Travis Hunter exits early as CU Buffs roll the Wildcats in the desert

The Arizona Wildcats started the game with a surprise onside kick that the Colorado Buffaloes recovered and from that point forward it seemed both teams knew who would win on Saturday.

The Buffs quickly jumped out to a two-touchdown lead and never looked back, beating the ‘Cats 34-7. The Big 12 battle was a huge one for CU, who likely needs to win out and get some help in order to reach the conference’s championship game. Arizona, which was once-ranked and features a standout quarterback-wide receiver pairing, has now dropped three games in a row as their season begins to fade. But rise is what the Buffaloes are doing, now winning their last three road games and on the verge of bowl eligibility with a 5-2 record.

CU played a more complete game on offense, picking up 150 yards on the ground, led by Isaiah Augustave . Maybe not a ton of work but an improvement for the Buffs who entered Saturday as the fourth-worst rushing offense in the country at 63 yards a game. Couple the better ground game with 250 and two touchdowns through the air on the arm of Shedeur Sanders (with Ryan Staubb getting some work in garbage time) and the Buffaloes made light work of the banged up Wildcats defense.

The one negative from Colorado’s win is that Travis Hunter again left the contest early with an injury. The superstar gunning for the Heisman has had his chances hurt by two straight games where he hasn’t played in the second half. More importantly for CU, the Buffs will need Hunter to star again soon if the team is going to reach their postseason aspirations.

"Travis Hunter will be done for the day… it's more just to be cautious with him with this game the way it is." @AllisonW_Sports with an update after the half on Travis Hunter ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Vt1m7KzjKo

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 19, 2024

Even before Hunter left the game around halftime and didn’t come back out in pads, he had only played 13 of the team’s 31 defense snaps. Hunter was on the field for 41 on offense and with him banged up, it was LaJohntay Wester stepping up. The transfer wideout notched eight catches for 127 yards. But Colorado’s two passing touchdowns went to Will Sheppard and Drelon Miller.

Colorado’s defense only allowing seven points was the fewest of the Coach Prime era, and it was the second time this season an opponent at home has scored fewer than 10 points (Colorado State scored nine.)  The Buffs defensive success on Saturday was built on getting after QB Noah Fifita to the tune of seven sacks. With the gunslinger hit so often there wasn’t much of a chance to get the ball to soon-to-be first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan. And with the team tailing their run game was never really a factor plus the Buffs also tallied eight tackles for a loss. The snowball effect was Fifita running around for his life and Colorado shutting down Arizona and the Buffaloes forcing three turnovers of the Wildcats.

The Buffaloes are back home next week, hosting Cincinnati. The Bearcats also improved to 5-2 this weekend, beating Arizona State 24-14 earlier on Saturday. Cincinnati is 3-1 thus far in their second season of Big 12 action—setting up a somewhat surprising big conference battle in Boulder on Saturday night—given both teams were selected to finish 11th or worst in the conference in the preseason media poll. Of note, Colorado’s next road opponent, the previously unbeaten Texas Tech lost on Saturday—which was some of the help the Buffaloes needed.