DeKalon Taylor began his career as a Colorado football player with a bang.
He scored the fastest first touchdown of a season since 2018 during last year’s opener vs. Georgia Tech and found the endzone again in Week 2 while racking up 97 yards on 11 touches vs. Delaware.
Two weeks later, Taylor’s promising season was over. A season-ending injury in Week 4 meant that Taylor was able to redshirt and return to the Buffs, or pursue opportunities elsewhere.
It was a no-brainer decision.
“I was always coming back to Colorado,” DeKalon Taylor told DNVR’s Scott Procter. “I love it here. I love the fans. I love the people here, I love Coach Prime and my teammates. I said I have to come back and do it for those guys.
“There’s no way I go out like that. I promised too much on the table.”
When Brennan Marion was hired as Colorado’s offensive coordinator this offseason, Taylor quickly began doing research and loved what he found. Marion’s Go-Go offense is known as a dynamic, high-octane scheme that highlights the skillsets of its best players.
Two running backs are often on the field in the Go-Go and in his book about the offense’s philosophy, Marion writes “we want our backs to be able to get out in space and be assets in the passing game, not liabilities.”
That’s music to the ears of Taylor, who began his college career as a wide receiver at Incarnate Word.
“I feel like I’ll get to fully showcase my skillset,” DeKalon Taylor said. “But also there’s other guys on the team that have some crazy skillsets that y’all are going to get to see, too.
“This offense opens so many doors for so many people to be open and you know an offensive coordinator is great and a play is great when everybody’s open.”
The Go-Go offense fits DeKalon Taylor like a glove thanks to its versatility and use of running backs as all-purpose weapons. Marion will be able to move Taylor all around the field to exploit mismatches on linebackers and safeties.
It’s part of the reason why the senior RB has lofty goals for the 2026 season, goals that he wrote down to make sure they don’t get forgotten throughout a long season.
“I want be a top running back in the nation, I want at least 2,000 yards all-purpose and 10-plus TDs,” DeKalon Taylor said. “I’m a big ‘write it down’ guy because even when I was at Incarnate Word, before I had my breakout season there (1,260 all-purpose yards), that whole year every time we went into meetings, I wrote down what I wanted to do and I when I did it.”
It’s not just the the scheme that has DeKalon Taylor thinking big. It’s also the big men blocking for him.
“It’s their intensity,” DeKalon Taylor said of what he loves most about Colorado’s offensive line. “They’re, they’re aggressive. They know how to get off the ball. Then even outside of getting off the ball, when we get into pass protection, they overcommunicate and make sure I know what’s going on.
“They don’t let anybody touch that quarterback. They’re some mean guys.”
