Deion Sanders Names Kaidon Salter QB1 for Colorado's CFB Opener vs. Georgia Tech

University of Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders announced Tuesday that Kaidon Salter will be the team's starting quarterback for their 2025 season opener against Georgia Tech on Friday night.

Sanders told reporters that Salter is "the guy," before adding that he plans to get freshman quarterback Julian Lewis some playing time Friday as well.

Salter, 22, is a senior transfer who spent the previous four seasons playing at Liberty.

After appearing in two games in 2021 and starting four games in 2022, Salter took over as Liberty's full-time starter in 2023 and thrived in that role.

In 14 starts, Salter went 13-1 and completed 61.0 percent of his passes for 2,876 yards, 32 touchdowns and six interceptions, while also rushing for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Salter was named the Conference-USA Most Valuable Player as a result, and big things were expected for both him and Liberty as a whole entering the 2024 campaign.

With the implementation of the expanded College Football Playoff field, Liberty was a popular pick to be the Group of Five representative in the CFP.

However, the Flames fizzled after a 5-0 start, going just 3-4 over their final seven games.

Salter's production took a massive step backward as well, as he completed 56.3 percent of his passing attempts for 1,886 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions to go along with 579 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground in 11 games.

At Colorado, Salter has big shoes to fill in the form of Shedeur Sanders, who is Deion's son and was the Buffaloes' starting quarterback the past two seasons.

Sanders was a fifth-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 2025 NFL draft after earning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year honors last season by virtue of completing 74.0 percent of his passes for 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns and 10 picks.

While Salter's passing success does not measure up to what Sanders did at Colorado, he should bring a different dimension to the offense thanks to his dual-threat ability.

In two seasons at Colorado, Sanders rushed for minus-127 yards and eight touchdowns. By comparison, Salters racked up 2,006 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns over his 35 games at Liberty.

Even aside from Sanders, Colorado lost a ton of offensive talent to the NFL off last year's team, including the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in wide receiver Travis Hunter, and wideouts LaJohntay Wester and Jimmy Horn Jr.

Because of that, Salter may have to lean on his legs more regularly until some reliable options emerge in the passing game.