Colorado sits on a knife-edge, and no one wears that tension like Deion Sanders with Week 3 looming and the starting quarterback still unsettled. After rotating three passers in the 31-7 win over Delaware, he again sits with a roulette in his hand. And that’s a plan he has openly said he doesn’t want to repeat. With Houston on Friday and practice reps tilting toward one contender, the choice feels urgent, not optional, because the window for trying things closes fast in the Big 12. And it seems like one name is standing out for most.

All three quarterbacks had their say against the Blue Hens, and the film tells a neat story in three acts before the fourth finally clicked. Kaidon Salter started and went 13-of-16 for 102 yards with a 9-yard rushing score while piloting an early 10-0 lead, and five-star freshman Julian Lewis logged a brief 2-of-4 for 8 yards stint with no points despite moving the ball early. Then came Ryan Staub, who entered with 46 seconds left before halftime and promptly completed 7-of-10 for 157 yards and two touchdowns, flipping momentum with strikes to DeKalon Taylor and Sincere Brown and putting real pressure on the depth chart math.

Let’s welcome ex-Colorado QB Joel Klatt, who arrives with a push that meets the moment for Deion Sanders. “There are some reports that Deion’s going to go with Staub moving forward… I anticipate that he will. And the reason is that it is clear he has forced the coach’s hand… you have to provide ample evidence to your coaching staff that you are the best option and you elevate the play of the players around you.” That message lands because the evidence exists on tape, and because Kaidon Salter’s opener was mixed in a 27-20 loss at Georgia Tech. 

His stat line read 17-of-28 for 159 with a TD, plus 43 rushing yards and a rushing score, while also revealing timing issues that prompted the Week 2 audition window in Boulder. Klatt says not to disregard the evidence in front of our eyes. When a quarterback lifts everyone and stacks proof, the staff’s hands get tied in the best possible way, even if feelings get complicated.

Klatt doubled down with the practical stuff, too: “I know that Deion doesn’t want to be rotating quarterbacks, and he’s going to try to go with one. Staub has gotten majority of the number one reps this week. I think he’s going to be the starter, but again, unofficial”. Deion Sanders has basically said the same thing in his own voice: “I don’t want to play musical chairs at quarterback… It’s like spinning the darn wheel… I wasn’t good at roulette,” while confirming most first-team snaps have gone to Staub, even as he declined to lock it in publicly yet. If the plan is to stop the carousel, then the cleanest handoff is to the guy who just ran the two-minute, then the knockout shot out of halftime, and earned most of the QB1 work this week.

Houston is the Big 12 opener that punishes dithering, and Colorado knows it after watching the room ebb and flow for two weeks. Pick one, live with him, and build the call sheet to that quarterback’s strengths, because doing this in late September can bite back when possessions get scarce on the road. If it’s Staub, the locker room has already seen how the ball comes out on time and the huddle settles; if it’s Kaidon Salter, the dual-threat profile that won the job in August has to carry four quarters, not four drives. Either way, the clock on experimentation has hit zero, and Houston doesn’t care who wins the job as long as Colorado keeps deciding on Fridays.

Different standards at QB?

Colorado’s rotation against Delaware has sparked a charged question: Is Kaidon Salter being handled differently than Shedeur Sanders was? Buffs insider Brian Howell said, “We get totally into quarterbacks. That predetermined plan told me two things. One, they didn’t take Delaware seriously at all. They thought, ‘Yeah, we’re going to mop you guys up no matter who plays quarterback.’ And two, they don’t fully believe in Kaden Salter.” The snaps are not part of this read. This is totally about trust, rhythm, and the leash a starter feels when the next guy is already warming up.

Howell didn’t stop there when asked if Deion Sanders would’ve managed Shedeur the same way: “Absolutely not. Are you kidding me? That’s case in point.” He added, “They had a couple games, like CSU on the road at the end, where there was no point in him playing, and they still kept Shador in. You’re sitting there wondering, ‘Why is he still out there in the fourth quarter when this game is totally done?’ But they didn’t pull him. So no, they never would have done that with Sheduer.” The comparison lands because it’s about consistency. Last year’s star rode out blowouts; this year’s transfer saw his rhythm sliced by a preplanned carousel, which feels like a shorter leash and a cooler vote of confidence.

Those optics only sharpened when Pete Thamel reported, “Sources: Colorado is expected to start Ryan Staub at quarterback for the game at Houston on Friday night. He entered the Delaware game on Saturday as the third-string quarterback and shined, completing 7 of 10 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns.” If Staub starts, the message to Salter is as loud as any speech: performances, not pedigrees, are the currency now. Whether one views that as tough-love meritocracy or unequal treatment compared to last year, the onus is on Coach Prime to set one standard, communicate it clearly, and stick to it before the Big 12 grind turns perception into a locker-room problem.