Buffs tap senior Sam Noyer as starting QB to open up season vs. UCLA

It's no understatement that Buffs senior quarterback Sam Noyer has had one of the most wacky, roundabout journeys to being named a Division I, Pac-12 starter.

On Friday, head coach Karl Dorrell announced that he, QBs coach Danny Langsdorf and offensive coordinator Darrin Chiaverini had all conferred and decided that Noyer will start against UCLA on Nov. 7.

Noyer's had an interesting experience over the last year and a half. This past August, former head coach Mel Tucker moved him to safety, where he saw action in four games last year.

In December, he opted to hit the transfer portal. From there, he graduated from Colorado with a degree in Strategic Communications and had even moved back home to Beaverton, Oregon, before ultimately deciding in the spring to re-join the team.

Now, after all of that, he will start for Colorado next Saturday evening against the Bruins.

"Definitely, (there were) high emotions," he said. "When I found out, I celebrated for a couple hours and then (went) back to work. The second part is that I didn’t know if I was going to be a Buff again. There was a time where I didn’t think this was possible but I’m just glad I made the decision to come back here and that things worked out. Now I’ve got to go prove it.”

Dorrell indicated that the competition between Noyer and junior Tyler Lytle was neck and neck throughout the first few weeks of camp.

While Noyer will take the first snaps of the season, Dorrell is confident that Lytle can still make an impact for the team this fall.

“We did decide to announce to the team that Sam Noyer would be our quarterback starting against UCLA," Dorrell said. "(It was a) very, very close competition, as you guys can imagine. It took a lot of thought going into this between Danny Langsdorf, myself and Darrin Chiaverini. Sam got the nod but we were really impressed with what Tyler (Lytle) has done this camp and we’re going to bring Tyler along."

"That’s what we’re going to do. He’s going to get a chance to play some. We feel that the competition is that close, that those guys are going to continue to grow as we move forward during the course of the season and we want to bring them both along.”

Dorrell didn't offer specifics regarding how Lytle will be used, if at all, in 2020, but it seems fair to say that given both he and Noyer are very inexperienced, don't rule out the possibility of a potential change in personnel at the QB position some time this fall.

"Sam, we felt that he, operationally, was just a little bit better at this point and time — just barely better than what Tyler is," Dorrell said. "But yes, we want to get Tyler some time. We haven’t determined how much that is yet, just because the competition is that close and yes, we want to continue those guys’ development and get some game experience.”