Kaidon Salter isn’t used to being on the bench, but a week on the bench may have been the boost he needed.
On Saturday night, Colorado’s senior quarterback was sensational in leading the Buffaloes to a 37-20 win against Wyoming at Folsom Field. It came one week after he stood on the sidelines throughout the entirety of a 36-20 loss at Houston.
“It’s been rough, not playing last week,” Salter said. “But I just stayed straight, talking to family, talking to God, and just making sure that the next opportunity that I got, I took full advantage of it. This is my last year, so I just want to go out there and be the best version of me for the team and everybody else in this program.”
Salter, who transferred to CU from Liberty in January, was not the best version of himself in the early stages of this season.
Although he won the battle for the starting job coming out of preseason camp, Salter found himself in a quarterback battle just two games into the season. And, he watched sophomore Ryan Staub takes the reins of the offense in Houston.
Neither Salter or CU head coach Deion Sanders went into specifics about why Salter was benched. But, last week Sanders said he wanted to see more leadership and consistency at quarterback. After the game against Wyoming, Sanders hinted that Salter simply wasn’t taking care of business the way a fifth-year senior quarterback should.
“All I’m gonna say is everybody in that locker room, including me, we’re accountable to one another,” Sanders said. “And sometimes you gotta hold people accountable to what’s transpiring.”
Throughout his time as a coach, Sanders has often talked about the importance of his players winning on the field, but also off the field.
“I want people to grow as human beings, because I think I care about them a little more about the person than the football player,” Sanders said. “I want the persons to develop more.”
In that regard, perhaps the past two weeks have been a period of growth for Salter. Although he came to CU with 30 starts under his belt at Liberty, he is new the Buffs and the Sanders program.
“I don’t think he lost his confidence,” Sanders said. “I just think he had to understand how we do things.”
Last week, tight ends coach Brett Bartolone said he noticed Salter talking more and leading more in practice.
On Saturday, all the ups and downs of the past week led to Salter putting together one of the finest performances of his collegiate career. He completed 18-of-28 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns against the Cowboys, while adding 86 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
It was the third-most passing yards and total yards Salter has had in his career. A true dual threat, he capped his night in style, with a 35-yard touchdown run that iced the game.
“That’s the guy – that’s the guy – that we wanted to see in him, and we’re seeing it,” Sanders said. “He had a couple downs, but the majority of the ups overshadowed the downs.”
Before last week’s game at Houston, Salter hadn’t been in a situation where he was healthy and watched a game from the bench since 2022. But, he chose to learn from it.
“Once I knew I wasn’t going last week, I just had to try to be the best version of me for the team and make sure that things got done, whether it was giving the defense looks at practice or just being there for Staub and helping him out as the veteran quarterback that I am,” Salter said. “This week, once he 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.”
After a couple of weeks of QB controversy, there’s no doubt Salter will start next week when the Buffs host BYU. He led the offense to 497 total yards, the most for the Buffs since posting 504 in the 2024 season opener against North Dakota State.
Touchdown passes to Omarion Miller (for 29 yards), Sincere Brown (for 68 yards) and Joseph Williams (for 47 yards) got the Buffs out to a 28-3 lead early in the third quarter.
Although Wyoming battled back in the second half, Salter put the game away with his legs.
Being benched certainly wasn’t in Salter’s plans when he came to CU, but it wound up lighting a fire within him, he said.
“Most definitely. I’m a big competitor, and being in sports my whole life, football, basketball, track, whatever it was, I wanted to be the best at it, man,” he said. “Playing the quarterback position, you’ve got the ball in your hand every play. So a lot of things do fall on you, and you just got to take it and keep moving and play the next play.”