Deion Sanders calls for Kaidon Salter to run with the ball more
Year three of the Coach Prime era at Colorado kicked off with a disappointing 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech last Friday night. It marked the first season-opening loss for the Buffaloes since Deion Sanders took over.
After falling behind 20-13 with 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Colorado quarterback Kaidon Salter led his team on a 15-play, 75-yard touchdown drive capped off by a seven-yard rushing touchdown with 8:25 remaining. Georgia Tech‘s Haynes King, however, put his team over the top with a 45-yard rushing score with just over a minute remaining, securing the win for the Yellow Jackets.
Salter rushed for 43 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries in the game. But Coach Prime revealed postgame that he wants to see even more production on the ground from the dual-threat quarterback.
“Kaidon played well,” Sanders said. “A couple of times I think he should have ran. He threw, but I don’t need him to prove to us that he can throw the ball. We know he can throw the ball. We wanted him because he’s a dual-threat and we want him to be a dual-threat. But I don’t think we lost the game because of Kaidon Salter by any means. He put us in a situation to win.”
Salter rushed for 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns at Liberty
Colorado brought in Salter from Liberty this offseason via the Transfer Portal to replace last year’s Johnny Unitas Award-winning quarterback Shedeur Sanders. He played four seasons (35 games) with the Flames, where he rushed for 2,006 yards and 21 touchdowns. Coach Prime is now banking on that production going forward from his fifth-year signal caller.
“There’s always room to improve on throughout the game, really my first P4 big-time game out here in Folsom Field,” Salter said following the loss. “But I feel like I went out there and I tried to do the best that I could do. I went out there and I executed the plays that Coach wanted me to execute. But still, it’s still room for improvement out there with the way the offense connect and run things on game day. We just got to go out there and we got to be better and practice how we play.”
Salter will have a prime opportunity to have a better game on the ground in Colorado’s game against Delaware on Saturday. Sanders revealed that backup quarterback Julian Lewis will also see some snaps in the game, so it is currently unknown how much run Salter will get against the Blue Hens.
