WVU Outlasts Colorado 29-22 at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday Afternoon

Saturday, November 8

Morgantown, W.Va.

12:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

4-6 , 2-5

Colorado

3-7 , 1-6

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Colorado

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

WVU Outlasts Colorado 29-22 at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday Afternoon

November 08, 2025 03:48 PM | Football

Box Score WVU-Colorado-Stats WVU-Colorado-GameNotes WVU-Colorado-Quotes Rich Rodriguez Postgame Curtis Jones Jr. Postgame Reid Carrico Postgame Diore Hubbard Postgame Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In battle of true freshman quarterbacks, Scotty Fox Jr.'s West Virginia team was one touchdown better than five-star phenom JuJu Lewis' Colorado team.

The Mountaineers used a pair of short touchdown runs from sophomore linebacker Curtis Jones Jr. and an aggressive defense that sacked Lewis seven times to upend the Buffaloes 29-22 at sun-drenched Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Among the 55,510 spectators here today were College Football Hall of Fame electee Steve Slaton and his 2005 Mountaineer teammates, celebrating Slaton's induction coming up this December and the 20^th anniversary of West Virginia's 38-35 victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl that season.

Rich Rodriguez was coaching West Virginia in that down-to-the-wire game in Atlanta, and he was on the field this afternoon for another one.

"First off, I'm really proud of the guys to pull out a win. We did not really play well, but they stayed engaged," he said afterward.

The Mountaineers got just enough from their running game to secure a fourth victory of the season. WVU ran the ball 13 straight times to end the game, 10 of those coming on the biggest drive late in the fourth quarter.

" I don't think we had as much push as we needed to for most of the game. But to the offensive line's credit, at the end, when you needed to get a first down, and everyone knows that you are going to run it, they did it," Rodriguez said. "And that's the key. When we get to the point where everyone knows you are going to run it and you are still going to run it, and get the first down. Then you got what you wanted. So at least, at the end of the game, that was a positive sign."

Jones Jr., getting his first college carries today, scored the deciding 4-yard touchdown with 4:15 left to give WVU a commanding lead.

"We had no running backs that I think weighed more than 180 pounds," Rodriguez said of his decision to finally use Jones today. "The first time we were down on the goal line, I turned around and he's right there breathing down my neck. He could be a weapon; he was obviously a really good high school running back and our running back health situation has been kind of crazy, too."

Fox Jr., making his third career started, showed continued growth by completing 17 of his 28 pass attempts for 202 yards and a touchdown, while also running 17 times for 58 yards.

Diore Hubbard finished with a game-high 64 yards on the ground and an additional 94 receiving.

Overall, WVU edged Colorado 369 to 350 in total yardage.

Nearly all of that came from Lewis' arm. Lewis, making his first career start, completed 22 of his 35 attempts for 299 yards and two touchdowns, demonstrating why he was considered one of the top prep quarterbacks in the country last year.

The Carrollton, Georgia, resident completed six of those to Omarion Miller for 131 yards and a touchdown.

However, Colorado managed just 51 yards rushing on 38 attempts, losing 75 yards in sacks and negative yardage plays.

WVU's defense produced seven sacks, the most in a game since getting eight at Baylor in 2019, and 15 tackles for loss, the most since getting that same number in an 80-7 victory over Rutgers during Rodriguez's first season coaching the Mountaineers in 2001.

At the game's outset, West Virginia used Israel Boyce's blocked punt to get on the scoreboard first. The Buffaloes, punting from their own 13, saw Boyce break free to get his hand on the punt. Justin Smith-Brown was unable to track down the football before it bounced out of the end zone, resulting in a safety.

It was West Virginia's first blocked punt for a safety since Jarrod Harper did it against Maryland in 2014.

"Usually, when you get something tragic on special teams, you usually don't win the football game," Colorado coach Deion Sanders said. "And I'm thankful that we were still in it and had an opportunity after giving up a blocked punt."

On the ensuing possession, West Virginia began at its own 25 after the free kick and marched 75 yards in 11 plays, the big ones being Fox passes of 20 yards to tight end Grayson Barnes and 15 yards to receiver Christian Hamilton, setting up Jones Jr.'s 2-yard touchdown run on fourth and goal.

For Jones, normally a linebacker, it was the first carry of his college career. Austin Hensley's conversion kick made it 9-0 West Virginia, and the score remained that way until 6:02 left in the second quarter.

Colorado finally found some success running the football, Dre'lon Miller netting 14 and 8 yards on consecutive carries, which opened up some passing lanes for Lewis, who completed a 19-yard pass to Sincere Brown and 13 yards to Joseph Williams. The drive eventually stalled at the 15, where Alejandro Mata kicked a 23-yard field goal.

West Virginia answered quickly, Fox finding Hubbard open out of the backfield down the far sideline for a 69-yard gainer to the Colorado 4. Three plays later, Fox completed a third-and-goal pass out in the right flat to tight end Ryan Ward for a 3-yard touchdown.

Colorado responded with its best drive of the first half. Dallan Hayden began the drive with a 24-yard run to the Colorado 47, and a Lewis pass to Quinton Gibson got the football into WVU territory. Lewis' next pass down the near sideline to Omarion Miller was confirmed by replay for a 22-yard gainer to the Mountaineer 23 and runs by Kam Mikell and Dre'lon Miller got the ball to the 9 where Lewis hooked up with Joseph Williams for a 9-yard touchdown.

Mata missed the conversion kick, making the score 16-9, West Virginia.

The Mountaineers used a Fox 15-yard pass to Cam Vaughn and an Anquin Barnes Jr. facemask penalty to get into position for Hensley to kick a 41-yard field goal on the final play of the half.

Turnovers made up the first seven minutes of the third quarter.

Colorado's opening possession ended when Omarion Miller fumbled after his 19-yard reception, and the ball was recovered by Michael Coats Jr. at the WVU 35.

Fox gave it right back to Colorado when his fourth-down pass intended for Rodney Gallagher III was picked off by Preston Hodge at the 25 and returned to the 33.

The defense was able to pick up Fox's first miscue, but not his second moments later after his deep pass down the near sideline was intercepted by John Slaughter at the WVU 42 and returned to the 20. Two plays later, Lewis completed a 23-yard touchdown pass Omarion Miller. Mata's conversion kick hit the goal post on its way through to reduce West Virginia's lead to 19-16 with 7:19 left in the third quarter.

West Virginia possessed the football for the next 5:32, running 15 plays and converting a third-and-3, a fourth-and-4 and a third-and-6. The drive stalled at the Buffs' 13, and Hensley came on to kick a 37-yard field goal.

A key play on the drive was a defensive holding penalty on Teon Park that gave the Mountaineers a first down at the Colorado 13.

Colorado kept the pressure on West Virginia by getting a Mata 35-yard field goal on the second play of the fourth quarter to reduce the Mountaineers' lead to 22-19. The Buffs were forced to kick it when Coats broke up Lewis' third-down pass attempt at the WVU 12 to Williams.

Two possessions later, WVU get into the end zone for a third time, using 5:33 of clock and getting all 57 yards on the ground. Fox began the drive with a 13-yard run and a Hubbard 12-yard run two plays later got the ball to the Colorado 26.

Jones Jr. returned the game on third and 3 at the Colorado 7, converted it, and on the next run got into the end zone from the 4. Hensley's conversion kick put the Mountaineers ahead 29-19 with 4:15 left in the game.

After the ensuing kickoff, Colorado took over at its 25 with 4:13 remaining and possessing all three timeouts and the two-minute stoppage. On third and 5, Lewis completed a pretty 32-yard pass to Dre'lon Miller down the sideline to the WVU 45. Four plays later, on fourth and 1, Dre'lon Miller got the necessary yardage to the 18, but the Mountaineer defense turned away the Buffs three times, requiring Mata to kick a 38-yard field.

In the process, Colorado used one of its timeouts to discuss the fourth-down decision.

Colorado tried an onside kick that Ben Cutter recovered at the Colorado 35, and Hubbard runs of 4, 3 and 7 yards burned off the remaining 1:07 of the clock.

Colorado falls to 3-7 overall and 1-6 in conference play.

After an open week, the Buffs have games remaining against Arizona State and Kansas State, while West Virginia has games left at Arizona State next Saturday and at home against eighth-ranked Texas Tech on Saturday, Nov. 29.