Rodney Stewart did all he could.
The junior tailback amassed 176 yards with three touchdowns, but his superb performance could not hold his team up in a 52-45 loss at Kansas.
This was no ordinary loss for the Buffs.
A 45-17 lead in the fourth quarter did not hold, as the Jayhawks proceeded to score 35 unanswered. In the history of Colorado football (a long 121 years), the Buffaloes have never given up a four-touchdown lead, much less in a single quarter.
“In the many years I’ve being covering Colorado football, I’ve never seen such a collapse as I saw here this afternoon,” said broadcaster Larry Zimmer, who has been calling Buff games for the past 34 years. “Absolute disgrace, and you can’t put it all on the players.”
Following Stewart’s eight-yard touchdown run on the first play of the final quarter, the offense ran only three times the rest of the game.
In his third year dressed in black and gold, Stewart has never won a game that has not been played in the state of Colorado.
The floor began crumbling under the Buffs’ heels right after Stewart’s score, when Kansas drove 66 yards to finish with a touchdown run by tailback James Sims, one of four by the freshman from Texas.
With the next play, the Jayhawks recovered an onside kick. It took a little over a minute for them to close the Buffs lead to two possessions.
Behind the short arm of Cody Hawkins, CU kept on passing. Jayhawks freshman Tyler Patmon recovered a fumble by junior Toney Clemons and returned it for a touchdown.
Two plays later, Patmon intercepted Hawkins. The home team would score again to tie the game.
It all happened too fast. Kansas scored five touchdowns in the final 10 minutes.
According to the Big 12 standings, the loss makes the Buffs the worst team in the league. In its farewell tour to the conference it helped found, Colorado drops to 0-5 in conference play.
So it may be a bad time to bring up that imminent transition to the Pac-12.
Earlier in the week, the 2011 schedule was announced. Current No. 1 Oregon, perennial powerhouse USC and top-25 Arizona are coming to Boulder next year.
The head coach’s 16th consecutive road loss could be one of his last. CU must still travel to the Sea of Red when they take on rival Nebraska, who will be heavily favored. But a loss to a 3-6 Kansas team, who was previously winless in the Big 12, might be the last straw for athletic director Mike Bohn.
If they wanted to, he could point out failures from this game alone as grounds of firing the locally maligned Hawkins.
A lead built up by freshman receiver Paul Richardson’s two touchdown catches and Stewart’s grandiose effort seemed insurmountable for a young Kansas squad. They could have folded in to a 38-10 CU favor at halftime.
Kansas junior quarterback Quinn Mecham, who was the third-string quarterback entering the season, threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns to keep his team alive.
Down 52-45 with under a minute remaining, CU drove the ball to Kansas’ seven-yard line.
On first down, Richardson caught the ball but was ruled out of bounds. On the next play, Hawkins overthrew his tight end, and time expired. What appeared to be the Buffs first road-win in three years turned out to be another disappointment.
Three games to go, and the Buffs need to win all of them to miraculously crawl into the postseason.
A season that is now as fragile as a job in this economy depends on how Hawkins and company respond. One more loss is all it takes to give the program an extended offseason to evaluate certain employees.
Contact Michael Krumholtz at Michael.krumholtz@colorado.edu.
