DeKalon Taylor has spent enough time around Colorado’s backfield to know it can look different every week. One game it’s JaQuail Smith breaking loose.
Another, Micah Welch handles the load. Damian Henderson II gets his touches, too.
And on Saturday night against No. 11 Utah, it was Taylor’s turn to deliver one of the biggest plays of the night.
Early in the third quarter, Taylor burst in from 18 yards out to put Colorado up 14-13, giving the Buffaloes their first lead of the game. It was his first touchdown since early last season, and he called it “long awaited.”
The timing felt familiar in the best way. Colorado’s possession before that ended with Smith turning a broken play into a 68-yard touchdown catch, and Taylor saw the two plays as part of the same spark.
“(JaQuail) goes down, breaks a 68-yarder, then I come right behind him and score,” he said Tuesday. “So it’s like we feed off each other’s success.”
That’s been the reality in Colorado’s running back room all season: a committee built on whoever is ready when the moment comes. Smith leads the team with 259 rushing yards.
Welch has 220 yards and two touchdowns, though Wednesday’s injury report said he will not be available this weekend. Henderson has added 127.
After carrying 13 times against Utah, Smith put the mindset simply: “just being ready.”
Taylor has done his part in a lot of different ways. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound fifth-year has 85 rushing yards, 89 receiving yards and 127 more on seven kick returns.
He said it does not matter whether he gets one touch or a bunch, as long as the room is producing. Watching teammates step forward gives him “extreme confidence,” he said, because “even when I’m at my lowest, they can still push me to be at my best.”
That belief has roots in a career spent shifting and adapting. Taylor played all over the field at Longview High School in Texas.
At Incarnate Word, he began as a slot receiver before moving to running back late in the 2023 season. Then came the breakout: 909 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in 2024, along with first-team all-conference honors.
Across three seasons there, he also piled up 1,106 yards on kick and punt returns, including a punt return touchdown.
His first year in Boulder started fast and then vanished early. Taylor’s 8-yard touchdown catch in the opener gave Colorado its fastest first touchdown of a season since 2018.
He made his first start for the Buffs against Wyoming in Week 4. That ended up being his last game of the season.
Against Utah, he finally got back in the end zone again. Taylor said the second half felt like the offense was “finally playing like ourselves,” and he also helped set up Colorado’s final touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter by catching a 14-yard pass on third down to keep the chains moving. He said the difference wasn’t a hidden wrinkle in the playbook so much as simple execution, with all 11 players doing their jobs instead of one or two guys taking a play off.
Offensive coordinator Brennan Marion’s message through the offense’s uneven stretches, Taylor said, has been about staying together. Outside voices can say what they want, he said, “but we know what the truth is about our team.”
Even so, the night ended with a 27-24 loss, Colorado’s fourth straight. Taylor described the locker room afterward as “bittersweet to a degree.” It hurt, he said, because everybody wanted the win, but hearing head coach Deion Sanders say he was still proud of how hard they played meant a lot.
“That meant, OK, cool. Like if we did this, you know, if we keep working, how great can we really be?” Taylor said.
Colorado is 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the Big 12 heading into Saturday’s trip to Oklahoma State, which is 4-2 and 2-1. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. MT on FS1.
Taylor did not soften his answer when asked whether the Buffaloes can still get to a bowl game. “Extremely so.”
His blueprint is the same one he saw against Utah: “Come out hot, finish hot, because we have the guys. We have all the talent in the world.”
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The matchup also comes with the usual game-week details for fans trying to keep tabs from afar, including television, radio and social media options. There is some history between these programs, too, which only adds a little more edge to a conference meeting that already feels like a measuring-stick moment for Colorado. [Read more 🡒]