BOULDER, Colo — North Dakota State put the spectacle on the back burner. The most-hyped college football team in America, the Colorado Buffaloes, had to scrap and fight to beat the little program from Fargo. The Bison offense moved the ball, the defense made a couple of inspired stops and NDSU trailed just 31-26 after a touchdown by quarterback Cam Miller late in the fourth quarter.
The Bison led 20-17 at halftime, letting the 49,438 fans at Folsom Field and a national television audience that they had come to play. Could the Bison do it again? Could the Football Championship Subdivision team knock off another Football Bowl Subdivision team? Not this time, not against this quarterback. Shedeur Sanders, son of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, was just too good.
Better than good. Amazing. He finished with 445 yards passing and four touchdowns, often escaping like a magician to make a play.
Colorado earned the 31-26 victory after NDSU's last-second heave ended with a 49-yard completion to the Buffaloes 4-yard line. The Bison passing defense, honestly, wasn't very good. But Shedeur and Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn Jr.
put on a show. They are a show within the Prime Time show. That celebrity coach Deion Sanders nickname.
He insists on being called Coach Prime and he's running a reality TV show in Boulder, complete with three of his own camera crews following his every move. The reality TV show that is the Buffaloes was in danger of being canceled. The scrappy Bison led 20-17 a.