Shedeur Sanders threw for 445 yards and four touchdowns, including three to All-everything Travis Hunter, leading Colorado to a 31-26 win over North Dakota State. The Buffs went for 504 yards of total offense, but surrendered 449 yards of offense to the Bison, who came up just short of an upset, with a final 49-yard Hail Mary completion ending the game at the CU four-yard line.

Jimmy Horn collected seven passes for 198 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown. Travis Hunter also had seven receptions, going for 132 yards and three scores. The Colorado rushing attack, which was 129th in the nation in 2023, opened the 2024 season with a 59-yard effort on 23 carries. The Buff defense gave up points on NDSU’s first four possessions, leading to a 20-17 halftime deficit, but stiffened in the second half, giving up only six points before closing out the Bisons’ final drive with a completion just short of a score.

“You ever felt like you won, but you didn’t win?”, Coach Prime rhetorically asked during his postgame press conference. “Giving up the last touchdown on the run, that bothered me, because we pride ourselves on going to get the quarterback, and we have multitude of young men that can go get the quarterback and we didn’t get that done. But I’m thankful. I think 31 NFL scouts were on hand tonight and I think they saw what they came to see. So let’s move on from there. I’m going to try my best to hold back my anger, but we got the ‘W’ so I’m happy.”