BOULDER — He could’ve rubbed Salter in Micah Welch’s wounds.
Welch, the CU Buffs’ mercurial tailback, screwed up. He knew it. Salter knew it. The sophomore had fumbled at the end of a 44-yard run late in the third quarter. An absolute dagger.
Kaidon Salter could’ve brought out the hammer. Young No. 29 looked on his way to scoring in a 28-13 game that would’ve put Wyoming away — only for the rock to get punched out and roll all the way to the Cowboys’ 1-yard line.
Good teams finish the drive. Good backs finish the run. Welch had to be kicking himself. Salter walked over to the kid and tried to offer some comfort. Encouragement. Constructive dialogue.
Remember what Deion Sanders said last week about wanting “leadership” from his starting quarterback?
“That’s the guy that we wanted to see and that we’re seeing,” Coach Prime said of Salter, the transfer from Liberty who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in a 37-20 win over the Cowboys. “And I’m glad you get an opportunity to see him at his best. He hasn’t reached that potential yet, but he’s getting more and more comfortable with everything.”
It’s his team. It’s his time. The QB1 debate in BoCo shouldn’t really be a debate anymore. In hindsight, it probably never should’ve become a debate in the first place.
Yet on this point, Coach Prime is absolutely right: Someone had to take the reins of the Buffs offensively. Someone had to be the loudest voice in the huddle. Someone had to tell uncomfortable truths. Someone had to be the guy where the buck stops. Especially if left tackle Jordan Seaton needs time to heal up.
After Texas Tech and Iowa State, the Big 12 looks like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re going to get. At 2-2, the Buffs are … fine. Flawed as heck, but probably fine.
Mobile quarterbacks will still chew CU’s defensive front seven up, something Wyoming figured out far too late. They’re prone to fading in the fourth quarter. That the Buffs played nine different wideouts on their opening series of the evening might speak as much about desperation as depth.
You hope health finds Seaton, who watched the second half in sweats on the sideline. That it finds guard Zy Crisler. And Simeon Price, the Buffs’ most productive back in short-yardage situations.
But the question about the safest bet at quarterback, after a fortnight of revolving doors, finally has an answer. On and off the field.
“Once I knew that I wasn’t going (in at Houston) last week, I just had to try to be the best version of me for the team and make sure that things got done,” said Salter, who threw for 304 yards, ran for 86 more, and got sacked just once. “Whether it was giving the defense looks at practice or just in their style of helping them out as a veteran quarterback that I am. But this week, once (Sanders) told me that I was going to get the start, I just had to take full advantage of it and make sure that I continue to be the starter.”
The book said Salter couldn’t complete passes on the run. No. 3 rolled right and hit Sincere Brown on the fly for an early score. The book said he didn’t have the arm strength to take advantage of CU’s receiving corps the way Shedeur Sanders used to. Salter connected with Omarion Miller for a 29-yard TD, Joseph Williams for a score from 47 yards out (between two defenders) and the aforementioned 68-yarder to Brown.
“Just put it in their area,” Salter said, “and I know that I can trust my receivers to come down with it.”
Those windows, though, are about to narrow. BYU (Sept. 27), TCU (Oct. 4) and Iowa State (Oct. 11) aren’t Wyoming (2-2). The Pokes are salty, yes. They’re also, by Big 12 standards, a step slow. The Buffs ran for 193 yards. Utah rumbled for 311 on this bunch the weekend prior.
While the Buffs are still looking for an identity, Wyoming’s already got one: A silk purse defense carrying a sow ear’s offense.
Former CU offensive coordinator Jay Johnson’s best play in the first half was handing off up the middle to Samuel Harris. His second-best was flinging the ball up and hoping for a pass interference call, which the Buffs (and refs) obliged three times on the Cowboys’ first four third-down tries. UW’s idea of complementary football is to drag you into the mud, slow the game down to a slog, and try to win 15-10.
For a time, it appeared as if the Buffs might oblige, as Salter’s initial drive to the game ended without points for the first time in his CU tenure. The Buffs traded punts with the Pokes until the opening drive of the second quarter, when Salter got a nice pocket to work with, reared back, and fired a 29-yard strike in the end zone to Miller that put the hosts up 6-0 before the extra point.
The Pokes know who they are, warts and all. At CU, Salter may have ultimately shown us a taste of what the Buffs can be. Better late than never.
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