-placed pass from Sanders. But that was about all that went right for the Buffaloes.
Both Hunter and Sanders played for Colorado despite being probable first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. Colorado took out insurance policies for Sanders, Hunter and others ahead of the game in the event of an injury.
Sanders even unveiled cleats with the New York Giants logo on them before the game — the Giants have the worst record in the NFL and currently are in position for the No. 1 pick in the draft — but took the field in the first quarter with black cleats on his feet.
The game was a matchup between the two Big 12 teams because of the Alamo Bowl’s selection process. The bowl has traditionally pitted teams from the Big 12 and Pac-12 together, but the Pac-12 dissolved before the 2024 season with just Washington State and Oregon State remaining as members of the conference.
Before the season, the Alamo Bowl said that it’d pick a team that was in the Pac-12 in 2023 and a team that was in the Big 12 in 2023. With Arizona State and Oregon in the College Football Playoff and other former Pac-12 teams not having spectacular seasons, the bowl announced before the end of the 2024 season that it’d take either Arizona State and Colorado against either BYU or Iowa State based on the outcome of the Big 12 title game.
Though it was a game between current Big 12 teams, BYU and Colorado didn’t meet in the regular season. The two teams found themselves on the wrong end of a four-way tie for first among ASU and ISU and therefore missed a chance to play for the conference title and a chance to make the College Football Playoff.
The win gives BYU 11 wins for the first time since 2020 and the first time in a non-pandemic season since 2009. Colorado, meanwhile, made a five-win leap in 2024 and looks to sustain that success in 2025 despite the losses of Sanders and Hunter. The Buffaloes have gotten a commitment from five-star QB JuJu Lewis and also added former Liberty QB Kaidon Salter in the transfer portal.
