FORT COLLINS – As his son grabbed the Bronze Boot with gusto, and CSU students stormed the field in celebration of a resounding 35-13 Rams victory over archrival Wyoming, Jim E. Mora watched with a twinkle in his eye that was the very definition of paternal pride.

Sweet dreams for a football family are made of this.

Does winning ever get old?

“No!” Mora told me. “But I’m old. I’m 91 years old!”

His son is the new coach at Colorado State, where football dreams have gone to die for far too long.

Hope was reborn Saturday on the brand new turf of Canvas Stadium, where there hasn’t been much reason to get up and dance since CSU christened the $225 million facility back in 2017.

After his first victory as leader of the Rams program, Jim L. Mora declared: “I just want to say: ‘I’m proud to be a CSU Ram!’”

Football is embedded in his DNA.

“I’ve been doing this since the day my mom gave birth to me. This is what we do. This is what my family has done … This family has played a lot of football; I’ve been involved in a lot of football. These are special moments,” the younger Mora said, when I asked if his family still gets pumped up after big W’s.

“You walk in here (to the press conference room) and see your mom, your dad, wife and kids and their spouses, best friends. It’s awesome. It’s unique. It’s rare. And it’s humbling.”

It’s almost funny to refer to CSU’s new football coach as the younger Mora.

He’s 64 years old. Played defensive back for the Washington Huskies way back in the early 1980s. Coached everywhere from San Diego to Seattle in the NFL before going back to school as the head coach at UConn, which is where Mora was when the Rams lured him to Fort Fun by paying him $2.4 million per year to perform a football miracle.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Mora, recalling the happy bedlam when the Rams hoisted that Bronze Boot, the coveted spoils of victory in the Border War with Wyoming. “Looking across the field and seeing 17,500 students … seeing them storm the field and celebrating with their classmates. That’s what college football is all about, man … You don’t get that anywhere else. You don’t get that in the NFL … That’s why I love college football.”

After the Cowboys cut Colorado State’s lead to 14-13 on a 9-yard dash to the end zone by quarterback Tyler Hughes shortly after halftime, the Rams refused to fold. They put the hammer down, and the man who swung it with the most authority was Hauss Hejny, who threw five TD passes.

“I can’t say I was surprised,” said Mora. But truth be known, a coach never knows for certain how his team will deal with adversity until players face it.

Next to the stunning comeback to beat Boise State in 2023 and trouncing Oregon State to open the joint nine years ago, this victory over Wyoming is as good as it gets in the history of Canvas Stadium.

In a span of less than 48 hours, I saw the CU Buffs and CSU Rams partying like it was 1999 after victories that made them believe anything’s possible. Bowl bids. Maybe a run at the conference championship.

OK, class. Everyone who had that on their scorecard for the first big weekend of college football in 2026, please raise your hand.

Bueller … Bueller.

That’s what I thought, class. Nobody saw this coming.

But know what I’d really like to see?

Next weekend, the Buffs and Rams are grazing on cupcakes.

Colorado hosts Weber State. CSU invites Southern Utah to town.

Ho. Hum.

If they were really serious about pumping up the volume on college football excitement in Broncos Country, the Buffs and Rams would be headlining Week 2 of their seasons by squaring off in the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

But that’s another gripe for another day.

This Colorado postcard afternoon was for the green and gold to shine in the summer sun.

I asked the Rams coach what it meant to him to share the magic moment with the old ball coach sitting in the back row of his postgame press conference.

‘Aw,” protested the younger Mora, grinning at his father, “he ain’t old.”  

At 91 years young and looking like he could still get as excitable as his famous “Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs! You kidding me?” meme, Mora got to see his son create football magic.

And Pops couldn’t have been prouder.

“I’m lucky,” the elder Mora said, then revealed how long his family has been winning and losing, living and dying with the results of football games. “Anybody know where I can get a real newspaper with a story on this game?”

The internet is lightning fast, but even the big news on X is here in one breath and gone in the next.

His son’s debut as CSU coach was a statement game: Hey, Cowboys! Don’t let the Bronze Boot kick you on your way out!

In the Mora family album, this was a football victory suitable for framing. Forever.