Colorado Buffaloes football coach Deion Sanders didn’t find the answer under center during his team’s Week 1 opener against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Folsom Field on Friday night.
Instead, Kaidon Salter came, saw, and looked shaky against first-year defensive coordinator Blake Gideon’s unit in the 27-20 loss – and as the Athletic’s Austin Green fears, didn’t do anything to keep calls to see what four-star freshman Julian Lewis can do at bay.
“Forget the external noise around former five-star recruit Juju Lewis,” Green wrote.
“Deion Sanders said himself he hoped to get Lewis some playing time tonight if the game dictated it. He kept Kaidon Salter in there all night long, and while Salter showed some flashes of the dual-threat brilliance that he showed at Liberty, he was not consistent enough to lead Colorado to a win and quiet the Lewis hype.
“Salter went 17-for-28 passing for 159 yards and a touchdown, adding 43 yards and a rushing touchdown on 13 carries. He converted Colorado’s first offensive drive off of a turnover into a touchdown, but failed to turn the next two Buffaloes turnovers to points and really seize momentum. That will no doubt haunt both him and his head coach.”
Was the issue really Salter? Most see Pat Shurmur as the main culprit for Colorado’s failures to capitalize on three turnovers on Georgia Tech’s first three drives. Salter was able to accumulate over 200 yards of offense and two touchdowns, while also making the ground game look more formidable than it ever as at Folsom Field for the home team.
It was Shurmur who was questioned for being less in control of the play-calling than fans in the stands and those watching elsewhere.
And it’ll be Shurmur who gets the boot, not Salter, if things continue to go awry. It’s not beyond Coach Prime to find a play-caller befitting of his personnel. That’s how Shurmur ended up taking over for former co-play-caller Sean Lewis.