Brenden Rice earns player of the game honors. Obviously.
The Colorado Buffaloes finally got their first Pac-12 victory on Saturday against winless Arizona in Boulder. The Buffs were thinking of this game for the past two weeks and made easy work of the Wildcats, walking out with a 34-0 shutout.
Brendon Lewis played well, completing 12 of 19 passes for 248 yards and a pair of scores while taking care of the football. Jarek Broussard had a career day last time they faced Arizona, but the Buffs running back had just 53 yards on 13 carries this time around.
That means the Buffs player of the game is wide receiver Brenden Rice, who had a wild stat line of three catches for 111 yards and a touchdown.
It had been a rough start for Rice, who had only eight catches all year and tied his season-high on Saturday with three grabs. Rice had also failed to go over 25 yards in a game and torched the Arizona defense on that touchdown grab.
The 248 passing yards for Lewis were also a career-high, and it was refreshing to see the Buffs move the football efficiently through the air– even if it was against Arizona.
Oddly enough, Rice had 111 receiving yards, and Arizona as a team had only 153. Even more strange is that the Buffs ran for 117 yards, nearly the amount of Rice’s yardage total on Saturday.
Maybe Colorado has something up their sleeves, and perhaps they utilize Rice more moving forward.
Up next for Colorado is a game against 1-5 Cal, although the Bears pushed Oregon to the brink on Friday night before the Ducks found a way to squeak out the victory.
Colorado snapped a four-game losing streak in its 34-0 win over Arizona.
Confidence can be a powerful factor for a college football team and Colorado regained some of that on Saturday in a commanding 34-0 win over Arizona.
For now, let’s ignore the fact that Arizona is now riding an 18-game losing streak. A win is a win, right? Nearly every facet of the now 2-4 Buffaloes took a step forward to finally seal their first Pac-12 win.
Offensively, look no further than what Brendon Lewis and Brenden Rice were able to accomplish. Lewis’ improved deep ball accuracy helped his wide receiver reel in a career-high 111 receiving yards, including a 62-yard touchdown.
It did take a while for the offense to fully get going, however. The ball was moving but Cole Becker’s two made field goals were all the Buffs could get in the first half. And if it weren’t for a four-play goal line stand by the defense, Colorado was nearly down 7-6 late in the second quarter.
On an Arizona punt attempt, freshman Trevor Woods, who plays safety outside of special teams, snuck past the Wildcats’ line and blocked the kick. Woods was then able to recover the football and return it 36 yards into the endzone. The punt block turned touchdown was CU’s first since Lawrence Vickers did so against Washington State in 2004. Just five plays later, the fun continued on Arizona’s ensuing drive when defensive end Carson Wells picked off Gunner Cruz and brought it home 50 yards.
Karl Dorrell believed the pair of big plays gave the Buffs a “shot in the arm” to close out the game strong.
“This is a really good win for us because all three areas (offense, defense and special teams) scored touchdowns,” Dorrell said. “A young freshman (Woods) made a play—it was great to see that. It kind of gave us a chance to create some opportunities on the defensive side. Carson Wells did a tremendous job of stepping in front of a pass and going for another score.”
Rice’s 62-yard TD soon followed and Lewis later found Dimitri Stanley for an 11-yard score. Lewis ended the afternoon with a career-high 248 yards and two touchdowns. After receiving plenty of criticism during Colorado’s now extinguished four-game losing streak, the second-year freshman QB appeared relieved following the win.
“I was able to keep my head up because of the support that my teammates and my coaches have showed me throughout this adversity that we’ve gotten,” Lewis said.
Oct 16, 2021; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Brendon Lewis (12) prepares to pass the ball in the first quarter against the Arizona Wildcats at Folsom Field. Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Going back to Wells, his pick-six wasn’t his only shining moment on Saturday. All four of his tackles were for a loss and he added a sack of Cruz in the third quarter.
In the secondary, Christian Gonzalez and Mekhi Blackmon were strong once again and Mark Perry caught his first interception of 2021. Cruz and Will Plummer, who replaced an injured Cruz in the third quarter, combined for just 153 passing yards. Colorado’s defensive shutout was its first against a conference opponent since beating Oklahoma State by the same score of 34-0 in 2005.
But with all that being said, a better barometer of how good the Buffs are will come next week at California. Yes, the Golden Bears are 1-5, but they are nowhere near how bad the Wildcats have been. A Buffs’ win in Berkeley would quickly catapult them back to .500 in Pac-12 play.
Colorado scored on its opening drive against Arizona.
For the first time all season, the Colorado Buffaloes were able to score points in their first drive of a game. CU’s defense opened things up by forcing a three-and-out before the offense got things going at its own 31-yard line.
Then, on the second play of the drive, Brendon Lewis took advantage of Brenden Rice’s hops and threw a jump ball that Rice won.
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) October 16, 2021
The 31-yard gain set Colorado up at the Arizona 41-yard line.
A handful of plays later, Lewis once again enjoyed plentiful time in the pocket and threw a near-perfect pass to Dimitri Stanley in the endzone, Stanley, however, dropped the pass.
Arizona’s defense later stood strong at the goal line and forced a 4th-and-goal at the 1-yard line. Instead of going for it, Karl Dorrell opted for a 19-yard field goal. Cole Becker nailed the chip shot to put Colorado up 3-0 early in the first quarter.
Five things to know for Colorado and Arizona’s Week 7 clash.
With the Colorado Buffaloes and Arizona Wildcats a combined 1-9 in 2021, there isn’t exactly a ton of national excitement surrounding this contest. Colorado may not be reeling quite as bad as Arizona, but both teams are desperate for a win nonetheless.
First-year head coach Jedd Fisch hasn’t exactly gotten the Wildcats off to a stellar start during his tenure and wasn’t even able to beat in-state FCS opponent Northern Arizona. When the final whistle blew in a 34-16 Week 6 loss to UCLA, Arizona had dropped its 17th consecutive game dating back to 2019. Colorado, meanwhile, hasn’t beaten an FBS team yet this season after coming off a 2020 bowl season.
Keeping that somber backdrop in mind, here are five things to know when these teams clash in Week 7.
Buffs Wire and Trojans Wire discussed how Colorado’s offense has an opportunity to succeed against a struggling USC defense
Earlier this week, Buffaloes Wire joined Trojans Wire in podcast form to discuss this weekend’s matchup. A lot was discussed but one of the more interesting dive-ins was how this could be an opportunity for Colorado’s offense to get going. USC’s defense has struggled recently and has relinquished over 40 points in two of its last three games. I speculated what offensive changes may work for Colorado and who I’d like to see get involved more.
[lawrence-related id=849,826,802]
The following is a transcript of my response to Trojans Wire editor Matt Zemek asking about CU’s offense:
If CU can duplicate what they did in that first drive in the second half against ASU in terms of spreading out the field a little bit more, and this wasn’t fun to watch the past couple of years, but if they can go more east-west and get some of our talented wideouts going like Brenden Rice or a Dimitri Stanley who, it’s not their fault, but they haven’t really done anything this year. If we can get them more screen passes and the ball in open space not right in the middle of the field, again, taking advantage of going sideline to sideline, then I think that will be better for CU. They did that a little bit with Texas A&M too. That’s a strength of this team I think is our speed with some of our wideouts. And then having a guy like Brady Russell to be one of Brendon Lewis’ checkdowns so he can have that security blanket if something’s going wrong.
Brenden Rice has some of the same moves and savvy his dad had during a Hall of Fame career that earned him the title as the G.O.A.T. when it came to wideouts and players, in general.
Brenden’s dad put up some amazing college stats:
Jerry Rice had 50 touchdown receptions at Mississippi Valley. As a sophomore, Rice caught 66 passes for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns. The next year he set NCAA Division I-AA records for receptions (102) and receiving yards (1,450). As a senior, he broke his own marks for receptions (103) and receiving yards (1,682) and his 27 touchdown receptions in 1984 set the NCAA mark for all divisions. Rice finished ninth in the 1984 Heisman Trophy voting and finished his college career with 301 catches for 4,693 yards.
Apparently, he isn’t taking kindly to the head coach he signed to defecting to one of Michigan’s rivals, using a ‘slur’ to bat back.
[jwplayer ijCrlIvI-XNcErKyb]
The Wolverines were unable to secure Chandler (AZ) Hamilton three-star Brenden Rice, the son of acclaimed wide receiver Jerry Rice, but perhaps some of his recruitment to Ann Arbor has worn off on him.
Or maybe he’s bitter that the head coach he committed and signed to jumped ship for another school.
And that that school happens to be one of Michigan’s rivals.
Rice signed to Colorado on Early Signing Day in December, with then-head coach Mel Tucker having four years remaining on a five-year contract. It seemed that Tucker was in Boulder to stay when he rebuffed MSU’s potential advances over the weekend, but when the Spartans brass doubled their efforts after failing to secure their top target, Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, Tucker waned and ultimately left for East Lansing anyhow.
Apparently, he wanted to get some attention from some of his now-former signees, with the Michigan State Twitter account apparently following Rice. Rice didn’t just not take kindly to the gesture, he used a term that’s now become lexicon in rivalry lore, with words uttered by record-breaking Mike Hart himself back in 2007.
Michigan st. followed me 🤣 why would I want to go to the lil bro school
According to 247Sports, MSU was not one of Rice’s reported offers as a recruit, but naturally, Tucker would be opportunistic to get any of his signees to Colorado to transfer to East Lansing.
However, it doesn’t look like Rice wants to hear anything about it. And his method is sure to endear him to Michigan fans, while simultaneously angering the MSU faithful.
