DENVER -- During a recent practice, Josh Smith called his shot.

In the middle of a kickoff return drill, Colorado's super sophomore announced to anyone within earshot that he would be "taking one to the house" in the opener against Colorado State on Sunday night at Invesco Field.

Michael Sipili, a starting linebacker who is also one of the up-men on the kickoff return team, countered with his own prediction for the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

"Sipili said, 'When they squib it, I'm picking it up and taking it to the house,' " Smith said.

Sure enough, Colorado State kicker Ben DeLine attempted a squib kick in the second quarter after a Billy Farris touchdown pass to Dion Morton had cut the Buffs' lead to 14-7.

Sipili and the rest of the CU kickoff return team resisted temptation and allowed the football to roll all the way back to Smith at the 7-yard line. A few seconds later he was in the end zone celebrating his first collegiate touchdown.

"That was an unbelievable feeling," Smith said after racking up 160 yards on three kickoff returns and 189 total yards during CU's 38-17 victory. "I turned around looking for yellow laundry. I was like, 'Please don't give me no holding, I can't take that on my heart right now.'"

There were no penalties on the perfectly blocked play, but Kent Riddle's heart would skip a beat moments later when CSU's John Mosure answered with a 90-yard touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff.

Three touchdowns on three consecutive plays covering 204 yards in 26 seconds. The special teams practices should be interesting in Boulder and Fort Collins this week.

"It's an unforgivable mistake, and we can't let that happen ever again," Riddle, who is CU's special teams coach, said of following Smith's highlight with a poorly executed kickoff.

Mosure's touchdown gave the Rams some hope by pulling them to within 21-14 at halftime.

"I thought that was big. That made it a game," Smith said. "They're not going to lay down for us and they have athletes, man. They're no run-over team, especially against us."

Smith opened the second half with a 45-yard kickoff return and made a 15-yard catch on third-and-4 moments later to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Cody Hawkins that made the score 28-14.

This time the Rams didn't have a momentum-changing answer and never seriously threatened CU on the scoreboard again.

"I didn't have this experience against CSU last year, so I wanted to come out and do something special," said Smith, who missed the first two games of the 2007 season with a severe kidney bruise. "I'm glad I could make some big plays today for the team. ...

"You can continue to say you're ready for this game, but you never know just how ready you need to be until you play in it. It's a wonderful environment, and I was glad I was able to make big plays tonight."

Smith's nephew, freshman running back Darrell Scott, capped the victory with a 1-yard touchdown run with 2:14 remaining.

"Definitely a perfect night," Smith said. "I had to score before Darrell and keep the chronological order. He can score more from here on out, but I had to get in first this year."

Solid debut

The first time Darrell Scott touched the ball as a Colorado Buffalo, he slipped -- and still picked up 6 yards.

The highly touted running back may have started slowly, but he finished Sunday night's win over Colorado State as the Buffs' leading rusher with 54 yards on 11 carries.

"I was nervous," Scott admitted. "When I looked up and saw 70,000 people, my thought was don't fumble, don't make Coach Hawk mad and try to do good."

He accomplished all three goals, and threw in a 1-yard scoring run to boot.

After the game, he found his head coach, gave him a hug and flashed the grin that will likely become quite familiar to CU fans.

"We did it," he said to Hawkins. "We did it."

Scott, who played in plenty of big games as a prep star in California, still admitted to a "bad case of the jitterbugs" on Sunday. But on CU's decisive drives down the stretch, he was the back getting the carries.

"The line and Cody (Hawkins) just kept supporting me," Scott said. "With them in my corner, I wasn't worried."

Line rotation

Blake Behrens and Devin Head were the starting guards for the Buffs Sunday night, but freshman Max Tuioti-Mariner also got some substantial time at the position.

The Buffs will likely continue that kind of rotation, at least in the immediate future. CU's no-huddle spread offense can take a toll on linemen, and such a rotation helps keep them fresh.

Breaking in

Six Buffs saw their first action on the opening play of the game as part of the kickoff coverage squad. Redshirt freshmen Anthony Perkins, Travis Sandersfeld, and Anthony Wright made their debuts. True freshmen Jameson Davis and Patrick Mahnke and junior college transfer Shaun Mohler saw action too.

Offensive guard Blake Behrens was the only CU starter Sunday who had not seen previous action. Nineteen total players saw their play as a Buff, including seven true freshmen. In addition to the seven players above, DT Curtis Cunningham, E Ryan Deehan, PK Aric Goodman,, DT Eugene Goree, ILB Josh Hartigan, OG Maxwell Tuioti-Mariner, DE Conrad Obi, DT Tony Poremba, TB Darrell Scott, TE Devin Shanahan, DT Lagrone Shield and TB Rodney Stewart all saw their initial action as a Buff.

Notable

The Buffs started the season a little sloppy against the Rams by committing eight penalties for 58 yards. Colorado State faired a little better, committing four penalties for 18 yards. ... Kicker Jameson Davis had seven kickoffs and put three of those in the end zone for touchbacks. Aric Goodman was 5-for-5 on extra points and also hit a 23-yard field goal in his debut for the Buffs on Sunday.