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Mid-Term Grades – Offense
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CU has played seven of its 12 regular season games, with the Buffs resting up during their first bye week with a 3-4 overall record, 1-3 in Big 12 play.
The record alone has to be considered a disappointment by most of the Buff Nation. CU is right on pace for the 5.5 over/under wins set by Las Vegas, but, with close losses to Georgia Tech (6-0, ranked No. 12), BYU (6-0, ranked No. 15) and TCU (4-2), Buff fans spent most of the first half of the season wondering “what if?”.
“The most frustrating part about it is that we’re good”, Coach Prime said after CU’s 24-17 win over No. 22 Iowa State. “And I know this sounds crazy, especially when you say the record aloud, but we’re good, we haven’t really gotten our butts kicked”.
Counterpoint … As Bill Parcells once said: “You are what your record says you are”, and the Buffs are 3-4, with three road games in the final five regular season games. Bowl eligibility is still on the table, with optimism renewed after the Iowa State game.
But plenty of work remains to be done if the Buffs are to win at least three of their final five games and go bowling.
So, how do we rate how the Buffs have done to date? Here are my grades for each unit, based upon not only results, but the expectations we had for those units back in August …
(Mid-term grades for the defense and special teams to be posted on Sunday)
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Quarterbacks –
CU opened the season with optimism about the quarterback position. No one was expecting the second coming of Shedeur Sanders, but, with an experienced starter in Kaidon Salter, a freshman phenom in Julian Lewis, and a steady returning backup in Ryan Staub, the CU quarterback room was about as good as any Buff fan could expect it to be in the era of NIL and the Transfer Portal.
The problem: While each quarterback brought something to the table, existing NCAA rules only allow 11 players on the field at a time. As a result, CU hasn’t been able to take the best of each quarterback and put them on the field at the same time.
The lack of a clear dominant force in the quarterback room was evident in Coach Prime’s choice to use all three quarterbacks against Delaware, with the subsequent misadventure of starting Ryan Staub against Houston. Staub struggled mightily against the Cougars, and the Buffs were blown out.
For the most of the first half of the 2025 season, Kaidon Salter has had Buff fans cheering one moment … and pulling out their hair the next. At times, Salter has shown why he was the quarterback to lead Liberty to a 13-0 regular season record in 2023. At times, he has also shown why he was the quarterback for a Liberty team which finished with an 8-4 record in 2024, with losses to the likes of Kennesaw State, Sam Houston, and Jacksonville State.
First half grade, based upon August expectations … C-/D+ … Salter has had his moments, but also was unable to lead the Buffs to fourth quarter comebacks against Georgia Tech, BYU, and TCU. This is a results business, and, for better or worse, the quarterback gets most of the credit for the wins … and most of the blame for the losses.
First half grade, based upon results … C- … Salter is completing 65.5% of his passes, with nine touchdowns to four interceptions. Salter is also second on the team in rushing, with 270 yards (just seven yards behind team-leader Micah Welch). He also has five of CU’s 11 rushing touchdowns. Salter’s numbers might be good enough to give the Buffs a winning first half record if he had more support if the offense as a whole had been more productive.
Toward that end …
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Running backs –
With no proven bell cow on the roster, CU was expected to have a running back by committee this fall, and that part of the equation has held true. To date, Simeon Price has led the Buffs in rushing in two games (Delaware; Houston); Micah Welch has led the Buffs in rushing in two games (Georgia Tech; BYU); Dallan Hayden has led the Buffs in rushing in two games (TCU; Iowa State) … and Kaidon Salter was the leading rusher in the Wyoming game.
The net result is that CU is no longer the worst rushing team in the nation. The Buffs have more than doubled their rushing average, going from 65.2 rushing yards per game last year (133rd, or dead last in the country) to 143.3 rushing yards per game, good enough for … drum roll, please … 86th in the country.
With the running back room hampered by injuries, no Buff has made it to 300 yards rushing on the season. A 1,000-yard rusher – not seen in Boulder since 2018, when Travon McMillian went for 1,009 – is a pipe dream. CU might, though, get its first 500-yard rusher since 2021.
First half grade, based upon August expectations … C- … The Buffs may not have had a go-to running back established in August, but the hope was that one would eventually emerge once the season began. If not a 25-30 carry back, the thought was that CU would at least have a one-two punch which would help carry the offense as Kaidon Salter and the new set of wide receivers found their rhythm.
First half grade, based upon results … C … Running backs Micah Welch (277 yards, two touchdowns), Simeon Price (143 yards, 2 TDs), Dallan Hayden (129 yards) and DeKalon Taylor (89 yards) have had some big moments, as has converted receiver Dre’Lon Miller (69 yards, 1 TD).
Injuries have plagued the Buffs in the backfield, as Price and Taylor have missed three straight games and Dre’Lon Miller was out for the Iowa State game, but they’ve had a consistent run game regardless of who is carrying the ball.
Grading on improvement, the Buff running backs are doing great, with CU moving up from dead last in the nation to 82nd.
But, grading on results, 82nd in the nation is still 82nd in the nation, and Big 12 defensive coordinators aren’t spending too much of their time game-planning to shut down CU’s vaunted rushing attack.
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Wide receivers –
Colorado had four wide receivers drafted into the NFL last April, the most of any collegiate program. Still, there was little fear in the Buff Nation of a dramatic drop-off, as Coach Prime and his coaches have had little difficulty in recruiting skill position players.
Despite the losses from the roster, Athlon had CU’s receiver room rated as the 7th-best in the Big 12, with returning backups Omarion Miller and Dre’lon Miller joined by the likes of Joseph Williams (from Tulsa), Sincere Brown (from Campbell).
Highly touted coming into the year, the Buffs’ receivers haven’t put up big numbers, but Omarion Miller (20 catches, 371 yards, four TD), Joseph Williams (24 catches, 370 yards, three TD) and Sincere Brown (11 catches, 252 yards, two TD) have all had big moments.
As Salter has grown within the offense, the receivers have started to make a bigger impact, especially Miller (16 of his 20 catches in the last four games) and Williams (15 of his 24 in the last three).
Good, but Buff fans have come to expect great.
First half grade, based upon August expectations … C- … Yes, there were some growing pains expected with the new set of receivers. But the drop-off has been significant. The younger players have shown promise – even the freshmen – but the wide receivers haven’t been the difference makers Buff fans were hoping for. There have been two 100-yard receiving games (Sincere Brown against Delaware; Joseph Williams against Iowa State), but in close losses, the wide receivers haven’t been there (Omarion Miller was the leading receiver against Georgia Tech, with 39 yards; Joseph Williams the leading receiver against BYU, with 56 yards).
First half grade, based upon results … C- … If we’re grading on improvement from Game One, this could be a higher grade, as the wide receivers seem to be getting on the same page with Kaidon Salter. The reality, though, can be seen in the numbers.
Last season, CU was 6th in the nation in passing, at 318.0 yards per game.
In 2025? Exactly 100 yards per game less, at 218.0 yards per game, 77th nationally.
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Tight Ends –
What’s the saying, again? Oh, yeah: From those to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48, for you biblical scholars out there).
The CU tight end room?
It’s exactly the opposite.
Buff fans expect little from their tight ends, and … that’s what they get. CU hasn’t had a 500-yard receiving season from the tight end position since Daniel Graham won the Mackey Award in 2001 (51 receptions, 753 yards, six touchdowns).
Last season, CU’s leading tight end was Sav’ell Smalls, with nine catches for 68 yards and a touchdown.
So far this season, Zach Atkins leads the room with seven catches for 45 yards.
So the Buffs have that going for them … which is nice.
First half grade, based upon August expectations … C+… Buff fans were again teased by the concept of tight ends being included in the passing game, but we’ve played Charlie Brown to CU’s Lucy enough times to know that wasn’t going to happen.
You can’t miss what you never had.
First half grade, based upon results … C … I’m not savvy enough to know whether the tight ends have been holding their own in the run game as blockers, so we’ll give them a pass (pun intended) on that. It would be nice to see a tight end pass over the middle for seven yards on third and six … but we’ll see it when we see it.
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Offensive Line –
This is, arguably, the best offensive line that Sanders has had in his three seasons at CU. After a bit of early-season shuffling on the right side, the Buffs have settled on a group that is led by All-American candidate Jordan Seaton at left tackle.
Xavier Hill (left guard), Zarian McGill (center), Zy Crisler (right guard) and Larry Johnson III (right tackle) have teamed with Seaton to form a solid group.
“It’s been good,” offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said this week. “I think it’s probably two or three fold. We went out and got, in my opinion, better players, and I think the guys working with them are doing a hell of a job. And I’m trying to call games to accentuate the things that they do well, because that’s smart for us. If they’re doing certain things well, and we’re moving the ball that way, then it makes sense to call a run or a certain pass, depending on what the protection is. So it all goes hand in hand.”
There were certainly questions about the inexperienced offensive line coaches as the season began, but Gunnar White and assistants Andre Gurode and George Hegamin have led a group that’s not only provided more running room, but is keeping sacks down. CU gave up 3.96 sacks per game over the last two years, but that’s down to 2.0 this year (and zero against Iowa State).
First half grade, based upon August expectations … A- … Another Charlie Brown/Lucy scenario, but this time, Charlie Brown was allowed to kick the ball. Jordan Seaton has been grading out by places like PFF as not only one of the best offensive linemen in the Big 12, but one of the best offensive linemen in the nation. The rushing attack is not great, but it has definitely improved. The sack total, as noted above, has dropped dramatically. The stats on offense overall may not be on par with last season’s dynamic team, but that’s not due to failures along the offensive line.
First half grade, based upon results … B+ … CU is rushing for 143.3 yards per game, more than double the output in either of CU’s first two seasons under Coach Prime. But part of the increase in the stats is due to the lack of sack yardage. Last season, Shedeur Sanders was sacked 42 times for a net loss of 356 yards, yards which count against the rushing average.
The offensive line has been the best story of the first half of the season, but work remains to be done if CU is to get to a bowl game this fall.
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Overall … C- … The Colorado offense has, at times, looked good. The Colorado offense has also (way too often) looked poor. It appears that Pat Shurmur has gotten past his “wide receiver bubble screen or bust” playbook from the first part of the season, which has helped, but progress still needs to be made.
The bottom line is that CU is 90th in the nation in total offense, at 361.3 yards per game.
The bottom line is that CU is 89th in the nation in scoring offense, at 24.9 point per game.
And that’s with CU’s two easiest games – home games against Delaware and Wyoming – already in the books.
It’s hard to call the offensive output from the Buffs to date a success.
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