One of Colorado's top 2025 recruits is already looking like a playmaker in fall camp

One of the biggest reasons for Colorado's five-win jump from Deion Sanders' first year in Boulder to his second was the vast improvement on the defensive side of the ball. DC Robert Livingston made major headway in his first year with Colorado, and the Buffaloes took a leap in every statistical category from the previous season.

Livingston will have his work cut out for him as he seeks an encore. The Buffaloes only return three starters from a year ago, and are retooling virtually their entire secondary after losing the likes of Travis Hunter, Shilo Sanders, and Cam'Ron Silmon-Craig.

Despite the presence of Hunter on the backend, the strength of Colorado's defense a year ago was in its pass rush. The Buffs led the Big 12 in sacks in 2024, and despite only returning junior Samuel Okunlola in the front seven, Coach Prime did excellent work in the Transfer Portal and in the recruiting class to replace the departing talent.

One of those recruits is 4-star London Merritt, who was one of Sanders' biggest recruiting wins in the 2025 class, nabbing the coveted DL over the likes of Ohio State and Alabama. Merritt faces a big challenge ahead of him to carve out playing time with upperclassmen ahead of him, but just a few days into fall camp, the blue-chip recruit is already making plays.

London Merritt made a viral play in practice on Wednesday

Merritt is already making plays in Boulder. In one viral clip on Wednesday, the true freshman broke through the line as a free rusher, got in the quarterback's face, tipped the ball to himself, and intercepted it for what probably would have been an oh-so-glorious big-man touchdown.

The obvious caveat with the clip is that the QB is clearly third-stringer Ryan Staub, meaning this rep was likely threes on threes. But all you can ask from a player is taking advantage of the reps they are given, and Merritt certainly did so here, all the while flashing elite athleticism that is going to force Sanders and Livingston to get him on the field sooner rather than later.

At a listed 6-foot-3 and 255 pounds, Merritt is physically ready to compete in the Big 12. How quickly he can pick up Livingston's defensive scheme will determine if he's able to garner serious playing time during his true freshman season or not.

Regardless, the kid looks like a future star.