Buffaloes Run Wild In Upset Of No. 13 Kansas State

Saturday, October 5

BOULDER

TBA

Colorado

*KANSAS STATE

October 04, 2002 | Football

By: CUBuffs.com

Oct 5, 2002

Final Stats

Video Highlights

By JOHN MOSSMAN
AP Sports Writer

BOULDER, Colo. - He didn't throw well enough, they said, and he was too small to be an effective major-college quarterback.

Robert Hodge had a resounding response to his skeptics Saturday, completing 13 of 20 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns as Colorado beat No. 13 Kansas State 35-31.

"I don't know what people think of me," Hodge said. "I just want to go out there and do what I can for my team to help us win."

Hodge got his first start three weeks ago against Southern California, after Craig Ochs was sidelined by a concussion, and Hodge was dreadful. The Buffs managed only 61 total yards in a 40-3 drubbing.

"I knew I could be a lot better than that," he said. "I wanted to prove to my teammates I could get it done."

Hodge's passing performance on Saturday was the sixth-best ever by a Colorado quarterback.

"I thought Robert played very valiantly," coach Gary Barnett said. "He just keeps getting better. He has improved every game he's played. I've told a number of people that he throws a great deep ball, and he proved it today."

Chris Brown ran for 167 yards and two scores as the Buffaloes held to win the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Colorado (3-2) opened defense of its conference championship with 483 total yards and scoring plays of 94, 85 and 71 yards.

Kansas State (4-1), which had scoring plays of 71 and 80 yards, rallied from a 35-14 deficit early in the third quarter but had to settle for Jared Brite's 35-yard field goal with 2:16 left instead of a tying touchdown.

Wildcats quarterback Ell Roberson, who ran for 178 yards and threw for 83 more, was sacked by defensive tackle Sam Wilder for a 9-yard loss on third down at the Colorado 18 in the waning minutes.

Brite kicked the field goal, but K-State didn't get the ball back. On third down, Hodge's pass fell incomplete, but defensive back James Dunnigan was called for pass interference, giving Colorado a first down with 1:24 remaining.

Kansas State coach Bill Snyder didn't second-guess himself on the field goal.

"I thought we had a chance to hold them and get the ball back with good field position and about 1:20 left," he said. "If we didn't get the penalty, we do just that.

"I'm disappointed that we didn't play well enough to win and that we made a lot of basic mistakes. A big one was tackling. Chris Brown deserved every yard he got. He ran through some tackles. But the guy to applaud is the quarterback (Hodge). He did an excellent job of executing their offense and made some excellent throws."

Darren Sproles ran for 121 yards and three scores for the Wildcats.

The Buffaloes scored on their first two possessions en route to a 28-14 halftime lead.

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