Colorado finally got the kind of Saturday it had been chasing for weeks.
After five straight losses, Deion Sanders and the Buffs snapped the skid with a wild overtime win over Kansas State, getting back into the win column in dramatic fashion. Colorado needed every bit of it. Isaac Wilson delivered the decisive blow, finding tight end Charlie Williams for the game-winning touchdown in overtime to give the Buffs their first Big 12 win in over a year.
The headline result was enough on its own, but Colorado also got a handful of breakout performances that helped make the comeback possible.
Richard Young was the biggest one. The Alabama transfer had been easy to overlook in Colorado’s running back room, but that changed fast on Saturday.
Sanders had said earlier in the week that Young would get more chances, and he backed that up. Young responded with a career-high 120 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, including 68 yards after contact.
It was the kind of ground game Colorado has not seen in years, and the Buffs don’t end their five-game slide without it. His 120 yards were the most by a Colorado back since Jarek Broussard in 2021.
Afterward, Sanders made it clear Young had earned the moment: “He’s waited patiently,” Deion Sanders said of Richard Young postgame. “I wanted him to have a chance to run the ball today and he proved that he could.”
Linebacker Gideon ESPN Lampron kept doing what he has been doing all season. He piled up 15 total tackles, a career high, with eight solo stops, four tackles for loss and two sacks.
Lampron has now logged 11 or more tackles in four straight games, and he earned Colorado’s top run defense grade against Kansas State, according to Pro Football Focus. His 12.5 tackles for loss this season are the most by a Colorado player since 2022, when Josh Chandler-Semedo did it.
Entering Week 10, Lampron also leads the Big 12 with 80 total tackles and 43 solo tackles.
Makari Vickers made the most of a much bigger role in the secondary. After playing just eight snaps the week before, he was on the field for a season-high 61 and came away as Colorado’s highest-graded defender with a 77.1, according to PFF.
Vickers finished with seven total tackles, six of them solo, along with five stops, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble on a punt return. That kind of production should keep him in the mix for more playing time.
Up front, Yamil Talib turned in the best game of his Colorado career. The Charlotte transfer and nephew of Aqib Talib played a season-high 35 snaps and posted eight tackles with two sacks. He’s become a real part of the Buffs’ EDGE rotation, and Saturday only strengthened that case.
Manny Ezeogu was right there with him. The JMU transfer added seven tackles, four solo, plus 1.5 tackles for loss. Colorado’s edge group has been a major reason the defense has looked so strong, and Ezeogu’s work against Kansas State was another reminder of why.
In Other News...
Arizona State Fans May Need To Brace For More Dillingham Chatter
Florida States decision to move on from Mike Norvell after a 3-5 start and a rough stretch that has left the Seminoles searching again has already sent the coaching rumor mill into overdrive. Among the names being floated is Kenny Dillingham, whose rise has made him one of the more closely watched young coaches in the sport, and whose connection to the Florida State opening is enough to get people talking well beyond Tallahassee.
For Colorado fans, the bigger issue is what happens if the speculation around Dillingham keeps building. Arizona State supporters may be bracing for another round of chatter, but the ripple effect could reach Boulder too, where any serious coaching dominoes tend to get noticed quickly. No successor has been named in the Florida State search, and until that changes, the noise around Dillingham figures to linger. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Earned New Respect After What Kansas States Coach Admitted
Colorados win over Kansas State carried extra weight because it came with a little public validation from the other sideline. After the narrow overtime game, Wildcats coach Collin Klein pointed to Colorados defensive front and the adjustments the Buffaloes made as major reasons the outcome swung their way, a notable nod coming from a coach whose team had just been pushed to the edge. He also said Kansas State hurt itself with missed tackles and penalties, some of them tied to the crowd noise, which only sharpened the sense that Colorados home environment mattered in a tight Big 12 battle.
The Buffaloes also showed enough composure to flip the game late, putting together a 96-yard drive that ended with the go-ahead touchdown. For a team still trying to build credibility, hearing an opposing coach break down the loss in terms of Colorados defensive work and in-game adjustments says plenty about how this one was earned. The result was a reminder that the Buffs are not just surviving close games, they are making opponents feel them in all three phases, even if one strategic moment from overtime still lingers in the background. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Finally Gave Buffs Fans A Real Reason To Believe
Week 9 in the Big 12 brought the kind of shakeup that makes the league feel like it is changing by the hour, with Baylor rolling past UCF, Iowa State edging Oklahoma State on a late field goal, and Texas Tech, BYU and Utah all adding their own statement wins. Buried in that busy weekend was the result Colorado had been waiting for, a breakthrough that finally gave Buffs fans something tangible to hang onto after a rocky stretch in conference play.
The timing mattered just as much as the opponent. Colorado had been searching for a foothold in the Big 12, and getting one in a game like this offered a different kind of proof than a moral victory or a close call. In a week when the league hierarchy kept shifting, the Buffs did enough to change their own position in the conversation, even if the larger picture in the conference still feels very much up for grabs. [Read more 🡒]