ATLANTA — TCU 2:
As in, Boo Carter.
The Buffs cornerback flew in from somewhere west of Chattanooga to stun Bobby Dodd Stadium into stunned silence.
Carter, a transfer from Tennessee, blocked a 45-yard, potential game-winning Georgia Tech field goal as time expired, flipping Atlanta — and the evening’s narratives — completely on their collective heads.
Buffs 14, Yellow Jackets 13.
Lordy, after that one, we might have to.
Deion Sanders’ Buffs had no business losing that game. Then they had no business winning it.
They won anyway.
Remember CU 45, TCU 42 in 2023?
For Coach Prime, the Georgia sports icon, this one might’ve been even sweeter.
It took a lightning delay and four quarters, but Julian Lewis, the beleaguered freshman quarterback from nearby Carrollton, had one magical drive left in him after all.
The kid got the ball back with 1:40 left, down 13-7, at his own 25. The next 59 seconds will be talked about for years.
A pass to running back DeKalon Taylor for 17. A sack. An incompletion. A third-and-11 toss to Joseph Williams for 16 yards and a fresh set of downs at the Tech 43.
While a young, sloppy Georgia Tech bunch got wide-eyed in the moment, CU pounced. Lewis for another seven. An incompletion. A Taylor rush for 16 yards on third-and-3 to the Tech 20.
The hosts called timeout with 41 seconds on the clock. New CU offensive coordinator Brennan Marion was only getting warmed up.
On first down, the pocket held. Buffs tight end Charlie Williams raced out of the backfield, up the left boundary, and lost his defender with a double move. Lewis spotted his target and placed the rock where only Williams could run under it.
Which he did, snaring the ball with his fingertips and riding his momentum all the way into the end zone. Out of nowhere, a listless contest was tied at 13-all before the extra point.
And to think: Up until the final two minutes, Marion’s Go-Go system had largely been a no-go. Lewis completed four of six passes for 76 yards on that final, fateful drive.
Before that, the Georgia native made good on just 10 of 21 throws for 48 yards. Only three routes had looked comfortable for the frosh QB 1 — the flat, the slant and the inside dig. Lewis overthrew open deep shots in the first half; In the second, his wideouts took turns dropping the ball.
With new coordinators and a roster makeover, CU looked nothing like we’d expected. It took four years, but the Buffs finally found a running game under Coach Prime. Behind an honest-to-goodness, bruising, physical, get-what-we-want-when-we-want-it offensive line. Lamont Lester racked up three sacks through the first three stanzas.
The Buffs still have some issues, primarily on special teams and at safety. CU trailed 10-7 at the half, and if the hosts weren’t such a ramblin’ wreck, it could’ve been worse.
The visitors outrushed Tech 81-24 over the first two quarters and while playing comparatively clean, with three penalties to the hosts’ seven.
The difference? A 100-yard Tech kick return to the house, and GT’s young QB Alberto Mendoza (8 for 12 passing in the fist half) looking a little less rattled than Lewis (6 of 14, 41 yards at the break) at the outset.
There were the game-management things that drive Buffs fans bonkers, still. Midway through the second quarter on a CU fourth-and-5 from the Tech 38, a fairly obvious punt-and-pin with the way your defense was playing, Sanders lined up for a punt … then called a timeout. When play resumed, the Buffs … punted.
Tech’s first touchdown came on Rahkeem Smith’s 100-yard return of CU’s first kickoff of the season. Fortune was a fickle mistress for the Buffs, who would have something good followed almost immediately by the unfortunate.
With 4:04 left in the half, the Buffs forced Mendoza out of the pocket on a third-and-12 at the CU 26 and had Fernando’s baby bro scrambling to his right. But the Jackets’ signal-caller somehow found an open Jordan Allen just in front of the end zone for a 22-yard gain.
With 5:34 to go in the first quarter, Carter smothered a Jackets’ fumble the Tech 26, giving CU the game’s second big momentum boost.
Only they sort of turned around and give it right back. On a fourth-and-goal at the Tech 3 with 1:49 left in the first, Deion went for it. Taylor chugged forward for one-and-a-half yards before being stood up and stopped short. Like the aggression. But in the first quarter? Of a scoreless game? On the road? And is a 165-pound back your best north-south option on a gotta-have-it conversion when you’ve got Micah Welch to hammer it home?
In a way, the decision paid off, only it took two more series to get there. CU’s defense held fast, forcing the hosts after three plays to punt from their own 9-yard-line. Carter took a wobbly Jackets boot at the Tech 43 and rumbled forward to the hosts’ 35. Gifted great field position again, the Buffs didn’t mess around — or get cute. After a first-down incompletion by Lewis, his fourth straight, the Buffs unleashed their inner Big Ten beast, handing it to Welch for 11, Welch for 15, Welch for 4 and Welch for 5 and a score.
That lead, alas, lasted 14 seconds. Smith took the ensuing kickoff to the house, exploding from the goal line before veering left and outrunning all of CU’s special teams to make it 7-6.
The good news? Buffs wideouts were sailing past Tech defenders on both boundaries, sometimes by two or three steps. Less good? Lewis couldn’t hit them.
After two dumps to transfer star Danny Scudero to open the game and another shortie to tight end Williams, JuJu missed on his next three tosses downfield.
Kid found his confidence. Found his mojo. Eventually.
Given an evening of unknowns, Thursday’s run-up to kickoff had something of that TCU 2023 vibe, only … meaner. On one side of the spectrum, it wasn’t hard to find “SANDERS 21” Falcons jerseys from Coach Prime’s playing days in the ATL. Shedeur Sanders turned up. So did Kordell Stewart.
On the other end, a small plane flew a banner above Bobby Dodd Stadium with the words “CU IN HELL” flapping behind it.
As signs go, that was one of the nice ones. Rows of fraternities line the walk to The Flats, as the locals call the stadium, and the kids put up cartoon drawings of Ralphie in, shall we say, unflattering positions above every door.
“PAST HIS PRIME,” one read, with poor Ralphie shotgunned.
“PRIME TIME RIBS,” said another, with the head of Ralphie burning on a Labor Day grill.
“CU LATER, ROADKILL,” said yet another, with Ralphie wearing tire tracks across her back.
Mother Nature had a say, too. There’s humidity like Dixie humidity. Or Dixie storms. At 7:10 p.m. Atlanta time, about 49 minutes before the scheduled kickoff, Tech officials ordered teams and fans were to clear the field because of a lightning delay. Spitting rain evolved into angry showers, the drops pushed sideways by a swirling southern wind. It came and went in a flurry, with frat boys in pressed white shirts scuttling back to their seats at the all-clear at 7:32.
The Buffs laughed last. And loudest. CU loses this kind of game a year ago. Sanders loses this kind of game, too. In one drive, the ghosts of 2025 felt buried and gone. Like TCU three years ago, Thursday felt like the start of something. The only question is how big. And how bright.
