Colo. Beats Texas-El Paso in Houston Bowl

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Posted 5:00AM on Thursday, December 30, 2004

HOUSTON (AP) - Punter John Torp ran 22 yards on a fake punt for the first down and Joel Klatt followed with his second touchdown pass of the game, leading Colorado to a 33-28 victory in the Houston Bowl over Texas El-Paso on Wednesday night. Texas El-Paso had the lead midway through the fourth quarter, the mostly orange-clad crowd was on its feet and Colorado was about to punt. That's when Gary Barnett went deep into his bag of tricks. "It seemed to be there," Barnett said of his rarely used trick play. "We have run them a couple of times, but not this year. We thought it would work." Barnett was right, and the Buffaloes (8-5) went on to rebound from a humiliating 42-3 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game with its first bowl victory since the 1999 Insight.com Bowl. Klatt finished 24-of-33 for 333 yards and directed a fourth-quarter comeback by the plodding Buffaloes (8-5), who tried to keep pace with UTEP, which ranks eighth in the nation in scoring offense. Colorado led 3-0 midway through the first quarter and trailed until seizing the lead late in the game. Facing a fourth-and-3 at its own 35 and trailing by two, Colorado benefited from a nifty call by Barnett. Torp, who holds four track records at his suburban Denver high school, hustled around the left end for the first down. The play quieted the mostly pro-UTEP crowd of 27,235 and immediately swung the momentum in Colorado's favor. "I guess we watched it too long because it worked," UTEP coach Mike Price said. "We should have maybe tackled the guy that was running." Two plays later, Klatt threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Evan Judge for the go-ahead score with 8:43 left. Klatt was flattened by UTEP defensive end Ibok Ibok as he released the ball and didn't see the touchdown. He got up off the turf slowly and wobbled off the field into the arms of celebrating teammates. "I couldn't tell you happened," Klatt said. "The linemen told me (about the score), when they picked me up." The Miners (8-4) still had a chance to win in the final minutes. On third-and-4 from the UTEP 25, Jordan Palmer completed a 15-yard pass to Johnnie Lee Higgins, keeping a late drive alive. But Palmer misfired badly on his final four passes, and the comeback try fizzled. Colorado coach Gary Barnett was doused with a cooler in the waning seconds, and dozens of players embraced their embattled leader. Barnett's program was the target of sexual assault claims dating to 1997, followed by an investigation that discovered sex, alcohol and drugs were used as recruiting tools, although there was no evidence that university officials sanctioned it. Then, Barnett was put on three months of administrative leave for making insensitive remarks about two accusers, including a former kicker who said she was raped by a teammate in 2000. Barnett was reinstated May 28, and began building the foundation for a turnaround from a 5-7 record in 2003. Colorado won its last three games of the season to earn a share of the Big 12 North title, and Barnett was voted the Big 12 coach of the year. "We sort of finished the way we started the season," Barnett said. "We were determined to fight and stay together. Every game has been a fight. Nothing has been easy." The Miners put up quite a fight, but simply couldn't hold off the faster, stronger Buffs in the second half. Palmer, the younger brother of former Heisman winner Carson Palmer of Southern California, completed his first eight passes for 120 yards as the Miners raced out to an early 14-3 lead. But Palmer began to struggle, Klatt began to find his rhythm and UTEP began to wear down as Colorado tailback Bobby Purify (80 yards on 22 carries) began pounding away at the Miners' smaller defensive line. "In the first half, we executed our offense," Palmer said. "In the second half, I didn't pick up the blitzes and we didn't execute nearly as well." Palmer finished 22-of-42 for 328 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions - both to Colorado safety Tom Hubbard. Boyd had seven catches for 140 yards and Higgins also had seven for 122. UTEP, which won two more games this season than in the previous three combined, has lost in all three bowl appearances since winning the 1967 Sun Bowl. "Right to the very end, our guys were giving a big effort," Price said. "This is a team that was picked to finish last and these guys have been browbeaten for three years. I'm very, very proud of them."