BOULDER — Micah Welch stood in the backfield and waited. He knew the play call. He knew the ball was going to him. He saw how the defense was lined up and knew he had a chance to break off a big play.

When the play was over, his first carry as a college running back, he was 25 yards downfield.

“I knew it was going to happen,” Welch said.

He may be soft spoken, but it’s confidence, not arrogance, that fuels the true freshman from a small town in central Georgia.

Welch stood on the sidelines and watched every play in Colorado’s season-opening win over North Dakota State. In Week 2 at Nebraska, Welch wasn’t even a part of the traveling roster. But an injury elevated Welch into the game plan for the Rocky Mountain Showdown at Colorado State.

At the end of it, Welch was the leading rusher in just Colorado’s third game with over 100 rushing yards as a team under Deion Sanders. The millions watching at home may have been learning Welch’s name for the first time, but nobody inside the program was surprised.

“We knew leading up to the game that he was ready for the moment,” Buffaloes running backs coach Gary “Flea” Harrell said. “He has a different mindset than other guys. I say it all the time, he’s a different type of kid. He works hard, he’s very tough. He doesn’t let the moment overshine his thought process.”

That mindset is not new — it’s something Welch has had since he was a kid.

“Micah lost his mom when he was very young,” Jesse Hicks, who coached Welch at Baldwin High School in Milledgeville, Ga., told The Denver Gazette. “His aunt, Regina, raised him and she’s a wonderful lady. He’s always had great support from his family, but he’s a little bit guarded and you’re gonna earn that relationship that you have with him. But once he’s all in, you’re all in and you’re not gonna meet a better person. Micah is a special young man and he’s got a bright, bright future.”

Hicks first saw that potential when Welch was playing youth football. In middle school, he paid even closer attention as Welch dominated at both running back and linebacker, knowing Welch would soon be a part of his varsity program at Baldwin.

“When he walked into the program as a freshman, man, he was just lights out,” Hicks said. “When it came to his ability, you automatically saw his natural gifts.”

Standing at just 5-foot-9 even now as a member of the Buffs, Welch isn’t someone you would automatically think of as having those natural gifts. But Welch weighs 205 pounds, routinely runs over defenders and is a former track star that competed in just about every sprinting competition he could while squatting over 500 pounds in the weight room as a 10th grader. None of that stopped him from going the extra mile to get where he is today.

“Watching what he does now is never a surprise to me, but what people don’t really know is his work ethic,” Hicks said. “A lot of times you’ll see kids that are like Micah that are extremely gifted, but some of them won’t work as hard because their 75 percent is better than everybody else’s 100. Micah’s gonna be one of the hardest working kids you’re gonna have in your program. He’s extremely driven, and he’s internally driven, too, and that’s hard to find in people, period.

“You don’t have to say anything to him. He’s gonna prepare, he’s gonna do, he’s gonna do his job. He’s gonna study, he’s gonna do everything he’s supposed to do and nobody’s gonna out work him. That’s a heck of a combination when it comes to what God has molded on his wheel and creating a person. There’s not much that Micah actually lacks when it comes to things like that, but his work ethic, it was always top shelf.”

That combination Hicks talks about is what led to Welch being heavily recruited throughout high school. He put up over 2,000 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns across his sophomore and junior seasons.

“Micah’s what we call, in this sport, a no brainer,” Hicks said. “I used to say this to him all the time. ‘You’ve got so many tools in your tool belt, just reach in there and pull one out.’”

Welch had scholarship offers from big programs all across the south from the likes of Florida, Ole Miss, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee. But everything changed when Harrell made a trip to Baldwin about a month after he joined Coach Prime’s staff at CU.

“He walked out (of my office) and the first thing he said to me was, ‘We want (Welch). That’s the kind of guy we’re looking for,’’ Hicks recalls. “Coach Flea and I had a good relationship. We knew each other from recruiting and Flea had recruited my school before, so that was the connection.

“Coach Flea and Micah, they’re very similar. Both of them are very driven. Neither one of them are very huge talkers. A production kind of guy, that’s who Flea was as a player and as a coach. His relationship with Flea was automatic.”

Welch took his official visit to Boulder in June and as soon as he got back to Milledgeville, Hicks knew.

“He was just lit up,” Hicks said. “He’s like, ‘Coach I wanna go play in Colorado.’”

Hicks quickly reminded him how far it was from home, but Welch didn’t care.

“I wanted to be a part of something special (and) change the program,” Welch says now.

First, Hicks made him call up every other school that was interested and let them know of his decision.

“When I tell you he was all in Colorado, he was all there,” Hicks said. “I think Coach Prime’s demeanor (and) mentality was just icing (on the cake) and a cherry on top.”

After a successful senior season gave Welch over 4,000 all-purpose yards and 47 touchdowns for his high school career, he enrolled at CU in January to be available to participate in spring practices. He put his head down and went to work while just about everyone else at his position transferred out of the program.

Now, after just one game with the Buffs, he’s already showing what everyone in Milledgeville has seen for years.

“Micah’s not perfect, none of us are.” Hicks said. “But, man, he’s mighty close when it comes to being a good person and wanting the best for everybody. That’s just who he is. He just wants the opportunity to touch the football and the more that they give it to him, the better Micah’s gonna be. It’s just kinda how he’s built.

“Micah is a very special kid.”