Colorado returns from bye week to face undefeated No. 11 Utah

Isaac Wilson has already played against Colorado twice. Both times, he was wearing a Utah uniform.

In 2024, Wilson threw for 236 yards as the Utes fell 49-24 at Folsom Field. Last season, he made his season debut against the Buffs in a much different result: Utah’s 53-7 win in Salt Lake City.

Now, Wilson will be the one trying to move the ball against Utah’s defense.

Colorado (2-3, 0-2 Big 12) returns to Folsom Field on Saturday, Oct. 17, to host No. 11 Utah (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) following a bye week that came at a fairly convenient time for the Buffaloes.

CU has lost three straight games, scoring just 27 points across losses to Northwestern, Baylor and Texas Tech. The most recent, a 29-7 loss to Texas Tech, saw Colorado take a 7-3 lead into halftime before four second-half interceptions helped the Red Raiders score 26 unanswered points.

Utah, meanwhile, has not had much trouble finishing games.

The Utes enter Saturday following a 41-24 win over Kansas, their fifth consecutive victory by at least 14 points. Under first-year head coach Morgan Scalley, Utah is off to its first 5-0 start since 2015 and has established itself as one of the Big 12’s strongest early contenders.

That leaves Colorado with an uncomfortable matchup. The Buffs have spent their last three games struggling to turn offensive production into points, while Utah has been one of the country’s best teams at preventing exactly that.

Wilson gets a familiar opponent

Wilson’s first start for Colorado offered a pretty good explanation of why the coaching staff decided to make a change at quarterback.

It also showed why the position remains a concern.

Against Texas Tech, Wilson completed 26 of 44 passes for 290 yards and a touchdown while leading the Buffs with 42 rushing yards. He distributed the football to 10 different teammates and helped Colorado produce one of its most creative opening possessions of the season.

The Buffs moved 75 yards in nine plays, using multiple passers, misdirection and different receiving targets before Wilson found Joseph Williams for an 8-yard touchdown.

For a while, the offense looked much more comfortable than it had against Northwestern and Baylor.

Then the turnovers started.

Wilson threw three interceptions in the second half, while Williams added another on a trick play from deep in Colorado territory. Texas Tech turned those mistakes into 19 points, including a fourth-quarter interception return for a touchdown.

Colorado finished with 375 total yards, 61 more than Texas Tech, but did not score again after its opening possession.

That has become a familiar problem.

The Buffs have repeatedly shown they can move the ball without necessarily doing much with it. Against Baylor, Colorado finished with 363 yards and 24 first downs but scored only 13 points. Texas Tech was another example of how little those numbers matter when possessions end without points.

Utah’s defense will make changing that pattern difficult.

According to Utah Athletics’ official game notes, the Utes allow just 13 points per game, the seventh-fewest nationally. They also rank fourth in the country in red-zone defense, allowing opponents to score on only 63.6% of their trips inside the 20-yard line.

That is not particularly encouraging for a Colorado offense that has already had trouble finishing drives against less productive defenses.

The ground game could be just as difficult to establish.

Utah is allowing only 78.8 rushing yards per game, ranking ninth nationally after surrendering 181.2 per game last season.

Colorado, meanwhile, has gone in the opposite direction.

The Buffs rushed for at least 180 yards in each of their first three games but managed only 83 against Baylor and 78 against Texas Tech.

That matters for offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, whose Go-Go offense relies on establishing the run to create opportunities elsewhere.

Sanders said Tuesday that he would prefer Colorado to attempt between 17 and 24 passes rather than ask Wilson to throw more than 40 times again.

Against Utah, that might be easier said than done.

If Colorado cannot establish its running game, Wilson could find himself in the same difficult situations that contributed to his three interceptions against Texas Tech. The Buffs cannot afford to abandon the run and ask their quarterback to throw his way out of trouble against a defense that has allowed only 65 points all season.

There are still reasons for optimism in Colorado’s passing attack.

Williams leads the Buffs with 32 receptions for 454 yards and five touchdowns. He has caught a touchdown in four consecutive games and was recently added to the Biletnikoff Award watch list.

The junior has also recorded double-digit receptions in back-to-back games, finishing with 11 catches for 127 yards against Baylor before adding 10 for 93 yards against Texas Tech.

Wilson has shown he can get the ball to Colorado’s receivers. Williams has shown he can produce regardless of who is throwing it.

The bigger question is whether Colorado can make that production count.

Utah’s offense presents a much different problem

Colorado’s defense has been one of the few encouraging developments during its losing streak.

Utah will test just how much progress the unit has actually made.

The Utes average 502 total yards and 42.8 points per game, ranking ninth and sixth nationally in those categories. Utah has scored at least 30 points in each of its five games this season and has extended that streak to 11 consecutive games dating back to 2025.

Quarterback Devon Dampier has been a major reason for that production.

Dampier has completed 71.8% of his passes for 1,134 yards and 12 touchdowns. His passing efficiency ranks second in the Big 12, and his mobility gives Utah another way to create problems when plays break down.

But Utah does not need to rely entirely on its quarterback.

Running back Wayshawn Parker has rushed for 499 yards and accounted for 11 touchdowns, including seven rushing and four receiving.

Parker has been especially productive over the past two games.

Against Iowa State, he rushed for 174 yards. He followed that with 171 against Kansas, including a 90-yard touchdown run that helped Utah pull away in the fourth quarter.

Those performances made him the first Utah player since 2021 to rush for at least 170 yards in consecutive games.

And Dampier is hardly the only other player Colorado needs to worry about.

Utah’s offense has been effective because it can create production in several different ways. Dampier can throw, extend plays or run himself, while Parker has been productive both out of the backfield and as a receiver.

That creates a difficult balance for a Colorado defense that has improved considerably against the run.

Against Georgia Tech, the Buffs held an offense that had rushed for 320 yards against them last season to just 51 yards on 30 attempts. Even as Colorado’s season has become more frustrating, its defensive front has continued to show flashes of that improvement.

The Texas Tech game was probably the clearest example.

Colorado held the Red Raiders to just 134 passing yards and recorded 12 tackles for loss and two sacks.

Defensive lineman Santana Hopper was particularly disruptive, finishing with 10 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and five quarterback hurries. According to Colorado Athletics, Hopper became the first player in program history to record at least five tackles for loss and five quarterback hurries in the same game.

The performance helped Colorado keep Texas Tech out of the end zone throughout the first half and within one possession until the fourth quarter.

But the defense eventually gave way.

The Red Raiders scored 17 points in the final quarter, and Colorado’s inability to sustain offensive drives continued to put pressure on a unit that had already done more than enough to keep the game competitive.

That is what makes Utah particularly concerning.

Colorado has shown that it can contain productive offenses for stretches. The Buffs held Georgia Tech without an offensive touchdown, limited Baylor to 23 points and kept Texas Tech to three points in the first half.

What they have not shown is an ability to maintain that performance when the offense repeatedly gives possessions away.

Against a Utah team averaging more than 40 points per game, the defense probably will not have the luxury of carrying the Buffs through another long offensive drought.

Utah has shown some vulnerabilities of its own. Kansas threw for 333 yards against the Utes last weekend and remained competitive for much of the game.

But Utah still won by 17 points.

The difference was what happened when the Utes needed to finish possessions. Utah rushed for 287 yards, converted all five of its red-zone opportunities into scores and eventually put the game away.

Colorado has struggled with almost the exact opposite.

A familiar rivalry with a different look

Colorado and Utah will meet for the 73rd time Saturday, with the Utes holding a 36-33-3 advantage in the all-time series.

The programs spent more than a decade together in the Pac-12 before joining the Big 12 in 2024, but the recent meetings have hardly been evenly divided.

Utah has won eight of the last nine matchups, with Colorado’s 49-24 victory in 2024 serving as the lone exception.

Last season’s 53-7 loss in Salt Lake City was one of Colorado’s most difficult performances under Sanders.

The Buffs finished with just seven points as Utah controlled the game, continuing a season that eventually ended with Colorado at 3-9.

This year’s Utah team has a different head coach but has maintained much of what made the program successful under Kyle Whittingham.

Scalley, Utah’s longtime defensive coordinator, took over following Whittingham’s departure and has guided the Utes to five straight victories in his first full season.

That transition could have created an adjustment period.

So far, it has not.

Utah’s defense has continued to limit rushing production and scoring opportunities, while its offense has become one of the most productive in the country.

For Colorado, the transition has been considerably less smooth.

The Buffs entered the season with a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive coordinator and a roster featuring dozens of transfers. Their first two wins provided reasons for optimism, particularly along the defensive front and within Marion’s offense.

Since then, Colorado has struggled to put those improvements together.

The Buffs have lost three consecutive games despite producing more total offense than Baylor and Texas Tech. Turnovers, penalties and inconsistent situational execution have repeatedly made those statistical advantages meaningless.

Utah has had the opposite experience, combining offensive production with a defense that consistently keeps opponents from scoring.

The results have placed the two programs in very different positions in the Big 12 conference race.

Utah remains undefeated and is competing near the top of the standings.

Colorado is still looking for its first conference win.

Colorado’s bye week comes before its toughest test yet

The timing of Colorado’s bye week gave Sanders and his staff an opportunity to address the problems that have followed the team through its first five games.

Whether two weeks was enough remains to be seen.

Colorado has struggled with much of the same offensive inconsistency since its season opener. The Buffs scored 14 points against Georgia Tech despite moving the ball effectively, exploded for 52 against Weber State and have not scored more than 13 in a game since.

The running game has become less productive. Turnovers have increased. Drives that initially look promising have ended with interceptions, missed field goals or failed conversions.

Those problems were particularly noticeable against Texas Tech, where Colorado outgained a nationally ranked opponent and still lost by 22 points.

There is only so much a defense can do when the offense keeps giving away possessions.

The Buffs’ problems with execution and consistency have become difficult to separate from the team’s overall identity, particularly when the same mistakes continue showing up against different opponents.

Saturday presents another opportunity to change that.

Sanders described Utah as probably the toughest opponent Colorado will face this season during his Tuesday press conference.

Considering what the Utes have shown through five games, that assessment is difficult to argue with.

Colorado will need to establish a running game against one of the country’s best rushing defenses, protect a quarterback who threw three interceptions in his last start and contain an offense that has scored at least 30 points in every game this season.

None of those tasks looks particularly easy.

Still, the Buffs have shown they can compete with talented teams when they avoid mistakes. Their defense kept them in the Texas Tech game well into the fourth quarter, and Wilson demonstrated enough on the opening possession to suggest the offense has more to offer.

What Colorado has not shown is that those performances can last.

The Buffs have already had two weeks to look at everything that went wrong against Texas Tech.

Saturday should provide a pretty good indication of whether they actually fixed any of it.

Colorado hosts No. 11 Utah on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Folsom Field in Boulder for Family Weekend and the annual Gold Rush game. Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. MDT, with the game airing nationally on ESPN.