Colorado’s football team might be better this year due to quarterback Kaidon Salter’s dual-threat abilities, improved offensive line size, and emerging talents like DeKalon Taylor.
However, the team could also struggle due to potential NIL funding disparities with competitors, past inconsistency issues stemming from roster turnover, and the significant loss of NFL-caliber players like Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders.
Coach Deion Sanders believes this is his best team yet as they open the season against Georgia Tech.
BOULDER, CO – Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has been trying to tell everybody about this for months.
His team this year in Boulder is “better” than before, he said in March.
He took it a step further on Wednesday, Aug. 27.
“I think this is the best team we’ve ever assembled,” Sanders said on the Colorado Football Coaches Show.
How is that even possible after the Buffaloes finished 9-4 last year but since have lost a Heisman Trophy winner and arguably the best quarterback in school history?
He actually could be right. Or dead wrong.
With the Buffs set to open the season Friday at home against Georgia Tech, here are three reasons his third season at Colorado will be his best yet, along with three reasons it won’t.
No. 1 reason Colorado is better: Kaidon Salter
The transfer quarterback from Liberty isn’t necessarily better than last year’s quarterback, Shedeur Sanders. He’s just different. And different can be really good when you have a play-action QB who is as big of a threat to run or throw on any play.
Salter led Liberty to a 13-1 season in 2023, when he passed for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns and also ran for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns.
This is his final year of eligibility, and he might split some time with heralded freshman quarterback Julian Lewis. But if Salter has a season like 2023, the Buffaloes will compete for the Big 12 Conference title.
No. 2 reason Colorado is better: Hulks in the trenches
This team added weight where it matters. Last year, Colorado had 15 players appear in games who weighed at least 300 pounds, ranking 46th among teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, according to Stats Perform. This season, the Buffaloes have 22 active players listed at that weight, tied for 25th in the FBS.
The list includes the entire projected starting offensive line, highlighted by two monster bookends at tackle: returning star Jordan Seaton (6-foot-5, 330 pounds) and Tennessee transfer Larry Johnson III (6-7, 350).
“He’s a mauler,” offensive line coach Gunnar White said of Johnson.
This will help Salter and a running game that ranked last in the nation in yards per game the past two seasons.
No. 3 reason Colorado is better: ‘TrackHawk’ and more
The Buffs have new depth and emerging stars who will have more room to shine this season after the departure of four NFL draft picks, including two whose NFL jerseys are now on sale on campus for $149.99: Shedeur Sanders and Heisman winner Travis Hunter.
On defense, cornerback DJ McKinney has NFL skills and was the “other” cornerback last year, overshadowed by Hunter even though he played the most snaps on defense (840).
On offense, a new speed demon called “TrackHawk” has turned heads in the preseason. His real name is DeKalon Taylor, a transfer from Incarnate Word. Taylor is the fastest player on the team and will catch and run with the ball much like his position coach once did: Marshall Faulk, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
“If you blink, you might miss it,” Taylor said after practice in August. “That’s how I describe my offensive play.”
No. 1 reason Colorado is worse: Underfunded roster?
It’s harder to win when other teams have so much more money to pay players. Colorado is expected to pay its players up to the $20.5 million limit for their names, images and likenesses (NIL). Some Colorado players also have attracted additional endorsement deals with Taco Bell and others.
But Colorado also is among some schools that cut ties with its NIL donor collective to streamline fundraising in-house. By contrast, the collective that supports Big 12 foe Texas Tech has raised $63.3 million since it was formed in 2022, as reported in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
‘It’s a staggering sum of money,” Texas Tech donor Cody Campbell said recently. Such collectives can pay players in addition to what the school pays them out of its $20.5 million limit.
No. 2 reason Colorado is worse: Inconsistency
Deion Sanders’ last two teams could look good for a week or two before laying a big egg the next. Sometimes their personality varied from one half to the next. Remember that time in 2023 when they led Stanford 29-0 at halftime but lost in double overtime, 46-43?
This kind of inconsistency is arguably a function of having so much roster turnover. With so many new players, they’re searching for their identity without much prior chemistry. In 2023, they brought in 68 new scholarship players out of an overall roster limit of 85. In 2024, they started the year with 50 new scholarship players. This year Sanders said his roster of 105 includes 49 newcomers, including non-scholarship players. To his credit, Sanders improved on this since 2023, when the Buffs finished 4-8.
No. 3 reason Colorado is worse: Still no Travis or Shedeur
New stars may emerge, but let’s be real. In Hunter’s case, he was the team’s leading receiver, best cornerback and the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft. In Shedeur Sanders’ case, he accounted for 82% of the team’s total yards last season.
That kind of weaponry is hard to restock without transitional hiccups. If Deion Sanders does as well or better without those players, he should be in the mix for coach of the year.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com