Published October 18, 2026 10:20 AM
On Saturday, Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes lost their fourth game in a row. But they nearly found a way to upset No. 11 Utah.
The Utes’ 27-24 victory came down to a Hail Mary attempt on the final play, after Colorado rebounded from a rough first half that had the Buffaloes in a 13-0 hole.
In the third quarter, Colorado scored 17 unanswered points to take the lead.
“I did something I never do after a loss,” Sanders said after the game, via Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today. “I stood up there on the podium and told those kids, ‘I’m really proud of y’all man.’ Because they fought. They didn’t give up. They had a chance.”
The four straight losses, as noted by Schrotenboer, have come against teams with a combined record of 21-3. For 6-0 Utah, it was the program’s 12th straight win — the longest current streak in the country, after Notre Dame’s run ended at 16 on Saturday night.
Colorado’s last-ditch effort to win the game included a long gain that was wiped out by an intended lateral that was determined by replay review to have been a forward pass.
It was Colorado’s first game in two weeks, which included plenty of criticism for the fourth-year head coach. Among other things, Sanders downplayed the fact that a booklet containing play scripts had been found in the lobby of the team’s hotel before an October 3 loss to Texas Tech.
Either way, the Buffaloes are now 2-14 against Power Five schools since the end of the 2024 season. Sanders has beaten only two ranked teams since becoming the head coach in 2023.