Colorado coach Deion Sanders needed this one even if he wouldn’t admit it afterward.

After losing five games in a row, his Colorado football team looked like its season might swirl down the toilet like it did last year.

This was their best chance to stop it. They played at home against a Kansas State that was decimated by injuries at quarterback.

And they won, barely — 27-24 in overtime.

“I don’t know what the definition of desperation is,” Sanders said in his postgame news conference. “I don’t think these young men are desperate.”

Sanders then turned to this players in the room and asked them, “Are y’all desperate?”

“We’re not,” Sanders said. “It ain’t no desperation. It may be to you, but it’s not desperation to them. The main thing I told them to do is go out there and have fun today. And it’s impossible to have fun when you’re getting your butt kicked, right? I ain’t never had fun getting my butt kicked.”

They almost got their butts kicked in the end after giving up a 21-14 lead in the final seconds of regulation. But they answered Kansas State’s first score in overtime — a 25-yard field goal — by walking off with an 11-yard touchdown pass to win the game. Quarterback Isaac Wilson threw it over the middle to walk-on tight end Charlie Williams on the final play, leading Colorado students to storm the field afterward in Halloween costumes.

“It kind of just felt like a dark cloud over this place, you know?” Colorado safety Randon Fontenette said. Fontenette called it a “huge relief” to finally win.

Colorado honors Julian Lewis and Dominiq Ponder

Colorado players also said they hung on for two big reasons: quarterback Julian Lewis, who didn’t play after recently being taken to the hospital with a medical emergency, and quarterback Dominiq Ponder, who died in a car accident in March.

“We love them,” Colorado linebacker Gideon Lampron said. “Those are our guys, and we’re always gonna play hard for them.

At one point with 1:59 left in regulation, Colorado offensive tackle Bo Hughley held up a T-shirt that said "Do it for Dom," a reference to Ponder. Sanders was touched by it.

"He took it into the huddle, and I called him over," Sanders said of Hughley. "I said, 'Man, you just broke me.'"

The win for Colorado marked only its second victory out of its past 15 games against Big 12 opponents. The Buffaloes are now 3-5 this season heading into their next game Nov. 7 at Arizona State.

How Colorado and Deion Sanders won this game

Colorado rushed for 222 yards, the first time since 2021 that the Buffs rushed for at least 200 yards. Alabama transfer Richard Young had 120 of those yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns in his first opportunity as Colorado’s lead running back.

Yet the Buffs still almost lost this game in comedic fashion.

“Should have never got to overtime I feel,” Sanders said. “But we allowed it, and we allowed some crazy things to happen.”

Kansas State never had a lead until it kicked a field goal in overtime to go up 24-21. The Buffs held a 21-14 lead for most of the fourth quarter and could have won the game in regulation if they made some stops on defense and got some first downs on offense.

But they punted the ball back to the Wildcats with 55 seconds left. Kansas State quarterback Blake Barnett, a Colorado native, started at his own 38-yard line, then completed passes of 23, 5 and 31 yards to get to the Colorado 3-yard line.

After a delay-of-game penalty, Barnett then fired an 8-yard pass over the middle for touchdown, cutting Colorado’s lead to 21-20 with two seconds left.

Kansas State almost went for the win on a 2-point conversion

Kansas State coach Collin Klein, another Colorado native, then faced a choice: Should he kick the extra point to tie the score and force overtime? Or should he go for two points to win (or lose) the game?

He lined up his team at the 3-yard line to go for two points and the win.

Then he changed his mind after Sanders called a timeout. Kansas State kicked the extra point instead to force overtime tied at 21-21.

Klein said afterward he “didn’t feel as good about it” after Colorado adjusted and called a timeout.

Deion Sanders: 'We got it done'

Kansas State dropped to 4-4 this season in front of 46,325 at Folsom Field. The Wildcats’ previous two starting quarterbacks were out with injuries, forcing them to turn to Dillon Duff for his first career playing time. Duff then was replaced by Barnett after three possessions.

For Colorado, Wilson made his fourth consecutive start at quarterback and completed 14 of 21 passes for 185 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. He threw seven interceptions in his previous three starts but this time benefited from a run game that worked, relieving him of pressure be a “hero,” as Sanders put it.

“Unbelievable,” Sanders said afterward. “But we got it done.”