Boo Carter's blocked kick lifts Colorado past Georgia Tech 14-13
A sold-out Bobby Dodd got Alberto Mendoza's first start, Deion Sanders' homecoming stagecraft, and a season opener that came down to a blocked kick — and it broke Colorado's way, 14-13.
Sanders got his selfie, Lewis got his homecoming, and Colorado got the win
The Flats sold out for a team that went 3-9 a year ago, because most of that crowd came for Deion Sanders and Julian Lewis as much as for the Jackets, and Brent Key spent the week saying so out loud — Sanders was one of his childhood heroes, he told reporters, and he was already planning to ask for a pregame selfie or bring Sanders' rookie card out for an autograph. Sanders, for his part, wasn't hiding the stakes either: "Oh, we better win. That's going to be the surprise. We're going to win," he said, per ESPN. He was right, though it took until the final minutes to be sure of it.
Colorado13-14Georgia Tech blocked a Colorado field goal to take a 10-7 lead with 7:35 to play, and Mendoza's touchdown throw to Jordan Allen put the Jackets back in front late — but Colorado had one more answer, and it was Boo Carter who ended it, blocking a Georgia Tech kick to seal the 14-13 win, per Pete Nakos. The stat that will sting most: Colorado got inside Georgia Tech's 40-yard line five times all night and scored just 7 points doing it, per Chris Vannini — this defense mostly held, and lost anyway. The one moment worth replaying from the losing side wasn't even on offense: Rahkeem Smith took a return 100 yards to the house, the kind of play that empties a student section even in a game the Jackets didn't win.
RAHKEEM 100 YARDS TO THE CRIB 🤯🤯🤯 @smith_rahkeem 📺 @espn #StingEm 🐝 t.co/s2JmHZeVyo
Colorado had arrived with its own subplot resolved before kickoff — receiver Danny Scudero, a game-time decision after a fall-camp injury, suited up for the Buffaloes. It wasn't enough to keep this one from going down to the last kick.
Mendoza's debut: the flashes were real, the record still says 0-1
A year ago Alberto Mendoza's whole résumé was 18 of 24 for 286 yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception in mop-up duty across 9 games behind Haynes King. On his first night as QB1, the flashes Brent Key and George Godsey kept describing all camp showed up early — an opening strike to Jordan Allen for 30 yards "outta the gate," a scramble that found Allen again on the 4-yard line, a 15-yard completion to Kevin Roche, and eventually the go-ahead touchdown to Allen that had Bobby Dodd on its feet.
It wasn't enough to hold, but it was enough to back up what the staff had been saying about him for weeks — Key calling him "smart, cerebral," someone who "sees the whole field," and Godsey saying flatly that Mendoza "understands ball" and has earned the freedom to change plays at the line, per SI's fall-camp notebook. A tight end who was missing most of camp, Gavin Harris, was back on the field with him. The record says 0-1. The tape, on this one, says the job is in good hands.
Next up: a ranked-caliber Tennessee team walks into an angry building
Georgia Tech doesn't get a get-right game — Tennessee comes to Bobby Dodd on September 12 at 6:00 PM, and the Vols arrive with their own eligibility drama already sorted: star linebacker Arion Carter, once expected to sit out under an NCAA suspension the program had pushed back on, was cleared to play in this one, per Pete Thamel. That's a defense at closer to full strength than Georgia Tech might have liked for a team coming off a bitter, one-score home loss.
The line opened with Georgia Tech as an 8.5-point underdog at home, which tells you how the market reads a team that just lost a game its own defense mostly won. A sold-out crowd that showed up for Sanders and Lewis will get a second chance in two weeks to show up for its own team instead.