FORT COLLINS, Colo. — For a few minutes Saturday evening, the Border War looked like it might turn into exactly the kind of uncomfortable rivalry game Colorado State had spent an entire offseason preparing for.
The Rams had controlled much of the first half, built an 11-point lead and entered the third quarter with momentum inside a packed Canvas Stadium. Then Wyoming came out of halftime and changed the feel of the game.
A long kickoff return gave the Cowboys life. Quarterback Tyler Hughes finished the ensuing possession with a nine-yard touchdown run, and suddenly Colorado State’s 14-3 advantage had been reduced to 14-13.
One point.
A rivalry game.
A new head coach, a new quarterback and a Colorado State roster filled with players experiencing the Border War for the first time.
That was the moment Jim Mora wanted to see.
Colorado State answered it by scoring the final 21 points of the game, pulling away for a 35-13 victory over Wyomingand reclaiming the Bronze Boot in Mora’s debut as the Rams’ head coach. The win also came in CSU’s first game as a member of the Pac-12 and its first season-opening victory since 2017.
“I was impressed that they stayed composed and focused and trusted their training and trusted each other,” Mora said afterward. “The moment wasn’t too big for them.”
That response became the story of the night.
One turnover changed everything
Wyoming had a chance to take control after pulling within one. Instead, the Colorado State defense delivered the play that swung the game back toward the Rams.
Oumar Diomande intercepted Hughes, giving the ball back to an offense that needed only two plays and 40 seconds to respond.
Quarterback Hauss Hejny found RJ Vick downfield for a 57-yard touchdown, immediately pushing the lead back to 21-13.
The Cowboys never scored again.
Colorado State followed with touchdown drives of 75 and 88 yards in the fourth quarter, turning what had been a one-point game into a 22-point win. Hejny connected with Jackson Harper for a 24-yard touchdown before finding Vick one more time from four yards out to finish the scoring.
The Rams finished with a 396-273 advantage in total offense, forced four turnovers and did not allow Wyoming to convert a third down. Wyoming quarterback Tyler Hughes threw three interceptions, while the Cowboys also lost a fumble on their final possession.
Mora saw more than the turnovers.
“They showed character. They were connected. They fought through some adversity. They handled the hard things,” Mora said. “They stayed focused. They never got too high. They never got too low.”
For a roster pieced together through a coaching change and the transfer portal, that may have meant as much to Mora as anything that showed up in the box score.
Hejny’s first Border War becomes a five-touchdown night
If Saturday represented the beginning of a new era for Colorado State, Hejny made quite an introduction himself.
The Oklahoma State transfer completed 23 of 33 passes for 214 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, while adding 39 yards rushing. He also caught a pass on the Rams’ opening possession.
His five touchdown passes tied Colorado State’s record for a season opener.
Hejny opened the scoring with a six-yard touchdown pass to Cedric Ross, then connected with Vick from three yards out in the second quarter. After Wyoming made it 14-13, his 57-yard strike to Vick began the run that broke the game open.
Vick became his favorite target when it mattered most, finishing with six receptions for 75 yards and three touchdowns.
The performance becomes even more remarkable when considering Hejny’s experience level. Before Saturday, he had appeared at TCU and Oklahoma State but had played very little college football. Mora noted that the first snap of the night represented only the 23rd play of Hejny’s college career.
Yet Hejny looked comfortable in the moment.
He spread the football to 10 receivers, protected it and managed an offense that became increasingly efficient as the game progressed.
And afterward, he wasn’t particularly interested in making the night about five touchdown passes.
The bigger accomplishment was sitting just a few feet away from him in the postgame press conference.
The Bronze Boot.
Hejny said Colorado State had been talking about this game long before Saturday.
“We’ve been working our tails off the past nine months to go out and do what we did today, which is win,” Hejny said. “It didn’t matter how it looked. We just want to win.”
The emotion really hit him when the game ended.
After taking the final knee, Hejny tossed the football into the air and headed directly for the trophy.
“It was a dead sprint to the boot,” he said.
Then came the memories of everything that had led to that sprint—the offseason, the work and the rebuilding of a program under a new staff.
Hejny described having “flashbacks” to the hard times and the previous nine months of work before arriving at one thought:
“This was all worth it.”
A rivalry quickly learned
Hejny wasn’t alone in learning what the Border War meant.
Mora brought a significant group of transfers with him to Fort Collins, including players from his previous program at UConn. Many had no history with Colorado State-Wyoming.
Diomande needed only a simple explanation.
“When I came to Colorado, I heard we hate Wyoming,” Diomande said. “So I decided to hate Wyoming too.”
He did his part.
Diomande’s third-quarter interception was the play that helped stop Wyoming’s momentum and set up Hejny’s 57-yard touchdown to Vick. Mora also credited him afterward for a huge night at the center of a defense that allowed only 13 points.
For Colorado State, Saturday also reversed the recent direction of the rivalry.
Wyoming had won eight of the previous 10 meetings and entered Canvas Stadium after beating CSU 28-0 last season.
This time, the Bronze Boot stayed in Fort Collins.
A CSU-record crowd of 40,548 packed Canvas Stadium for Mora’s debut, including more than 17,000 students. By the end, fans had flooded onto the field around a team celebrating a trophy many of its players had only recently learned to appreciate.
It would be easy to look at 35-13 and believe Colorado State controlled the game from start to finish.
It didn’t.
And that may be exactly why Mora came away so encouraged.
His first CSU team had a lead cut to one. Wyoming had momentum. The pressure of the rivalry was suddenly real.
Colorado State didn’t unravel.
The defense took the ball away. Hejny immediately turned that takeaway into seven points. Then the Rams kept coming until a 14-13 game had become 35-13.
“The moment wasn’t too big for them,” Mora said.
For one night, at least, the work Mora and his players have talked about since arriving in Fort Collins showed up when the game demanded it.
And when it was over, the new coach had his first Colorado State victory, Hejny had five touchdown passes and the Rams had possession of the trophy that matters most in this rivalry.
“They brought this baby home,” Mora said of the Bronze Boot, “and it’s going to stay here for a while.”
