Work has been done this offseason to improve a run game that has been the worst in college football the last two years.
Colorado and head coach Deion Sanders have added numerous linemen through the transfer portal, a running quarterback and a Pro Football Hall of Famer to coach the running backs.
Who lines up at running back remains to be seen, but Sanders is determined to make sure CU is better on the ground.
“We should be a much more fine-tuned running game because some of the linemen are straight killers that we brought in,” Sanders said at Big 12 media day last week. “We’ve gotta run the football. We can’t depend on (now graduated quarterback Shedeur Sanders) to pull off a miracle. We’ve gotta run the football and that’s what we plan on doing.”
Leading up to preseason camp, BuffZone.com will preview each position group for the CU football team and in this installment, we look at the running backs.
In 2024, there were 71 individual players around the country who rushed for more yards than CU had as a team (847). Isaiah Augustave accounted for 45.3% of those yards (384), but he’s now at South Carolina.
Coming into this year, the most accomplished runner on the team is new quarterback Kaidon Salter, who racked up 1,676 yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground over the last two years.
CU will need production from the running backs, though, to improve its numbers from the past two years. CU was last in the country in rushing in 2023 (69.92 yards per game) and 2024 (65.15 per game).
This year, there are five scholarship players vying for the starting role and carries. While there is no clear favorite, all of them have some level of experience in college football.
Dallan Hayden was CU’s second-leading rusher last year, with 196 yards, but he averaged just 3.1 yards per carry. He was also never fully healthy after a high ankle sprain in the second game of the season.
Hayden, a junior listed at 5-foot-10, 205 pounds, came to CU a year ago from Ohio State. In 2022, he ran for 553 yards and five touchdowns, while averaging 5.0 yards per carry, so he’s proven he can produce.
Micah Welch showed some promise as a true freshman last year, but battled through some injuries and inconsistency. He finished with 186 yards and tied for the team lead with four touchdowns.
Welch, listed at 5-9, 205, had two touchdowns in an overtime win against Baylor in September, and then was productive late in the year when he got healthy. He had 64 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries in the last two games combined.
Senior Charlie Offerdahl, a former walk-on, is the other returner. He won the starting job out of preseason camp a year ago, but managed just 119 yards on 26 carries and played only 27 offensive snaps in the last 10 games combined.
After losing Augustave to the transfer portal in the spring, CU picked up two seniors who should boost the run game.
DeKalon Taylor is a 5-9, 180-pound former slot receiver who won the starting running back job at Incarnate Word, an FCS school, a year ago. He was explosive, rushing for 909 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 6.0 yards per carry.
The Buffs then added Simeon Price, a bigger back at 6-0, 215 who played last year at Coastal Carolina. He rushed for 136 yards on 44 carries (3.1 average) for the Chanticleers. Price began his career with three seasons at Mississippi State, totaling 191 yards on 35 carries.
Coach Prime hired fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk to coach the group. Although Faulk doesn’t have coaching experience, he was one of the most accomplished running backs in NFL history and was known as one of the smartest players in the game.
As spring practices came to a close in April, Coach Prime felt the combination of upgrades on the line and new staff additions would produce better results in the run game.
“We’re gonna run the heck out of the ball this year, we are,” he said. “We said that last year and we didn’t get it done. We’re going to run the heck out of the ball. … With the offensive linemen that we’ve attained, our coaching staff that we assembled with the three-headed monster (of offensive line coaches), as well as what Marshall Faulk brings to the table, we’re going to run football.”
Position: Running backs
Returners with 2024 starts: Dallan Hayden, 5-foot-10, 205 pounds, Jr.; Charlie Offerdahl, 5-11, 185, Sr.; Micah Welch, 5-9, 205, So.
Other returners: Titus Bautista, 5-10, 185, Fr. (walk-on); Christian Sarem, 6-2, 210, Jr. (walk-on).
Transfers: Simeon Price, 6-0, 215, Sr. (Coastal Carolina); Dekalon Taylor, 5-7, 180, Sr. (Incarnate Word).
True freshmen: None.
Key losses: Isaiah Augustave (transferred to South Carolina); Brandon Hood (transferred to Massachusetts).
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.