Led by senior running back Devin Neal‘s 287 total yards and four touchdowns, unranked Kansas handed No. 16 Colorado its first loss since Oct. 12. on Saturday.
With the victory, the Jayhawks improved their record to 5-6 this season, and Saturday’s win was the school’s third in a row over a ranked opponent.
Kansas is now the first team in FBS history with a losing record to get three straight victories against ranked schools.
For a Jayhawks squad that got off to an abysmal 1-5 start this year, they’ve certainly looked more like the team that entered the 2024 season ranked No. 22 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll during the last few weeks.
Neal and Kansas didn’t waste any time on Saturday letting everyone know that Colorado was about to have its hands full.
On the Jayhawks’ opening offensive drive of the matchup, the senior running back caught a short swing pass and proceeded to turn it into a 51-yard touchdown to give his team an early 7-0 lead over the Buffaloes.
Then, after a nine-yard touchdown run by Neal on the team’s third offensive drive of the contest, the Jayhawks found themselves leading the No.16 school in the country by a score of 17-0.
The Buffaloes did manage to stage a comeback and decrease their deficit to just two points in the third quarter. But after Kansas added 14 more points to its total on the school’s next two offensive drives to go up 37-21 in the fourth quarter, Colorado didn’t have enough left in the tank to keep up.
With the loss, the Buffaloes’ record fell to 8-3, and any hope they had of playing in this season’s 12-team College Football Playoff possibly went out the window.
There’s still a path for Colorado to make the College Football Playoff, but the school is no longer in control of its own destiny.
To qualify for the Big 12 title game, the Buffaloes now not only need to defeat Oklahoma State next Friday, but they also need a number of other scenarios to play out in order to finish as one of the top two teams in the conference.
Anything is possible in the world of college football, but a win over the Jayhawks on Saturday would have definitely made Colorado’s future much easier to predict. Instead, the Buffaloes will take the field next week surrounded by uncertainty.
