PALO ALTO, Calif. — Kenneth Olugbode wasn’t about to let the latest landmark moment in a redemptive season slip away.
Colorado’s senior linebacker grew up in northern California and was passed over by Stanford, even though his brother had played there. So Olugbode instead went to Colorado, a school that routinely took beatings from teams such as the Cardinal. And with one hair-pulling missed field goal after another Saturday, it seemed a wrench was about to be thrown in the path of CU’s rise.
“As a defense, we kind of just shrugged our shoulders and said, ‘Let’s pick up our lunch pails and go to work,’ ” Olugbode said.
With its backs against the wall, the Pac-12’s best defense answered the bell time and again, stymieing Stanford and star running back Christian McCaffrey in a 10-5 victory that makes the Buffs bowl eligible for the first time since 2007.
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As the shadows began to stretch across Stanford Stadium, the walls of the visiting locker room roared to the tune of the CU fight song, the distinct yell of “shoulder to shoulder” threatening to rattle the foundation.
“It means everything,” CU quarterback Sefo Liufau said. “To be with these guys for four years now — nobody quit, nobody left, nobody transferred — to be able to stick it out with these guys and accomplish one of our goals, it’s a great feeling.”
The lofty goals that extend far beyond bowl eligibility are starting to come into clearer focus for the Buffs. In improving to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-12 — one win shy of the combined total of league victories from the previous five seasons — CU continues to control its own destiny in the race for the South Division title.
To reach its latest milestone, the first victory by the Buffs in California since 2002, they had to vanquish a few more ghosts in the final minutes.
With third-string kicker Chris Graham in a funk and walk-on freshman Davis Price out with illness, CU had already resorted to putting punter Alex Kinney in as its kicker, and Kinney had already missed a 31-yard attempt.
But what choice did the Buffs have? With the clock melting away and CU facing a fourth-and-goal with a 7-3 lead, they had to take one more crack at adding a cushion.
So Graham went back in, took a deep breath and …
The visiting Buffs fans exploded. The 23-yard field goal finally gave the Buffs the breathing room they needed. Senior Tedric Thompson had intercepted Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns in the fourth quarter to set up Graham’s redemptive kick.
“To be honest, it wasn’t even me,” Thompson said of his interception, which was his second of the game and the third of CU’s four takeaways. “Right before the play, Chido (Awuzie) told me the route. I had the middle of the field, and right before the play Chido called my name and told me the route he was going to run. He’s been here for four years now, so whatever he says I’m going to listen to him.”
After Graham’s field goal, Isaiah Oliver intercepted Burns on Stanford’s next drive to seal the victory.
“No conflict, no story,” CU coach Mike MacIntyre said. “Our guys have been through so much. They don’t blink. That’s what they did today.”
Stanford (4-3, 2-3) was kept alive by three missed CU field goals, including a 28-yard botched attempt early in the third quarter by Graham.
CU drove to the Stanford 3-yard line on its opening drive of the second half, but the Buffs absorbed a 7-yard sack on second down. An incomplete pass on third down forced the field-goal attempt, which Graham pushed to the right.
The Buffs, clinging to a 7-3 lead, shook off that miss and drove to the Stanford 15-yard line on their next possession. On fourth down, CU sent the punter Kinney to attempt a 31-yard field goal. He couldn’t connect either. Price, who had been pulled against Arizona State last week after missing a chip shot of his own, was not available Saturday because of illness.
The Buffs spoke all week of embracing a physical confrontation. After Stanford went 14 plays for 66 yards during a seven-minute drive in the first quarter that ended with a field goal, it seemed as if the Cardinal looked like the bullying group that has lived at the top of the Pac-12 in recent seasons.
But CU, which entered the game with the Pac-12’s best statistical defense at 314.1 yards per game, made quick adjustments and closed running lanes for McCaffrey, who finished with 92 yards on 21 attempts.
Three of Stanford’s five first-half drives went three and out. One of the drives that didn’t end in three plays culminated instead in a fourth-and-46, and the resulting punt didn’t even reach the first-down marker.
CU took the lead early in the second quarter by finally establishing its jet-engine tempo. Triggered by a 12-yard run by Shay Fields on a third-down sweep, the Buffs went 73 yards in nine plays, capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass from Liufau to Fields, to take a 7-3 lead.
Phillip Lindsay, the reigning Pac-12 offensive player of the week, rushed for 131 yards before tweaking his late ankle late in the game. But Stanford’s pressure (five sacks) flummoxed Liufau, who finished 12-of-25 for 135 yards.
CU’s defense, however, kept answering the bell. The Buffs absorbed a safety by design with four seconds left, but Stanford’s hope for a prayer on its final play came up empty, their magical season heading for another new frontier.
“When you beat the Rose Bowl champions ugly, and you’ve won as (few) Pac-12 games as we have,” MacIntyre said, “to do that on the road is very, very special.”
