No let-downs in Alamo Bowl as No. 17 BYU, No. 23 Colorado approach 1st game since 1988

PROVO — After BYU football opened the season 9-0 and the Cougars rose as high as No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings, a late slide and 10-2 finish may make an appearance in the Alamo Bowl feel like a bit of a late down.

Nothing could be further from the truth, center Connor Pay said.

With a chance to play No. 23 Colorado — led by presumptive Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and "Coach Prime" Deion Sanders — the 17th-ranked Cougars aren't concerned about the all-Big 12 matchup in San Antonio two weeks from Saturday, Dec. 28 (5:30 p.m. MST, ABC).

"There was obviously some unknown about maybe playing someone in the ACC," said Pay, who swiftly acknowledged that he will play in his final college football game "no doubt" for recently extended head coach Kalani Sitake. "But the Alamo Bowl got first choice and we're glad we were picked first."

The Buffaloes (9-3, 7-2 Big 12) will fill the Pac-12's spot in the bowl game, as noted in the remaining two years of the bowl game's contract that pits the top non-CFP pick from the Big 12 against a top pick from the Pac-12 or former Pac-12 teams.

The two teams did not play each other in Big 12 play in 2024, so the matchup will be as fresh as any the Cougars may have seen from another conference. The two sides also tied atop the Big 12, but both were pushed out of the conference championship game by No. 12 Arizona State and No. 18 Iowa State on tiebreakers.

Some are calling the Alamo Bowl the Big 12's "bronze-medal game" between the two squads that have only played 13 times in series history, despite sharing the Rocky Mountain Conference from 1922-36 and the Mountain States Conference from 1937-1947.

The most recent meeting came in the 1988 Freedom Bowl, which BYU won 20-17 behind a late comeback effort by redshirt freshman quarterback Ty Detmer in Anaheim, California, to improve the Cougars' record to 3-8-1 all-time against the Buffaloes.

"I don't think there are any feelings of guys being bummed out," said BYU defensive end Tyler Batty, who earned All-Big 12 honors from the Associated Press this week. "It's another opportunity to go play football, which is what we're all about."

Having never played Colorado in his career, it may also be a bit easier to get up to face Coach Prime and Co., he admitted.

"Historically, we haven't really played them," Batty said. "We weren't in the Pac with them, and haven't seen them much. So yeah, it's exciting to go play them."

Sanders said each of his players, including NFL Draft-bound prospects like Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders who leads the Big 12 and ranks third nationally with 4,123 passing yards.

"We don't tap out," the high-profile, second-year Colorado coach said. "We don't sit out. This is a blessing to play this wonderful game."

Hunter mentioned Friday during interviews with each of the Heisman finalists that he was studying film of BYU on the flight from Colorado to New York City.

"I've been watching them all season," he added.

"I want to finish it off right. I didn't get a full season my first year (at Jackson State), so I'm going to go and end this thing off right," Hunter said. "It's going to be our last game together, and we're going to go out and show the loyalty we have out there."

BYU's senior class is also hard-pressed to sit out the bowl game as well, after missing the postseason a year ago with a 5-7 record for only the second time in the past 20 years.

It's a completely different feeling around campus and the Cougars' training facility with a bowl game on the horizon than without it.

"I'm at the facility right now, not at home; that's No. 1," said Pay, the team captain from Highland with 40 starts in his five-year, 50-game career on the offensive line. "Last year, it was the last game of the regular season and you knew it was over. There was no coming back for meetings, or prepping for another game. That was just it.

"For me, at that time, it was still kind of thinking that was the end of my BYU career. It was very different emotionally, and I had to do a lot of thinking and praying to figure out what the next steps in my life were going to be. That obviously brought me back here."

One last chance to put on the jersey and pads in college is all they can ask.

"I'm super excited to play in the bowl game," Batty said, "for another opportunity to come out with the guys, to have fun, and go compete."

Related topics