No. 14 Houston Goes to Boulder for the First Time Friday Night: 7-2 Cougars, a 203-Yard Rushing Game and a Defense Allowing 21.3
Colorado's own preview tells its fans what is coming: Conner Weigman's 22 touchdown passes against two interceptions, Re'Shaun Sanford II's comeback season, and a Houston defense that has given up 30 points once in nine games. Kickoff Friday is 8:15 p.m. Mountain on ESPN.
Houston's football team has played Colorado twice and never in Colorado. That changes Friday night, when the No. 14 Cougars (7-2 overall, 4-2 in the Big 12) visit Folsom Field for the first time to face a 3-6 Buffaloes team that must win its last three games to reach bowl eligibility. Kickoff is 8:15 p.m. Mountain - 9:15 in Houston - on ESPN, and the opponent's own preview, published Wednesday by Colorado Buffaloes Wire, reads like a warning addressed to the home crowd.
Start with the ground. Houston averages 203.5 rushing yards per game and has scored 16 rushing touchdowns, and running back Re'Shaun Sanford II - who missed all of 2025 with a knee injury - has put up two 100-yard games in his comeback season. Behind and beside him, quarterback Conner Weigman has thrown for 2,280 yards and 22 touchdowns against just two interceptions, completing 66.1 percent, and added 279 yards and seven scores on the ground. Colorado has seen the dual-threat act before: last September Weigman ran for 83 yards and two touchdowns in Houston's 36-20 win.
The defense travels, too. Houston allows 21.3 points per game and has surrendered 30 or more only once in nine games, with 13 takeaways - five fumble recoveries and eight interceptions - ranking seventh in the Big 12. The secondary is the headline: cornerback Jalen Mayo is a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation's top defensive back, and the preview's coverage grades put Will James third among Big 12 cornerbacks at 76.2 with Mayo eighth at 73.5, matched Friday against Colorado receiver Joseph Williams.
The short series history is split and entirely Houston-based: Colorado won the 1971 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl 29-17, and the Cougars took last season's first conference meeting. Friday gives Colorado its first chance to host - and gives a 7-2 Houston team a ranked road test under Friday-night lights, at altitude, against a home team playing for its postseason life.
