BOULDER, Colo. — The stats don’t lie in the moments following the University of Colorado’s win over North Dakota State on Thursday night. CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders was everything he promised to be.

He completed 26 of 34 passes for 445 yards and four touchdowns, making the difference in a 31-26 victory at Folsom Field. What the numbers didn’t show was his ability to evade the Bison pass rush, especially in critical moments in the second half.

Cam Miller, on the other hand, was also pretty good.

“Gutty, gritty,” Bison head coach Tim Polasek said of Miller. “He made some off-schedule plays with his feet.”

There were 31 NFL scouts in attendance, presumably to check out Colorado’s offensive weapons. There were also 31 scouts who presumably noticed Miller. It was so solid that Polasek didn’t feel the need to talk to him much between series.

“I didn’t feel the need to do that,” he said. “He saw the field pretty well.”

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Miller completed 18 of 22 for 277 yards and a touchdown. He was the team’s leading rusher with 81 yards and two touchdowns. In essence, the senior picked up where he left off last year when he completed 72 percent of his throws.

Plus, the loss of his top two receivers from last year, Zach Mathis to graduation and Eli Green to the transfer portal, wasn’t a factor. Miller and Braylon Henderson were on the same page all night, with Henderson leading the way with five receptions for 72 yards.

Senior RaJa Nelson had four catches and junior Bryce Lance had three. Tight end Joe Stoffel was his steady self with three catches, one for a crucial first down and another for a touchdown.

“We put a lot of work into it,” Miller said. “I told those guys today, I texted them all, I told them they’re going to play a big game. And I think they did a great job and I couldn’t be more proud.”

The offense performed well in other areas, such as not losing the ball and not having a false start from the offensive line despite the noisy environment. Miller seemed to be in complete control, especially on a number of key third down conversions.

“That kid was on fire,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “He did a great job of getting the ball to a bunch of receivers.”

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Polasek said the fact that Miller was able to utilize his second or third option on receivers meant the offensive line gave him time to throw.

“The story leading up to it was their pass rush and I was pretty pleased with it,” he said of his pass protection. “Looking at their body types and stuff like that in pregame, I knew it was going to be a challenge and I thought our guys did a good job.”

NDSU returned home after the game and has eight days to prepare for its season opener next Saturday against Tennessee State.

“A loss is never good,” Miller said. “I’m not going to talk about the positives because nobody likes to lose. There’s nothing good about losing. But I do feel like this gives us a lot of confidence. I know there are some great teams in the FCS, but I would be really surprised if we ran into the athletes in the regular season like we did tonight.”

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On the other hand, Polasek would like to see some of his athletes be explosive like CU. The top two running backs, Marty Brown and Barika Kpeenu, averaged 3.7 and 3.6 yards per carry, respectively. The longest pass plays were a 49-yard Hail Mary to Tyler Terkark on the final play and a 48-yarder to running back TK Marshall on the first series.

“Our lack of explosive plays tonight will show up when you look at the numbers, to win championship games or a conference championship at a high level,” Polasek said. “You need five explosive plays a game and I don’t think we have those on the schedule.”

Jeff would like to dispel the idea that he was there when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he has been reporting for Forum Communications for three decades. Jeff is the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter. He has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, The Forum, where he has covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” from April through August.