{"id":854957,"date":"2026-09-21T02:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T02:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854957\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T02:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T02:38:20","slug":"colorado-state-coach-jim-mora-reflects-on-loss-to-no-11-byu-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854957\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado State coach Jim Mora reflects on loss to No. 11 BYU \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado State has suffered its first loss of the Jim Mora era. <\/p>\n

Mora\u2019s Rams fell 41-23 to No. 11 BYU Saturday night in Fort Collins, Colorado, with the Cougars leading by as many as 31 points and nearly doubling Colorado State\u2019s total yardage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said it all week, I mean, that\u2019s a really good football team. They don\u2019t have any holes,\u201d Mora told reporters postgame, referring to BYU. \u201cThey\u2019re a really good football team and we didn\u2019t perform well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI say \u2018perform\u2019 because I think when coaches say we didn\u2019t play well, they\u2019re putting it on the players, and it\u2019s it\u2019s on all of us. It\u2019s a program performance, so we have to do a better job of putting our players in position to make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU scored on its second play of the game and again just three snaps later, going on to rack up 559 yards of offense and 332 rushing yards while averaging 9.6 yards per play.<\/p>\n

Conversely, Colorado State managed 302 yards of offense and scored on just 3 of 11 drives. After averaging more than 220 rushing yards per game on the season prior to kickoff, the Rams ran for just 82 yards against the Cougars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing against a team like that, with a quarterback like that, and of course (running back LJ Martin), and those big receivers and a big, physical offensive line, you know, you have to play darn near perfect, and you\u2019ve got to stop big plays,\u201d Mora said. \u201cThat\u2019s been a real, real, real, big, big, big, big problem for us defensively. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave up over 300 yards rushing, which is not OK, and we didn\u2019t run the ball well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Mora referred to BYU as a \u201croad map\u201d<\/a> for what Colorado State can become as a program, and he said seeing the Cougars up close on Saturday further solidified that opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody that\u2019s involved with this program has to take a look at (BYU) and understand that that\u2019s what we\u2019re striving to be,\u201d Mora said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re not a Big 12 school, so we don\u2019t have the resources that they have, but we have a group of people here that are just as committed as you\u2019ve ever been around to doing all they can with what we have to be special … so that\u2019s another clue that leads me to believe that we\u2019re going to be a good football program, because we have the right people with the right mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado State \u2014 which started the year with two straight wins for the first time since 2011 \u2014 is now 2-1, traveling to UTSA for one final nonconference matchup next weekend before opening Pac-12 play against Oregon State on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to us whether or not (losing to BYU) defines our season. You have to attack the next challenge with the same vigor,\u201d Mora said. \u201cYou attack this challenge. It just didn\u2019t work out for us tonight, you know?<\/p>\n

\u201c… The standard never changes, whether you\u2019re behind or ahead. The standard can\u2019t change and we won\u2019t let it change. The feeling I get from our players in the locker room is they\u2019re disappointed, but they\u2019re not discouraged, because they did stick together, they did stay connected. They did continue to compete. They did continue to cheer each other on. There were no cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU tight end Walker Lyons, center, is tackled after catching a pass by Colorado State cornerback Caleb Presley, left, and safety Elijah Mc-Cantos in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Fort Collins, Colo. | AP Photo\/David Zalubowski <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado State has suffered its first loss of the Jim Mora era. Mora\u2019s Rams fell 41-23 to No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":["post-854957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-news-feed-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}