Blocked kick seals Colorado's 14-13 win at Georgia Tech
Boo Carter's block on a 45-yard field goal preserved Julian Lewis's first career start and gave the Buffs their first true road win since 2024.
Julian Lewis's Georgia homecoming ends with Colorado's first true road win in years
Down 13-7 with under 8 minutes left after Georgia Tech blocked a Colorado field goal, Julian Lewis drove the Buffs 76 yards and hit tight end Charlie Williams for a 20-yard touchdown with 37 seconds on the clock, per the Associated Press. He finished 14-of-27 for 124 yards, and 60 of those came on that final drive alone. Then Boo Carter, who had already scooped a first-quarter fumble at Georgia Tech's 26-yard line, got a hand on Aidan Birr's 45-yard field-goal attempt as time expired to seal it. Brett McMurphy noted on the wire that it snapped a 7-game road losing streak for Colorado and stood as the program's first win over an ACC opponent since the 1957 Orange Bowl.
Georgia Tech14-13It was not clean. ESPN's Adam Rittenberg called it "a slop fest" between two teams playing their openers, and Chris Vannini counted Colorado reaching Georgia Tech's 40-yard line 5 times for only 7 points before that last drive — "just so many self-inflicted mistakes," as he put it. Lamont Lester Jr. kept the margin manageable with 3 sacks. The receiver room played thinner than planned: Danny Scudero was a game-time call on a foot injury heading into kickoff, while fellow receiver K. Perry was questionable with an elbow issue, per Covers' injury table.
JULIAN LEWIS TO CHARLIE WILLIAMS @JulianLewis10 x @charliew_8 t.co/3WdpGbYBuS
Afterward, Sanders sounded like a coach who'd been saving something up. "I don't rank moments, I try to turn them into monuments," he told reporters, before turning the podium into a lecture on class — "let's make sure this locker room is clean when we leave... they fought their butts off, and I have a lot of respect for their coach," he said, per Yahoo Sports. It is Colorado's first true road win since beating Texas Tech in 2024, and a sharp turn from how last season ended: the Buffs closed 2025 on a four-game skid, falling 24-14 at Kansas State on November 29.
Brennan Marion's ground game showed up 49 times, and Bruce Feldman noticed
The final score will get remembered for the block, but the stranger stat is buried in the play-by-play: Colorado ran the ball 49 times, its most in a game since 2020, per Bruce Feldman on the wire, who called new offensive coordinator Brennan Marion's system "a total 180" for a program that spent last season trying to throw its way out of trouble. Running back Micah Welch punched in a 5-yard touchdown and finished with 58 yards on 13 carries, and transfer back Damian Henderson II added 65 yards on 12 attempts. At one stretch Colorado ran it 15 straight times, per Chris Vannini, daring Georgia Tech to prove it could stop the same play twice.
can’t take Micah down. 💯 t.co/7h6vbV61Z4
Sanders leaned into the number himself. "We rushed for 183 yards, my God. They rushed for 51... I thought we were small," he said postgame, taking a shot at the preseason chatter that his roster lacked the size to run the ball, according to Yahoo Sports. It also explains why Lewis's own line looks modest for a game-winning performance — this offense isn't built to pile up 300-yard nights, it's built to wear a defense down. Georgia Tech's Brayden Manley had said before kickoff he was "going for two [sacks]" against the first-time starter, per Essentially Sports; Marion's Buffs made sure the only two that mattered were Lester's, not anything hung on Lewis.
Christensen's eligibility fight hits a wall in Boulder County, but it isn't over
Ezra Christensen's path to Boulder was never a normal one. He grew up in an orphanage in Sierra Leone, was adopted at 16 with no knowledge of American football or the NCAA rulebook, and lost his senior year of high school to the pandemic. He started college at San Diego Mesa, a junior college, in 2022, before two seasons at Fresno State and a 2025 stop at New Mexico State, where he made first-team All-CUSA with 11 tackles for loss and six sacks — numbers that led all FBS defensive linemen in total quarterback hurries (28) and ranked third among interior linemen in Pro Football Focus grading. He arrived at Colorado this offseason still needing the NCAA to grant him a fifth year to play.
That fight got harder this week. A Boulder County district court judge denied Christensen's motion for a preliminary injunction, according to DNVR Sports and On3, leaving him ineligible for the fall as things stand. His attorney, Darren Heitner, who has beaten the NCAA in court before, told 247Sports the team is looking into filing an emergency motion for reconsideration — a motion that, as of this week, is still pending rather than filed. It's a separate case from the broader ruling that already unlocked fifth years for players like Florida's Denzel Aberdeen and USF's Traevon Mitchell this summer, but for now it leaves one of Colorado's best returning pass-rushers on the outside looking in for the opener.
Next up: Weber State brings its own last-second finish to Folsom Field
Colorado's home opener comes on September 12 vs. Weber State, kicking off Saturday, September 12 at 2:30 PM at Folsom Field. The Wildcats arrive 1-0 themselves, but it wasn't pretty either: a backup freshman quarterback's fourth-quarter touchdown drive and a freshman linebacker's blocked extra point with 3 seconds left were what got first-year head coach Eric Kjar a 30-29 win at Northern Colorado, per the Standard-Examiner. Two teams that needed the final minute to survive their openers now meet in Boulder.
There's no line up yet on this one, but there's already a full building being sold — CUBuffsFootball has been pushing fans to "help us pack out the crib" for the visit. After a road trip that came down to a blocked kick of their own, the Buffs get to try their new identity in front of the home crowd for the first time.