Colorado's slide the second half of the season ended Saturday as the Buffs took their sixth straight loss -- 23-17 at Utah -- to end coach Deion Sanders' first campaign.
It was the fourth of those six losses to finish by a one-score margin, but the totality nonetheless shows how much work Sanders still has ahead of him in reshaping the Buffs.
Here are five takeaways from the finale ...
1. Multiple game-changing plays came up short
Colorado may have won this matchup if it weren’t due to the game-changing calls on Travis Hunter and the impactful penalties.
Second quarter strides on both sides of the ball put the Buffs in position to take the lead before the half. On third-and-7, Ryan Staub threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Hunter for what would have been a spectacular first career TD for the young QB. However, as Hunter appeared to lose control as he was coming down with the ball and the call was overturned to an incompletion.
Instead of leading 14-13 at the half, Colorado was down by 3 as Alejandro Mata made a career-long 47-yard field goal attempt.
In another instance, Hunter, who finished the Utah game with 8 catches for 107 yards and 1 touchdown, had another touchdown called back after he appeared to step out of bounds.
Both of these plays were highly disputed by Colorado fans on social media after watching the replays.
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