Colorado’s trip to Tempe comes with a number hanging over it: nearly two years without a Big 12 road win.
The Buffaloes last pulled one out away from Boulder in league play on Nov. 9, 2024, when they stormed back from 13 down in Lubbock to beat Texas Tech 41-27. Since then, the road has turned rough fast.
Colorado has dropped eight straight Big 12 games away from home, and Saturday night at Arizona State gives it another shot to stop the slide before the drought reaches two full years. If the Buffaloes lose, their next chance won’t come until Nov. 21 at Cincinnati.
Colorado enters Saturday at 3-5 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12, while Arizona State is 4-4 and 2-3. Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
MT at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, with the game on ESPN2 and radio coverage on KOA 850 AM and 94.1 FM. Arizona State leads the series 11-4.
What’s made this stretch so frustrating for Colorado is that the Buffaloes have been in position to win every league game they’ve played this season. They’ve led in all of them, and they’ve won only one. Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said he’s taken notice.
“This team’s had the lead in every single Big 12 game they’ve played this year,” Dillingham said Tuesday.
The pattern has been brutal. Colorado has started fast and faded late, outscoring Big 12 opponents 31-17 in first quarters but getting outscored 61-21 in fourth quarters. The Oklahoma State loss was the sharpest example: Colorado led 24-23 at halftime in Stillwater and then got rolled 57-24.
The other league losses have followed a similar script. Colorado led Texas Tech 7-6 in the third quarter before surrendering the final 23 points.
It was up 17-13 late in the third at Utah and lost 27-24. At Baylor, the Buffaloes were tied 13-13 with 11 minutes left before the Bears finished with the last 10 points.
Deion Sanders said Tuesday that opponents are coming after quarterback Isaac Wilson with the same approach every week.
“We know everybody we play is going to try to force Isaac (Wilson) into making mistakes,” Sanders said. “We know that. And we’ve got to run the ball.”
That has been the clearest path for Colorado. Against Kansas State, the Buffaloes ran 43 times, stayed within what Sanders called “the dream” of 15 to 24 passes, and won in overtime. It was the only game all season in which Colorado stayed in that pass range.
The numbers back it up. In the four games when Colorado has run the ball at least 35 times, it has gone 3-1 and avoided an interception. In the other four, the Buffaloes threw at least two interceptions each time and lost all four.
Arizona State plans to make the Buffaloes do the opposite. Defensive coordinator Brian Ward said Wednesday the Sun Devils want to “stop the run and make them throw the football,” calling it “our game plan every week.” If Wilson has to hold the ball, Ward said, “we feel like we can get home.”
Sanders expects that pressure, too. He said Arizona State wants to “rally to the football and try to eliminate our running game,” and added that the Sun Devils are especially dangerous after halftime.
“This is a team who rallies tremendously in the third quarter,” Sanders said.
Colorado’s defense has its own warning sign. When opponents have rushed for at least 180 yards, the Buffaloes have lost by 34, 22 and 33 points.
When they’ve held teams under 130 rushing yards, Colorado is 3-1. That puts the spotlight on Arizona State’s ground game, led by Cardae Mack.
Dillingham called Colorado’s defense “one of the most talented, if not the most talented defense that we’ve faced this year.”
Turnovers could swing the whole thing. Colorado’s defense has gone without a takeaway in three of its last four games, and Sanders admitted this week on the “Colorado Football Coaches Show” that “we’re not provoking turnovers.” The Buffaloes have not won the turnover battle in any of their five losses.
Arizona State has its own issue on that front. The Sun Devils have intercepted just four passes this season, and Dillingham said Wednesday that his defense isn’t “creating enough chaos.”
Colorado goes in as a 3.5-point underdog, with family weekend in Tempe and members of Arizona State’s 1996 team also set to return. Dillingham said Monday he’ll let those former Sun Devils into the locker room before the game.
For Colorado, the task is simple enough: follow the Kansas State win with another one. Offensive lineman Chauncey Gooden put it plainly on the coaches show.
“Got to get two in a row,” Gooden said. “That’s our mentality.”
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