Grading Kaidon Salter's Performance In Colorado Buffaloes' Loss To Georgia Tech

Salter, a senior, looked rushed and scattered on several occasions. He lacked the cool demeanor or sharp decisiveness of his predecessor, falling victim to costly overthrows and relying heavily on his scrambling acumen.

Early on, Salter looked ready to roll as he capitalized on Georgia Tech's early fumble with a 36-yard touchdown drive, but he failed to aid the offense's movement in ensuing drives after takeaways.

"Sometimes, guys are not hearing correctly, or they're not seeing correctly, the signals that [are] being brought forth," Sanders said postgame. "But we rehearsed all this stuff, we practiced all this. We should have been smoother."

The lion's share of blame for Colorado's putrid late-game clock management is on Sanders, and rightfully so. However, Salter's mad dash out of bounds on third down, rather than a slide to move the chains, burned several seconds with the game on the line.

Granted, Friday was just the fourth game of Salter's career against a Power Four opponent. The Yellow Jackets' secondary proved stout, a significant uptick from the Conference USA defenses of the past.

"It'll slow down," Salter said of the environment. "It just starts at practice, just going out there and executing what coach wants us to do. We just got to be better overall as a team, on offense and defense. Going out there and practicing harder and better each and every day, and then bringing it to the game."

Additionally, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur's play-calling did not do Salter any favors. The Buffs had a wishy-washy commitment to the run, a lack of focus on their talented wide receivers and a near absence of play-action.

A Rushing Regret

Despite posting 13 carries for 43 yards, including an ankle-breaking juke and elite escapability, there was some to be desired from Salter's highly-advertised athleticism.

More often than not, the signal caller chose to use the sidelines as protection rather than seeking out lanes to cut upfield. Those creases were occasionally open, proving costly in a one-score game.

Salter showed self-awareness of the hiccups.

"I feel like I had those opportunities," Salter said. "Me being a dual-threat quarterback, I keep my eyes downfield. I feel like I had chances to throw the ball downfield to make some plays and execute and move the ball downfield. Most definitely, I could've used my legs more."

"Coach Prime" Still A Believer

Despite his interest in getting Lewis under center at points this season, Sanders has no plans to move off Salter after one middling game.

However, Coach Prime shared the sentiment that he should have looked to the ground on more occasions.

"A couple of times, I think he should have ran, and he threw," Sanders said. "I don't want him to prove to us that he could throw the ball. We know he could 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 completed 17 of his 28 throws (61 percent) for 159 yards and two total touchdowns (one passing, one rushing).

All in all, it was a slightly anticlimactic debut for Salter. He started strong, mitigated turnover-worthy plays and flashed dual-threat potential, but there is significant room for improvement in terms of accuracy, confidence and composure.

Overall Grade: C+