CU vs. Cincinnati quick hits: Deion Sanders’ Buffs just opened up path to Big 12 championship game

Initial observations from Colorado’s 34-23 win over Cincinnati Bearcats in Big 12 play at Folsom Field.

1. Time to do the Big 12 title game math: With that Nebraska loss on the resume, CU’s probably got one path to the College Football Playoff: winning the Big 12 championship. And after a home win over Cincinnati late Saturday night, the road to Dallas in early December is starting to become a little clearer.

Despite a 4-1 league record, the Buffs are going to need a little help. OK, probably quite a bit of help.

The only element in their hands, of course, is winning out — and of the four games on Deion Sanders’ docket, the only truly scary one, on paper, is a visit to Texas Tech, coming off a bye week, on Nov. 9. After that, CU will likely be favored over the final three tilts — home to slumping Utah (4-4) on Nov. 16; at Kansas (2-6) in Kansas City on Nov. 23; and home to Oklahoma State (3-5) on Black Friday.

That said, it’s crowded at the top.

BYU (5-0 Big 12) needs slips up at least once — and its best two chances are road trips to Utah (Nov. 9) and Arizona State (Nov. 23).

Iowa State (4-0) also has two more slightly less salty road games, taking on KU at Kansas City on Nov. 9 and Utah in Salt Lake on Nov. 23.

There’s also a chance that Kansas State (4-1 Big 12) beats the Cyclones at Ames in the annual Farmegeddon showdown. But the Wildcats figure to be favored in the three November games before that — at Houston, vs. Arizona State and vs. Cincy.

2. Horn takes away his own TD: There’s a good chance you’ll see something at Folsom Field these days you’ve never seen in a football game before — and the Buffs provided two of those moments on the first drive of the game. The initial weird moment came on what looked like a cat-quick 57-yard touchdown catch-and-run by wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. The Buffs senior had so much space with which to run that he made a “Peace” sign with two fingers at the nearest Cincinnati defender at about the 25-yard line en route to the end zone. The refs weren’t amused, and flagged the CU wideout for unsportsmanlike conduct at the spot of the foul, wiping the TD off the board. Instead, the hosts were granted a first down at the Bearcat 25-yard line. It only delayed the inevitable, as the Buff scored five plays later, on a 3-yard touchdown toss to Travis Hunter … who then celebrated with an Ozzie-Smith style backflip in the end zone.

3. Deion has to take the microphone: The Horn call got the officials on the wrong side of CU fans, who threw debris — and a few choice words — at the direction of the Big 12 refs. With 9:32 left in the first quarter, Folsom Field and media alike were surprised to hear Deion Sanders’ voice over the public-address system. The second-year CU football coach had been handed a live microphone and asked to quiet the crowd, Sam-Wyche style.

“Stop throwing things!” Sanders told the assembled after the Buffs went up 7-0, imploring the fans to “act accordingly.”

CU football trivia: At the time Coach Prime was at the mic, the the jumbotron in the south end zone at Folsom featured a picture of 99-year-old CU fan Peggy Coppom, with the graphic that read, “What Would Peggy Do?” (Not throw things, we’re fairly sure.)

4. Shedeur’s streak: The Buffs QB and son of Coach Prime carved himself another chapter in the CU record book. Shedeur Sanders’ 15 straight pass completions to open the game broke the old Buffs mark of 12. The dozen straight completions to start a tilt was set by Joel Klatt in 2005 and tied by Steven Montez in a win over CSU in the 2018 Rocky Mountain Showdown. The senior signal-caller, projected to be one of the first quarterbacks taken in the 2025 NFL draft, finished the first half with 18 completions on 21 attempts for 219 yards. His last pass before halftime was a 34-yard touchdown rainbow to Travis Hunter with three seconds left that put the hosts up 23-14 before the extra point — and gave CU control of the game that it never relinquished.

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