The Colorado Buffaloes quarterback cycle last season left everyone watching between Julian Lewis, Kaiden Salter, and Ryan Staub, asking what was going on with the offense. Many thought Kaiden Salter would be the starter who led the team to a possible back-to-back bowl game appearances. The fans found out early in the season that the Buffs coaching staff didn’t have confidence in any of the three quarterbacks. Changing the quarterbacks in the game at a moment’s notice showed things were disjointed and the development for the quarterbacks wasn’t happening as many had anticipated. The Buffs ended the season with a 3-9 record.
Kaiden Salter went undrafted by the NFL after a subpar season at Colorado University, playing 9 games and passing for 1,414 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions with a 62.3% completion percentage. He currently plays in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the BC Lions, where he has succeeded as a dual-threat quarterback. Salter set a franchise record rushing for 160 yards and throwing his first career CFL touchdown in Week 9 against Winnipeg on July 30th 2026.
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The former Colorado Buffs quarterback Ryan Staub entered the transfer portal and was picked up by the University of Tennessee, hoping to compete for the starting quarterback position. The news broke that UT Head Coach Heupel chose former 5-star Freshman Faison Brandon, who shows downfield passing accuracy, rushing ability, and mastery of the Vols’ uptempo offense, making him the starter against Furman University. When the Vols evaluated Staub against Brandon, several things stood out about Ryan Staub, even with his 3 years of experience and 12 college games played for the Colorado Buffs; he passed for 681 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions with a completion percentage of 54.5. Staub is a dual-threat quarterback with raw talent that didn’t match up to Brandon’s physicality, arm strength, passing efficiency, and ability to run Heupel’s uptempo offense. If Staub chooses to remain with the program after this season, Coach Heupel could make Ryan Staub a decent quarterback who some professional organizations may be interested in his playing services.
This seems to be a recurring recruiting problem, with the University of Colorado football program, with athletes coming into the program bright-eyed, thinking they are going to receive the coaching, physical training and development that will make them the players they desire to become when choosing to commit to the program, finding themselves entering the transfer portal and signing with a new college football program who hit them with a harsh reality after being evaluated, and told they weren’t prepared and ready to compete on a higher level.