Analysis: BYU turns Colorado’s fury and flash against it, guts out a culture-defining Big 12 road win

BOULDER, Colorado — BYU has had more impressive and important Big 12 road wins since joining the league a couple years ago, but few have been as satisfying for football coach Kalani Sitake and his bunch than Saturday night’s 24-21 conquest of Colorado.

Adversity smacked the No. 24 Cougars right between the eyes early and often in front of 52,265 juiced up fans at Folsom Field, but in the end Sitake’s culture prevailed to the tune of a 24-21 victory engineered by freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier.

Falling behind 14-0 before 10 minutes of game time had elapsed, and with the crowd at a fever pitch, the Cougars put their shoulders to the wheel when it appeared their unbeaten start, and national ranking, were about to be lost.

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BYU scored 17 unanswered points, lost the lead, then regained it for good with the “tornado reverse” play, a misdirection handoff to Cody Hagen that the speedster from Draper took 32 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

Then Isaiah Glasker picked off CU quarterback Kaidon Salter to end the game, touching off a huge celebration from the 5,000 or so BYU fans in the northwest corner of the stadium.

The Cougars improved to 1-0 in league play, 4-0 overall, and will return home for the first time in three weeks Friday against West Virginia, which was pummeled Saturday morning by Utah in Morgantown.

“Yeah, it is the culture of BYU,” said receiver Chase Roberts. “We knew they were going to give us their best shot, and they schemed us up really well. … We kind of hit adversity in our first Big 12 game, and for the first time (this season), but we kept our poise, and we were calm. We knew we were going to bounce back.”

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And bounce back BYU did, tightening the defense on Salter and the plethora of skill players at his disposal.

While BYU’s defense has arguably carried the team in the first three games — wins over Portland State, Stanford and East Carolina — the offense came to the rescue in Big 12 After Dark at the foot of the Flatirons.

“It was a huge move for our players and our program, and a great, great step for this team,” Sitake said. “It is hard to go on the road and win games, especially when you start as slow as we did.”

The final numbers only tell part of the story, but here they are: BYU put up 387 yards and held Colorado to 291 — which is saying something considering the Buffs picked up 137 of those yards, and two touchdowns, on their first two possessions.

Liberty transfer Salter was looking like John Elway in the first quarter, only to be outplayed the rest of the way by the 19-year-old Bachmeier.

“It’s been a fun ride, and we just gotta keep it rolling,” said Bachmeier, who threw for 179 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 98 yards on 15 carries. It was the second-most rushing yards ever for a BYU freshman, with Taysom Hill owning that record.

“It was exhilarating,” Bachmeier continued. “The best moments are in the locker room, with your brothers after the game. Those are the memories that we will cherish forever.”

To say BYU started slow is an understatement.

While BYU’s defense was trying to adapt to Colorado coach Deion Sanders showing a wildcat formation that he had not shown yet this season, the Buffaloes rolled through the Cougars early.

“Colorado did a great job and gave us some different looks, and then, honestly, the guys, once (Colorado) started gaining some yards, everybody started to press a little bit more,” Sitake said. “I think maybe defense was a little bit too easy for them the first three games.”

After that abysmal first quarter, BYU scored 17 unanswered points to take a 17-14 lead midway through the third quarter.

Quiet the last half of the second quarter and first half of the third, Salter heated up again after the Cougars took their first lead, throwing a 19-yard touchdown pass after gouging BYU with a 26-yard toss and a 19-yard run.

Colorado’s lead was short-lived, however.

In a play that will live forever in Cougar lore, Hagen blazed down the Colorado sideline for the 32-yard touchdown, a play very similar to the one he scored on against Portland State.

That would be all the scoring, remarkably, as both defenses hunkered down in the fourth quarter.

BYU drove to the Colorado 26 a few minutes into the fourth quarter, but a 3-yard loss and a botched snap put the Cougars at the 37.

BYU kicker Will Ferrin had the distance on the 55-yard field goal attempt, but it was just wide. Ferrin had made a school-record 25 straight field goals before the miss.

Colorado took over with good field position at its 37, but Bodie Schoonover deflected a pass on third-and-5 and Sanders elected to punt and took a timeout to think about it.

The Cougars then milked more than four minutes off the clock before punting themselves, and Sam Vander Haar’s masterpiece pinned CU inside its five.

Four plays later, Glasker made another pick, considerably more important than the one he had in BYU’s 36-14 win in the Alamo Bowl that prompted him to dance in front of the legendary Sanders.

Not this time.

“We were in a dog coverage, bringing pressure, and I dropped out into coverage. I saw Jack Kelly right in front of me, bringing pressure, forced him to throw, and then I just kind of did the rest from there,” Glasker said of the game-sealing interception.

As Colorado fans streamed to the exits, BYU fans made their presence felt again — despite the derogatory religious slurs hurled from the Colorado student section at various times throughout the contest — in their corner of the place.

“What a great environment for college football and the Big 12. Here in Boulder, Colorado fans showed up, and I’m glad that we had some fans here, too,” Sitake said.

“But what a really cool environment. Give credit to Colorado for making the plays. I’m just proud of the way our guys responded afterwards, the grit that they had.”

Sure, the Cougars made some mistakes. Tiger Bachmeier caught a punt at the goal line and may have lost the job back to Parker Kingston, Roberts dropped a fourth-and-2 pass and there was a high snap that killed an aforementioned drive.

The Cougars committed six penalties, but it was CU that was burned by them the most, particularly on a BYU drive wherein defensive holding and defensive pass interference were called on back-to-back plays.

Colorado was penalized six times for 67 yards.

“We had to believe in all three phases, and work in our complimentary football,” Sitake said.

On a night when BYU’s offense took its turn making the biggest difference.