The Colorado Buffaloes are handing out some early-season praise to four players whose work has gone beyond what fans see on Saturdays.
Wide receivers Danny Scudero and Hykeem Williams, defensive back Randon Fontenette and defensive tackle Samu Taumanupepe were named the football program’s Student of the Week honorees for Weeks 1 and 2. Colorado announced the picks on its official football account on X, with Scudero and Fontenette featured together in one graphic and Williams and Taumanupepe in another.
For Scudero, the recognition lands alongside a profile that already came with plenty of buzz in Boulder. The San José State transfer put up 88 catches for 1,297 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, leading the nation in receiving yards through the regular season and earning first-team All-Mountain West honors.
His college journey has taken him from Sacramento State to San José State and now to Colorado, where he is working his way into offensive coordinator Brennan Marion’s system. Even as he settles in on the field, the Buffaloes are highlighting him for what he’s doing in the classroom.
Fontenette arrives with a résumé that stretches across multiple stops as well. He played at TCU before starting 24 games over two seasons at Vanderbilt, where he compiled 125 tackles. Back in the Big 12, he gave Colorado an experienced presence in a secondary with a lot of new faces.
He also made an immediate impact on the field, leading the Buffaloes with eight tackles in the season-opening win over Georgia Tech. Fontenette added a tackle for loss in that game, and the academic nod comes on the heels of that productive debut in Colorado colors.
Williams’ academic recognition fits a pattern that started before he got to Boulder. Colorado’s official biography lists him as a 2023 All-ACC Academic Team selection at Florida State, where he began his college career before transferring to CU in 2025.
On the field, Williams caught nine passes for 81 yards in his first season with the Buffaloes. His CU biography says he missed the final six games because of injury, and the latest honor gives him another early-season mention as he returns alongside teammates who joined the program this year.
Taumanupepe rounds out the group after stops at Texas A&M and Baylor. The 6-foot-3, 375-pound defensive lineman came to Colorado in the winter transfer window after initially committing to Florida. He played in six games for Baylor last season and joins Fontenette as one of the defensive players recognized this week.
The four-player honor also fits into a bigger academic picture for Deion Sanders’ program. In CU’s May 21 academic report, the football team posted a 3.004 spring semester GPA, its best spring mark and its second semester above 3.0 in the previous four terms.
Across the athletic department, 309 athletes combined for a 3.275 spring GPA after the department set an all-semester record of 3.296 in the fall. Athletic director Fernando Lovo pointed to that run in the May announcement.
“Completing an academic year with back-to-back GPA records is truly remarkable and illustrative of our student-athletes’ commitment to success in the classroom,” Lovo said.
Colorado hosts Weber State at Folsom Field on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. MT, and Scudero, Fontenette, Williams and Taumanupepe will be part of the home opener. Before kickoff, though, they’ve already earned a different kind of spotlight.
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