SALT LAKE CITY — There wasn’t much of a rivalry feel in Rice-Eccles Stadium early Friday afternoon before Colorado ended Utah’s chances of winning the Pac-12 Conference South Division.
But it seems safe to say there was a hint of bad blood emitting from the aftermath.
As Colorado players danced on the field following the third errant field goal of the game from Utah as time expired, some Utah fans in the stands behind the CU bench were seen throwing trash and other objects at CU players and coaches.
The Buffs hardly seemed to notice, probably more because they were celebrating their first victory on the road in four seasons. But it could have been because angry people in red on the day after Thanksgiving is nothing unusual.
And then there was the scene in the press box.
Rooms on the press level are home to assistant coaches for both teams during the game and when the Buffs had secured victory, CU coaches emerged from their room on the way to the field hooting and hollering, with a few four-letter words thrown in.
Utah staffers did not react well to the outburst and longtime CU sports information director Dave Plati rose from his seat to calm things down, only to get into an minor argument of his own.
Has it really been 49 years since these teams played?
Favor for an old friend
Colorado’s victory Friday vaulted UCLA into the Pac-12 championship game next week against either Oregon or Stanford.
Former CU coach Rick Neuheisel, now the head coach at UCLA, will face arch rival USC today without the added burden of having to win to qualify for the title game and maybe needing to save his job.
Neuheisel, who is a close friend of CU head coach Jon Embree, had this to say afterward:
“I am thrilled for Jon and the Buffs. He wanted to end that road streak so badly. I’m glad that’s now behind them. It just goes to show, you never say die, anything can happen and in college football anything often does. We’re thrilled that we’re officially in the title game, but we’re not even thinking about that right now. We have a big game ahead of us in USC first.”
Sour end for Speedy
CU senior running back Rodney Stewart sprained his ankle on the first play of the second half Friday and was not able to return to the game. The injury ended his pursuit of a milestone just shy of the target.
He was vying to become the 27th player in NCAA history to produce more than 3,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in a career. He needed just 31 receiving yards in the second half to get there.
Stewart’s career ended with him having climbed to the top of the career lists at CU in rushing attempts (809), yards from scrimmage (4,567), and all-purpose yards (4,828). He is CU’s second leading rusher with 3,598 yards.
Wraps on Hansen
Senior quarterback Tyler Hansen completed his career by leading the Buffs to their first road victory in his time as the starter. That was the only statistic that matter to Hansen on Friday.
“It feels great, especially being my last game I’ll ever play in at CU,” Hansen said. “That road streak, it was tough. I told some other people before that when you have this long of a road streak and it’s such a big deal and people are thinking about it, when things don’t go your way during the game and Utah is turning things around, you get that feeling, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ Today we didn’t get that feeling. We kept fighting and we kept doing things that we wanted to do.”
Hansen completed passes to 10 different receivers in his final game and leaves CU ranked among the top four passers in school history in a handful of categories such as attempts (third with 872), 505 completions (third), 5,705 passing yards (fourth), 35 touchdown passes (fourth) and 6,183 yards of total offense (fourth).
Notable
CU freshman placekicker Will Oliver made his only field-goal attempt on Friday setting a CU freshman record in the process with 11 field goals in one season. … Redshirt freshman running back Tony Jones had a career-high 72 rushing yards and 12 carries filling in for Stewart. … Defensive end turned tight end Nick Kasa made his first career reception for eight yards.
