Colorado spent most of Thursday night trying to find its footing, and then two plays changed everything.
Julian Lewis pushed the Buffaloes in front with a late touchdown pass, and Boo Carter finished the job by blocking a potential game-winning 45-yard field goal on the final snap, lifting Colorado to a 14-13 win over Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
The ending came with all the chaos a season opener can offer. Georgia Tech had seized a 13-7 lead with fewer than two minutes left, putting Colorado in a spot where it had to go the length of the field and get the kind of drive it hadn’t consistently produced all night.
Lewis answered anyway, steering the Buffs down the field and hitting Charlie Williams on a 20-yard touchdown to give Colorado a 14-13 lead. The extra point held up, and suddenly the Buffaloes were the ones in front with 37 seconds to play.
That still wasn’t the end.
Alberto Mendoza wasted no time giving Georgia Tech another chance, finding Dalen Penson for a 42-yard gain that moved the Yellow Jackets from their own 25 to Colorado’s 33. Three seconds remained when Georgia Tech lined up for the kick, and Colorado had one final stop to make.
Carter made it.
On a night when Georgia Tech had already blocked a Colorado field goal earlier, the Buffaloes answered with the most important block of all.
For Lewis, the moment was about belief as much as execution.
“Trust each other, we work for it, we know what’s gonna happen, and God did it for us,” Lewis said during his postgame interview.
“God did a great thing for us, and I’m just blessed right now,” Lewis said.
Lewis finished 14 of 27 for 124 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. It wasn’t clean, and it wasn’t easy, but he delivered when Colorado needed a drive most.
Williams came through on the decisive touchdown and finished with two catches for 28 yards. Colorado’s ground game did plenty of the heavy lifting, with Damian Henderson rushing 12 times for 65 yards and Micah Welch adding 58 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. DeAndre Moore Jr. led the Buffs with four receptions for 37 yards.
Lamont Lester Jr. helped keep Colorado in the fight on defense, recording three sacks.
Georgia Tech got a big night from Mendoza, who completed 17 of 23 passes for 237 yards. Jordan Allen was his top target with eight catches for 113 yards, and Penson added three receptions for 73 yards. Justice Haynes ran 19 times for 64 yards.
Colorado’s opener was messy, but the closing sequence was exactly what sealed it: Lewis finding Williams, Carter slamming the door, and Deion Sanders leaving Atlanta with a 1-0 start.
In Other News...
BYU Defense Suddenly Faces A Bigger Question After Opening Win
BYUs season started the right way on the scoreboard, but the opener against Utah Tech left the Cougars with an immediate test on defense. Veteran safety Raider Damuni went down with a leg injury and had to be carried off the field, a sobering sight for a unit that was otherwise trying to establish its footing in the first game of 2026. Coach Kalani Sitake said the team is waiting on an MRI to get a clearer read on the injury, which means the full picture is still coming into focus.
The uncertainty lands at a tricky time because BYU was already managing its depth with linebacker Isaiah Glasker held out as a precaution so he could be rested for the next matchup against Arizona. For a defense looking to build momentum off a win, the immediate concern now is how quickly it can get healthy enough to keep its plans intact. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Is Back In The Playoff Debate For A Bigger Reason
Takeo Spikes has put BYU back into the Big 12 playoff conversation, and not just as a team trying to hang around the league race. In a discussion about where the conference is headed, Spikes said he expects the Big 12 to land two College Football Playoff teams in 2026 and singled out BYU and Texas Tech as the programs most likely to get there. It is the kind of endorsement that gets attention in Provo because it frames BYU not as an outsider hoping for a break, but as a legitimate piece of the conference's ceiling.
The wider debate around the Big 12 is only getting more interesting because other voices still see Utah as a serious contender, even with coaching changes in the picture, which underscores how crowded the league's upper tier could become. For BYU, the appeal of Spikes' prediction is less about the exact year and more about the larger message: the Cougars are being mentioned in the same breath as teams with playoff-level ambition. Whether that translates into a real path through the conference will be the question hanging over the next few seasons. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Is Suddenly Right In The Middle Of Big 12 Stakes
The Big 12 race already has the feel of a national conversation, and BYU is right in the middle of it before the season even settles in. On College GameDay, the preseason championship picks split across the board, with some members backing the Cougars and others favoring Texas Tech or West Virginia, a reflection of just how open the league looks at the top. With BYU and Texas Tech the only Big 12 teams starting the year ranked in the top 15, there is a real sense that the conferences playoff hopes could hinge on those two programs living up to the billing.
What makes the noise around BYU so interesting is that it is not coming from the usual conference insiders alone. Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit were among the notable voices weighing in on the contenders, adding even more national weight to the discussion about who can actually separate in a crowded league. For BYU, the stakes are bigger than one preseason nod or one early ranking, because the Cougars are suddenly part of the argument over whether the Big 12 can produce more than one legitimate playoff contender. [Read more 🡒]