Buccaneers fall for first time at Colorado, 43-10

Saturday, October 19

Boulder, CO

2 pm

Charleston Southern University Athletics

7-1-0 , 1-0

Colorado

3-3-0 , 0-3

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Charleston Southern	0	10	0	0	10
Colorado	8	14	7	14	43

10/19/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

BOULDER, Colo. – Colorado's Michael Adkins II ran for four touchdowns to carry the Buffaloes past No. 24 Charleston Southern, 43-10, in the Buccaneers' first-ever meeting with a PAC-12 opponent on Saturday afternoon at Folsom Field.

The Buccaneers fall for the first time this season to drop to 7-1 overall. Colorado improves to 3-3 on the season.

The Bucs' freshman quarterback Kyle Copeland made his first start, and he kept CSU close in the first half, putting together a pair of scoring drives of over 80 yards. Colorado, however, leaned on the Bucs in the second half to pile up 208 yards rushing and five TDs in the win.

CSU, playing on the road for the sixth time in eight weeks, showed the toughness that has the Bucs off to a 7-1 start and surging under first-year head coach Jamey Chadwell.

"Getting to play a Pac-12 team, even when the stadium was not necessarily packed full, was definitely an experience for us," Chadwell said. "We also wanted to see if we could compete at this level. For the first half, we did that. In the second half, we did not. What we can take from this is that if we play well and to our capabilities, then we can compete with some really good teams; that is what we are going to sell.

The Bucs saw Colorado take a quick 8-0 lead, but CSU fought right back and appeared to answer with a TD of their own, but after a long review, Christian Reyes' halfback pass to Nathan Prater was ruled incomplete and the Bucs had to settle for field goal. The review and overturned call took a little bit of the Bucs' early fire away. Chadwell still liked the fight his team put up in the opening half despite fighting a rash of injuries and starting its third quarterback in the last four weeks.

"This week, we had a change-up when we lost our starting quarterback, and our back-up quarterback didn't play because of his concussion last week," Chadwell added. "What we did today, though—besides the turnover—is pretty much how we play. [Colorado] is just a better team than us. We had seven wins before today, and I don't think that is going to change."

Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau completed 14-of-20 passes for 198 yards and a touchdown. He gave the Buffs enough of passing game, along with Adkins who finished with 137 yards, to pull away from CSU in the second half. Paul Richardson led the Buffaloes with eight catches for 122 yards and a TD.

CSU ran the ball with some success, but never broke off a big run. Freshman Mike Holloway flashed exciting potential with five carries for 44 yards, but 9.0 tackles for loss by Colorado kept the Bucs behind the markers for much of the game.

Reyes had 14 carries for 43 yards and will almost certainly become the Bucs' single-season record holder for rushing yards next week at Buccaneer Field. He has 771 yards this season and is three shy of the mark.

Colorado started fast as Micha Adkins II scored from 23 yards out to give the Buffaloes an 8-0 lead. Colorado ran in for two on the conversion attempt to cap the fast start. Colorado had 52 yards rushing on the drive.

CSU would answer back with an impressive 15-play, 69-yard drive to cut the Colorado lead to 8-3. Running back Christian Reyes took the toss from Copeland and flipped a would-be 11-yard TD pass to a diving Nathan Prater for the apparent score. The play would be overturned on replay and CSU would settle for a 33-yard chip shot from Mark Deboy. Copeland had a 22-yard run on 4^th and 3 to keep the drive alive.

Colorado would force a Copeland fumble and add to its lead as Adkins scored from 5 yards out to give CU a 15-3 lead on a two-play drive.

The Buffs took a 22-3 lead on a 60-yard throw-and-catch from Liufau to Paul Richardson on a three-play scoring drive with just over nine minutes to play in the second quarter. The Bucs would keep it the rest of the half.

Copeland would find Colton Korn for a 7-yard touchdown pass just before the half to cap a time-consuming drive and give the Bucs a shot in the second half. CSU put together a 15-play, 87 yard drive that included five third-down conversions. Copeland had two runs for first down yardage and found Korn twice to keep the drive alive.

Colorado built its lead back out to 19 points after holding the Bucs on the opening possession of the second half. Christian Powell scored from three yards out to cap a 13-play, 64-yard drive to make it a 29-10 lead for CU.

CSU struggled to get anything going in the second half offensively as the Bucs punted on their final four possessions. A pair of TD runs by Adkins on Colorado's final two possessions put the game out of reach.

Copeland finished 7-of-13 passes for 48 yards and a touchdown. Safety D.J. Curl led CSU with five tackles and a tackle for loss. Nose guard James Smith added four stops and a sack, which ended a first-half drive for Colorado.

Bucs' punter Truett Burns was efficient, punting seven times for a 43.1 yard average.

CSU returns home next Saturday for homecoming against FBS-bound Charlotte. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Buccaneer Field.

-CSU-