A University of Utah player catches the ball above Colorado defender Preston Hodge in Utah’s 53-7 victory over the Buffs at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. (Scott Tan/CU Independent)
When a stadium empties at halftime, it generally means the home team is down by an amount that makes a comeback unthinkable. The majority of the 51,000 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah cleared out at the midway point Saturday night, but not because their matchup with the University of Colorado Buffaloes had gone in favor of the black and gold. The Utes humiliated CU 43-0 through just the first half, en route to their 53-7 victory.
After a lower leg injury to Utah’s junior starting quarterback Devon Dampier, the Utes gave 19-year-old true freshman Byrd Ficklin the start. To announce his arrival, the young buck darted for a 63-yard run on just the second play of the game to put Utah on the board.
After Colorado’s defense forced a punt and an ensuing stop on 3rd down, Utah executed a fake punt for a pickup of 25, commencing the fallout. After that drive resulted in a field goal, the Utes struck again in one play off sophomore running back Wayshawn Parker’s 58-yard punch.
CU’s senior quarterback Kaidon Salter struggled early, primarily off a rare ineffective showing from the offensive line. Nearly every play in which Salter dropped back to pass, he was given under two seconds to make a decision before being rushed out of the pocket. This led to an early interception by Utah’s junior safety Tao Johnson, Salter’s fifth of the year.
The offensive line continued to be dysfunctional a drive later, forcing Salter into Utah’s end zone where he committed intentional grounding, resulting in a safety, which gave Utah two points. The Utes chased the free points with an efficient 72-yard touchdown drive in less than two minutes of game time to go up 26-0.
The rest of the second quarter featured repeated defective three-and-out drives from Colorado, answered by touchdown drives from Utah. Before they knew it, the Buffs stared down a 43-point deficit at halftime, the largest in the Coach Prime era.
Just halfway through, CU had 380 less total yards, 13 less first downs and 43 less points than the Utes. Ficklin had 164 of Utah’s 260 total rushing yards on the half, while Salter had 11 incompletions and 23 passing yards.
Colorado’s Omarion Miller kneels on the field in CU’s 53-7 loss against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. (Scott Tan/CU Independent)
The second half was like watching a fire slowly burn out, with Salter’s day ending after the third quarter. Utah chipped in another field goal and a late big-play touchdown, while CU’s offense translated identically from the first half. Once Utah began resting their starters, Colorado sophomore backup QB Ryan Staub led a scoring drive to end the shutout, something head coach Deion Sanders has yet to fall victim to at CU.
The Buffs’ defense was 13 yards shy of yielding 600 total against a 19-year-old quarterback making his first start. No Colorado wide receiver had more than five catches, with Salter finishing 9-for-22 with 37 passing yards. The offensive line surrendered seven sacks and didn’t help much with the run game, only tallying 38 yards, compared to a ridiculous 422 from Utah.
While Sanders has had a couple of burn-the-tapes games at CU, like losing to Oregon 42-6 in 2023 or to Washington State later that year 56-14, this defeat tops them all. Even coming off a bye with an additional week of preparation, ‘unprepared’ seems like a word to sugarcoat the performance.
“The way we practiced and prepared is no way that should happen,” Sanders said. “There’s no way the physicalness that we exuded all week long, there’s no way.”
The Buffs’ performance on offense, defense and special teams was abysmal. The team appeared lost, the body language was miserable and even Sanders was caught intensely yelling at defensive coordinator Robert Livingston on the sideline. When asked about what he told Livingston, Sanders emphatically answered, “it wasn’t pleasant.”
The Buffs’ are in acute need of a positive showing next Saturday against the University of Arizona. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. MT and the game will stream on FS1.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Baylan Wysuph at baylan.wysuph@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent Photographer Scott Tan at scott.tan@colorado.edu
