2 days Ago
LUBBOCK, Texas – Prior to exiting the field on Saturday evening, Shedeur Sanders had to leave a parting gift for the Texas Tech fans: an autographed tortilla. “I had to sign one,” the Colorado star quarterback said. “They kept throwing them at me, so I it was like I had to.
” Sanders and the 21st-ranked Buffaloes weathered a storm of flying tortillas – a Texas Tech tradition that apparently goes back decades – other food and debris thrown their way, and an early surge by the Red Raiders to win yet again in convincing fashion on the road. Sanders threw three touchdown passes and ran for another and the defense rose to the occasion to lead CU to a 41-27 victory at Jones AT&T Stadium. The Buffs (7-2, 5-1 Big 12) have won four straight on the road for the first time since 2002 – all of them 14-plus points – but more importantly they are in the front seat in the race to the Big 12 title game.
With Iowa State losing to Kansas earlier in the day, the Buffs (7-2, 5-1 Big 12) moved into sole possession of second place in the Big 12, giving them a legitimate shot at playing for the conference title next month. “We don’t change with the stakes,” head coach Deion Sanders said. “You guys change with the stakes.
We don’t change with the stakes. What we’re doing right now, we planned on it. We didn’t plan on losing two games.
We didn’t plan on those things. We planned on winning, and we plan on winning each week. “We’re not looking for the down the street, down the road to the championship, because if we look that far we’ll never reach our destination of preparing tomorrow, practicing.
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I’m proud of them, I’m proud of them, but our expectations are truly our expectations.” CU didn’t meet expectations early on Saturday, as Texas Tech rode the momentum from its sold out crowd of 60,229 to jump to a 13-0 lead less than 13 minutes into the game. The Red Raiders (6-3, 4-2) sliced through the Buffs on their first possession for a touchdown, shut down the CU offense in the early going and put itself in a great spot coming out of the gates.
On the CU sidelines, Shedeur said he felt, “Nothing,” because he wasn’t worried. “We knew we could do it,” said Shedeur, who completed 30-of-43 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns. “So it was never a stress, it was never a sweat, it was never a doubt.
One of the coaches came up to me and was like, you know, the best thing about this is? We’re down 13 and he was like, ‘You can look at the sideline, nobody’s panicking.’ So I was like, that’s how you know you got a great team.” Sure enough, CU went on a 17-0 run to grab its first lead on a Sanders touchdown run with 11 minutes to play in the third quarter.
Texas Tech responded with a touchdown, but CU went on another 17-0 run to get some breathing room down the stretch. “It’s almost like they gotta get hit in the face, they gotta get slapped,” Coach Prime said of his team’s puzzling tendency to have slow starts. “They gotta feel the flow of the game and I don’t know why we’re like it, because we do everything in our power to, even the way we script practices, to get started.
And the emphasis is on, let’s get out to a good start because we knew if we got out to a good start, the sky’s the limit.” Despite the slow start, CU proved to the better team most of the night, taking Tech’s initial punch and then overwhelming the Red Raiders. The better CU played, however, the more hostile the environment got.
Texas Tech fans throw tortillas at the opening kickoff, with many of them landing on the field during the play. The fans seemingly never ran out of tortillas, though, continuing to toss them on each kickoff and even on other plays. “I didn’t know throwing tortillas on the field was legal,” Shedeur said.
“We come here and it was just like they have a whole cleanup crew. Like they know what time it is, so that was a bit odd. I had never heard of that.
Yeah, it was different.” When tortillas did run out, water bottles, other food items and debris came flying into the Buffs’ bench area. At one point, Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire grabbed a microphone and yelled at fans to stop throwing things on the field.
Through it all, the Buffs kept their cool. “We’re used to getting hated on. We’re used to it now, so it’s a part of us, almost,” Shedeur.
At this point, so is winning, as the Buffs will continue to climb in the national polls as they got through another road test in impressive fashion. “We thrive on that,” Coach Prime said of playing in hostile environments. “We’ve always been in adverse situations.
Everywhere we travel it’s an adverse situation, everywhere we go. ..
. These young men, they were bred for this, man. We talked about this.
We try to prepare them for things throughout the week that may happen, that could possibly happen, that will happen, and they stand up to the challenge. “I’m proud of them, I really am, for what they’re doing.”.
