STANFORD, Calif. — Sam Noyer passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more, Jarek Broussard had another strong day rushing, and Colorado held on to beat Stanford 35-32 on Saturday.
Dimitri Stanley caught six passes for 126 yards and a score as Colorado remained unbeaten under first-year coach Karl Dorrell.
"We've got something going here, something great going here," Noyer said. "We're building something special with coach Dorrell. Everybody's buying in. Guys are having fun out there. It's good to see that again. I haven't seen that in a couple years."
Noyer, a fifth-year senior who nearly transferred out of Colorado after playing safety last season, threw an interception on his fourth pass of the afternoon then settled in to complete 15 of 24 attempts for 255 yards. Noyer scored on a 7-yard option keeper midway through the second quarter then led the Buffaloes on three scoring drives coming out of halftime.
Brenden Rice had a 34-yard touchdown catch and Jaren Mangham added a one-yard touchdown run for Colorado (2-0, 2-0 Pac-12).
"We felt we built a pretty comfortable lead," Dorrell said. "It wasn't too comfortable, they came back. But our players hung in there. This is a good win for us on the road. There's going to be some things we're going to be upset with but we'll work to get them fixed. That's part of the process."
Davis Mills passed for 327 yards and a touchdown in his first game of the season for Stanford (0-2, 0-2). Mills was one of four players forced to sit out last week's game against Oregon because of coronavirus concerns. The Pac-12 later admitted errors in the testing protocol that kept the four Stanford players out.
"It was obvious he was rusty," Stanford coach David Shaw said of his quarterback. "He was in isolation essentially from Saturday afternoon until Thursday night. He was able to come in and get one practice and it showed. There's not much we could have done about it, but to say that it didn't affect his performance I think would be inaccurate."
