Folsom's Greatest Games #24 - Colorado vs. Baylor 2024

Author’s note:

I know it says “24” in the title, but try to think of it as saying “TBD” instead. Just when I thought I had picked the best 24 games from Folsom’s first 100 years, this one had to come along three weeks before the 100th anniversary and give me the best possible problem: How do you place something amazing in proper historical context when it only just happened? 

Not ranking it at all would be a crime. There’s no question that it belongs. But how can one know where to put it when the full magnitude of its impact hasn’t yet been determined? Two future CU legends had iconic moments on that night, but they are still authoring their black and gold legacies. The way the rest of the 2024 season shakes out will have a lot to do with how high this one climbs. Since this list will conclude before the season is over, I think the only fair thing is to say that this game is securely in the top 24, and that I will reassess its ranking after the season is over. 

September 21, 2024 – Colorado 38, Baylor 31 (OT)

On a rainy night that threatened to turn a sold-out, white-clad crowd into a giant wet t-shirt contest, a Miracle fell from the sky and landed safely in the cradling arms of Lajohntay Wester. CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders, rolling to his left, threw a perfect spiral across his body that traveled fifty yards through the rain before Wester plucked it out of the air just inches above the wet turf. 

That’s all you need to know, really. Never mind that the Fox broadcast had the audacity to show a clip before the play of the Miracle in Michigan from almost exactly three decades earlier. Never mind that Will Sheppard had just let a previous perfect pass from Sanders bounce off his chest at the four-yard line; seemingly sealing CU’s doom.

Never mind that the officials gave Colorado a terrible spot that cost them twenty precious seconds in the final minute and forced a fourth down that never should have been necessary. Never mind that Sanders had to fall on a fumble earlier in the drive to keep the faint embers of hope burning. Never mind that Baylor had just yanked a game-sealing field goal wide right after having 1st-and-10 on CU’s 25 yard line with four minutes left and a seven-point lead. Never mind all of it! The Miracle stands on its own merits. There was no time remaining on the clock. The timing was perfect.

And then, after all that, it was overtime. CU began with a touchdown, but Baylor seemed certain to equalize with 1st-and-goal from the two yard line. Enter another Miracle named Travis Hunter. His shoulder dislodged the football from Baylor running back Dominic Richardson, and it bounced harmlessly through the back of the end zone.

The student section poured onto the field along with the rain, and they danced in it. Never mind that the play still had to be reviewed! Would Travis Hunter have failed to knock the ball free before it crossed the goal line? Unthinkable. When the inevitable was confirmed by the officials, the revelry commenced in earnest. No matter how the rest of the 2024 season plays out, every Buff fan will always remember the 21st night of September.

Links:
CU at the Game recap
Mark Johnson’s call of the finish