Colorado head coach Deion Sanders was unhappy to learn of the Big 12’s rules against rushing the field following his team’s 24-17 upset of No. 22 Iowa State.
The home crowd celebrated the victory by running onto the playing surface, which will draw a fine from the conference.
“How is it $50,000 for rushing the field?” Sanders said in his postgame press conference. “Wow. Shoot. I’m sorry. Wow, fifty grand.”
Still, Coach Prime said that “I absolutely love” to see Colorado students running out of their seats in jubilation and that the automatic fine “ain’t right.”
The Hall of Fame cornerback called the result “kind of vital” for his previously 2-4 squad.
“Your season could go this way or that way. And the most frustrating part about it is that we’re good,” he told reporters. “And I know this sounds crazy, especially when you say the record aloud, but we’re good, we haven’t really gotten our butts kicked. I take a good whooping. I grew up taking a good whooping, so I don’t mind that, but when we’re losing it with self-inflicted wounds, it bothers you.
“But today, right before we completed that third down pass [on the final drive], we said, guys, this is it. This is game. We get this first down, we’re gonna win. We don’t, we can put it on the defense. Anything can happen. They had two or three timeouts at the time, so it was gonna be tough, but we got it. We persevered.”
A three-yard touchdown pass from Kaidon Salter to Joseph Williams put the Buffs ahead 21-17 in the third quarter, and Alejandro Mata added a 29-yard field goal with 5:13 left in the contest.
Iowa State had three opportunities in the fourth quarter to either reclaim the lead or tie the score.
Rocco Becht threw an interception on a 3rd-and-goal from the Coloado 7-yard line at the 13:29 mark. The Cyclones’ next possession ended in a turnover on downs, and their last drive culminated in a punt.
Colorado also kept the Iowa State offense off the field for the final 3:48. A critical 38-yard completion to Williams from Salter on 3rd-and-16 effectively iced the game.
Colorado’s outlook is much different at 3-4 than it would’ve been at 2-5.
Matching last year’s nine wins will require running the table in the regular season and then winning a bowl game. Three victories from five games will at least guarantee bowl eligibility for the second straight season, something the Buffs haven’t achieved since 2005.
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