08 29 25 Voice of CU Buffs Mark Johnson previews game vs Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chad Bauer in for Marty and Gina. Today, football season
has arrived the Bus kicking off their season tonight hosting
Georgia Tech. Joining us to talk about the team and
the game. Voice of the Buffs, Mark Johnson, how are you, Mark?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, Ched, Good to be on with you. And man,
football's finally here for the Buffaloes. I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
And you've been doing this a very long time. Talk
about just the different vibe, the optimism for an opening
game of a season, especially when it's at home.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, you know, it changed a couple of years ago
when Coach Prime came on board, and now this year
he's kind of a new beginning again. You know, you
lose maybe the two most dynamic college football players in America,
the Heisman Trophy winner at Travis Hunter and Schduer Sanders.
They move on to the NFL, and so when you're
number three of coach Prime, he doesn't have his sons,
he doesn't have Travis. It's kind of a remaking of
the Buffaloes this year, and so it's got a little

(00:48):
different feel too. And of course then Prime's coming off
all the health issues that he had as well, and
so it's been a different offseason, but a lot of anticipation, excitement,
and a big matchup with the Georgia Tech coming to
town tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And one of the newcomers is the team starting quarterback,
Caden Salter. New to the bus, went definitely not new
to college football, a lot of experience, a lot of success.
Tell him, tell us about him and his skill set
and how that might change how the Buffs offensive scheme
looks this year compared to in the past with shadur Well.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
And to your points, even though they've recruited the number
two high school quarterback in American Julian Lewis, and those
two were competing for the job. When we talked to
a coach prime on the show this week, he said,
we went with the older guy because he's been there
and done it. So this is the guy that was
a highly regarded high school quarterback coming out a number
of years ago, went to Tennessee and that immediately transferred
to Liberty and had a four year run at Liberty.

(01:39):
Statistically speaking, that was spectacular. I mean he passed for
nearly six thousand yards and fifty six touchdowns, ran rover
two thousand yards the other twenty one. In fact, He
and the starting quarterback at Clemson of the two top
kind of statistical quarterbacks in college football right now his
final year. Now he comes to the Buffalos. I always
said about Shaduor he was a passing quarterback who could run.

(02:00):
Cayden Salter is a running quarterback who can pass, and
so he is dynamic with his legs. Sitting down with
Pat Sherman, the offensive coordinator, a couple of days ago,
he said, Hey, don't forget about this kid's arm. He
throws it very well, so it'll be a very balanced attack.
The Buffs went out and brought in a bunch of
guys along the offensive front. They feel that they're much
I proved there, so they figure they can run the

(02:20):
football with Salter and then with a group of running backs,
and so he's a dynamic guy. I had one assistant
coach say that this kid's going to turn into a
college football star this season for Colorado. So I'm kind
of excited about him.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
And on the other side of the ball, I know
the Buffs have a pretty strong group of cornerbacks, and
how's the rest of the defense looking as they head
into the season.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, just like I talked about how they upgrade along
the offensive line, they upgraded along the defensive line as well.
This is a unit that led the Big twelve in
sacks a year ago, was rather pedestrian against the run.
They figure they're much better there. Brought in a couple
of linebackers who can kind of play behind that rebuilt
defensive line. And the one thing we know about Deon Sanders,
he can identify wide receivers and defensive backs. Look at

(03:03):
all the guys he's putting the National Football League, so
they are talented the back end. Then you got second
year defensive courting to Robert Livingston, who made a huge
leap in your number one. He expects to make another
big leave. I think this is a little bit like
the Broncos. We talked about how good that Broncos defense is.
I think the bus defense is going to be one
of the top defenses in the Big twelve. And then
the way they control the ball on the offense, at

(03:23):
least the way they plan to, that'll kind of be
the way this team is constituted. I think here in
twenty twenty five, and.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Let's talk about tonight's game, mark a non conference game
against Georgia Tech, looks like it could be a pretty
tough game. What should we expect, Well, you've.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Got two running quarterbacks. Haines King is the fifth year,
make it sixty yearscuring quarterback for the Yellow Jackets. He
was a guy that we saw in twenty twenty one
at Mile High Stadium. He came in here with Texas
A and m got hurt early in that ball game,
but he's put up some big numbers. Also uses his legs.
Very good passing quarterback. They've got a wonderful running back

(03:58):
in Jabal Haynes. They expect to run the ball there.
Thought to be one of the top teams in the ACC.
They're coming out two seven to win seasons, two bold seasons,
so it's a high level matchup. I think in this
opening weekend of college.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Football now Mark a lot of the national experts expect
the Bus to take a step back this year. But
looking at their schedule seven home games, they're played just
three ranked teams, two of those at home. Do you
think that they will outperform the expectations this season?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, Vegas seems to think that the over under six
and a half. I'm taking the over for reasons. You're
talking about the things we just talked about with the
way the team is built this season, and then it's
a home heavy schedule seven and on paper and again
it's on paper, but still the tougher teams on that
schedule that we think of, the tougher teams are coming
into Boulders. So I like the way the season SATs up.
I think they're going to out do expectations. I do

(04:49):
think this is a bold team, but I think, just
like last year, at the end of the year we'll
be talking about a Colodo team that's raked in the
mix for the Big twelve championship.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Boys of the Bucks, Mark Johnson, thanks so much for
joining us, and have fun tonight.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
End this season, all right, yea, thank you soon.