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 at halftime and hung with Colorado the whole way.
This was a game NDSU could have won. Which would have come to the great delight of millions of college football fans in every corner of America. Sanders and his cocky band of mercenary transfers who've followed him to beautiful Boulder are not only the most-hyped team but the most hated, too.
The spectacle is real. Sanders came onto the field about an hour before kickoff, decked out in a black hoodie (with the hood pulled up) and his trademark sunglasses. He jogged along the sideline to work up a pregame lather, apparently, and the thousands of Colorado students packed into the seats behind the Buffs' bench roared their approval.
Deion is a phenomenon as much as a football coach. Then came Colorado's famed running of Ralphie the buffalo (she's actually a bison, but the nickname and all ..
.). The 1,000-pound critter runs out of a pen led by handlers who run alongside with leashes, leading the Colorado team onto the field just before kickoff.
It might've been the loudest cheer of the night. The Hollywood factor was minimal for this game. Sanders is known for having his famous friends stand on the sideline during games, but this time it appeared to be limited to NFL hall of fame receiver Terrell Owens and Boston Celtics guard Derrick White, fresh off winning a gold medal in the Paris Olympics.
None of that mattered to the Bison. None of it impressed the Bison. They shrugged off the spectacle and had a chance to win until the final play of the game, ending up 5 yards short after a Hail Mary.
That isn't everything, but it's something..
