CU Buffs blown out in home finale by Arizona State

BOULDER, Colo. — The most exciting moment at Folsom Field on Saturday night came early in the fourth quarter when a CU Buffs fan raced onto the field and started dancing on the 50-yard line before being blindsided by a security guard.

For the actual football, Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes fell short to the Arizona State Sun Devils, 42-17. The Buffs had plenty of opportunities to take control of Saturday’s contest, as they forced four Sun Devil turnovers, but the offense couldn’t find any consistency in Julian Lewis’ first collegiate start. CU scored just three points off those four turnovers, which came on a drive they started on the Sun Devil nine yard line.

Punting was the theme of the night for Sanders’ squad, as they were 5-17 on third down and consistency weren’t able to give the defense, a unit that was playing some solid football through the first three quarters, a breather. Damon Greaves, the punter who has been in the spotlight too often this season, finished the game with nine kicks for 419 yards. One of those was inside the ASU 20-yard line.

For Lewis, the freshman didn’t get much help throughout the night, as he had a couple of beautiful passes dropped and was consistently running for his life as the protection broke down. He finished with 161 yards on 19-for-38 passing, but found Omarion Miller in the end zone on a pretty ball in the left corner of the end zone.

Julian Lewis 🎯 Omarion Miller #Big12FB | 📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/AAAVTC2WE1

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) November 23, 2025

Miller finished with three catches for 35 yards and a touchdown.

One thing’s for certain, those two have a solid connection, and if they’re still in the black and gold next year, they have the ability to be a dynamic QB-WR duo.

This game was close for a while. CU led 7-3 early, then trailed 13-7 at halftime, then trailed 21-17 at the start of the fourth quarter. Thanks to three forced fumbles and an interception from safety John Slaughter, the defense was keeping them in the contest. As the game went on, the Buffs ran out of gas on both sides of the football, and Arizona State was able to lean on the run game.

Arizona State finished with 355 yards on the ground, the third time this season that the Buffs allowed their opponent to go north of 300.

By the time the clock read 8:14 in the fourth quarter, fans were filing out of the exits in disappointment after their football team was blown out for the third time in four games.

Where do the Buffs go from here? The magic from the start of the Coach Prime era has evaporated. The offseason will be very telling, as they’re relying on the transfer portal to right the ship with just 10 high schoolers in the 2026 class committed to the program, a class that’s ranked 95th in the country below UTEP and UMass. Sanders isn’t on the hot seat, but the fans are getting impatient.

With one game left this season, there’s not much else to play for besides pride, but even that seems like a dream at this point with all the uninspiring performances down the stretch. CU’s final game of the season against Kansas State is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 29, with the kick time still to be announced.

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