DeKalon Taylor scored Colorado’s first touchdown of last season. Four games in, an injury ended his year.
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On Saturday night, he scored the one that put the Buffaloes ahead of No. 11 Utah. Taylor’s 18-yard run early in the third quarter gave Colorado a 14-13 lead, its first lead of the game. It was Taylor’s first touchdown since early last season, one he called “long awaited.”
Colorado’s previous possession had ended with JaQuail Smith turning a broken play into a 68-yard touchdown catch. To Taylor, the two go together. “(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 how the Buffaloes’ backfield has operated all season. Smith leads the team with 259 rushing yards. Micah Welch has 220 yards with two touchdowns, though Wednesday’s injury report confirmed that he will not be available this weekend. Damian Henderson II has added 127. After leading the committee with 13 carries against Utah, Smith said the mindset is “just being ready.”
Taylor, a 5-foot-9, 165-pound fifth-year, has 85 rushing yards, 89 receiving yards, and 127 more on seven kick returns.
Asked how he handles not knowing which back will get the touches from week to week, Taylor said it doesn’t matter whether he gets one or a bunch, as long as the room is producing. Seeing others step up gives him “extreme confidence,” he said, because “even when I’m at my lowest, they can still push me to be at my best.”
Whoever is in the game, Taylor said, “we know that we’ve got each other’s back because that ball is our story. It’s our ‘why,’ so we protect it.”
Taylor has changed roles before. He played all over the field at Longview High School in Texas. At Incarnate Word, he started as a slot receiver before moving to running back late in the 2023 season. He broke out in 2024 with 909 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, earning first-team all-conference honors. Over three seasons there, he added 1,106 yards on kick and punt returns, including a punt return for a touchdown.
His first season in Boulder started fast and ended early. His 8-yard touchdown catch in the opener gave the Buffaloes their fastest first touchdown of a season since 2018. He made his first Colorado start against Wyoming in Week 4. It was also his last game of the season.
Saturday’s touchdown came during a second half Taylor described as the offense “finally playing like ourselves.” He had a hand in the last score, too, catching a 14-yard pass on third down to move the chains on Colorado’s final touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter. As for whether the Buffaloes had opened up the playbook, Taylor said it was more about execution, with all 11 players doing the right thing at the right time instead of one or two taking a play off.
Offensive coordinator Brennan Marion‘s message as the offense has gone up and down, Taylor said, has been about staying together. People on the outside will have their opinions, he said, “but we know what the truth is about our team.”
The game still ended in a 27-24 loss, Colorado’s fourth straight. Taylor called the postgame locker room “bittersweet to a degree.” It hurt to lose a game everybody wanted to win, he said, 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 (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) plays at Oklahoma State (4-2, 2-1) on Saturday (5 p.m. MT, FS1).
Taylor didn’t hedge when asked whether this team can still reach a bowl game. “Extremely so.” The key to four full quarters, in his view, is repeating the second half against Utah: “Come out hot, finish hot, because we have the guys. We have all the talent in the world.”
