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.
Kaidon Salter could’ve brought out the hammer. Young No. 29 looked on his way to a score 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.
Welch had to be kicking himself. Salter walked over and tried to offer some comfort. Constructive dialogue.
Remember what Deion Sanders said last week about wanting “leadership” from his starting quarterback?
The Buffs won 37-20 late Saturday night. Salter threw for three scores. He ran for another. The QB1 debate in BoCo shouldn’t really be a debate anymore. In hindsight, it probably never should’ve gotten there 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 keep the train moving forward. 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. That the Buffs played nine different wideouts on their opening series of the evening might speak more of desperation than depth.
You hope health finds Seaton, who watched the second half in sweats on the sideline. And guard Zy Crisler. And Simeon Price, the Buffs’ most productive back in short-yardage situations.
But the question about the safest bet at quarterback finally has an answer. On and off the field.
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 core the way Shedeur Sanders used to. Only 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.
And we know that BYU (Sept. 27), TCU (Oct. 4) and Iowa State (Oct. 11) aren’t Wyoming (2-2). It would be a stretch to call a unit that just gave up 311 rushing yards to Utah “vaunted.”
But if 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 opening 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 finally shown us a taste of what the Buffs can be.