After two full seasons as the starting quarterback at Liberty, Kaidon Salter could have taken the easy route for his final year of college football.

Salter could have remained at Liberty, where he already had a starting job, or gone to a school that guaranteed him a top spot.

Instead, Salter chose Colorado, to play for head coach Deion Sanders and to have the opportunity to compete with a blue chip freshman, Julian “JuJu” Lewis.

“Nothing’s given to me,” Salter said at Big 12 media day last week in Frisco, Texas. “I knew no matter where I went, I was gonna have to go in and compete. Whether it was any one of the schools that was looking at me, I wanted to go in and compete.

“A lot of schools was trying to give me that job, and Coach Prime was just telling me that I’m going to come in and compete. … He didn’t care about me being the older guy, me being a vet; none of that. He just wants the best player out there on the field, and I’m excited to be in this competition.”

While the 17-year-old Lewis is a five-star recruit with a bright future, the 22-year-old Salter has experience — and confidence that comes from that experience.

“My confidence is out the roof,” he said. “Of course, I feel like I’m one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and I feel like this season I’m going to prove and show everybody why.”

Salter was a four-star recruit coming out of Cedar Hill (Texas) High School in 2021 and spent one semester at Tennessee before transferring to Liberty and becoming a star for the Flames.

A part-time starter in 2022, Salter was the Conference USA MVP in 2023. That season, he threw for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns and rushed for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns in leading the Flames to a 13-1 record and a conference title. Last year, Liberty slipped to 8-4 and Salter’s numbers dipped to 1,886 yards and 15 TDs through the air and 587 yards and seven TDs on the ground.Despite the dip last year, Salter is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in a Big 12 Conference loaded with talented passers. Ten projected starters this year threw for at least 2,450 yards in 2024, and nine teams return their starter from last year.

“I fit right in. I don’t want to mark where, but I feel like I fit right in,” said Salter, whose 5,887 career passing yards ranks sixth among active Big 12 quarterbacks. “There’s great quarterbacks in this conference. It’s an amazing battle of quarterbacks in this conference, and we’re going to show each other each and every week why we have the best conference of quarterbacks in the country.”

Although it’s not a given that Salter will be the one to lead the Buffs, Sanders is confident in the senior.

“Kaidon is unbelievable. Kaidon is off the chain,” Sanders said. “He’s been there, done that. He can get the job done. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t trust him.”

Salter’s game is very different from the man he’s replacing, Shedeur Sanders, and from Lewis. Sanders could run when needed but wasn’t a dual threat, finishing last year with minus-50 rushing yards (he gained 321 yards but lost 371 in sacks). Lewis was never a running threat during his high school career, totaling 215 yards in three years.

CU’s offense under coordinator Pat Shurmur is more pass-first than Liberty, Salter said, but there’s no doubt the Buffs will rely on his legs more than they did with Shedeur Sanders.

“It’s just being able to sit back there, take your time, read the defense; nothing happens, you get to use your legs,” said Salter, whose brother, Kylan, is a linebacker for the Buffs. “It’s truly a blessing to have these two things (legs) right here.”

Before Salter can try to elude defenders on game day, though, he’s got to win the starting job at CU. He’s confident he can do that, but he also has respect for Lewis.

“He’s a very cool guy to come in and compete with and play with, talk to, play the video games, all those types of things,” Salter said. “We understand that we’re competing, but we’re having fun while doing it, and at the end of the day, we’re not the ones who gets to pick who goes out there on that field.”