November 04, 2026 | Football
BOULDER — Ben Finneseth remembers exactly what he did the day he met Aqib Talib.
The five-time Pro Bowl cornerback, a cornerstone of the Denver defense that won Super Bowl 50, was in Boulder on a recruiting visit with his nephew. Finneseth, the sixth-year Colorado defensive back, walked up to introduce himself, and his hand went straight to his neck.
"When I met him, I went up to him and I tucked my chain," Finneseth said, grinning. "I was headed out, and I went and tucked my chain."
The nephew, Yamil Talib, has spent his football life around that kind of reaction. He knows what the name means in Texas, where he grew up, and in Denver, where it is a piece of civic history. What he wanted when he arrived at Colorado last winter was a chance to add something of his own to it.
"I already knew my last name," Talib said Tuesday. "I know how it goes. But I just wanted to put my own footsteps behind it. People think of Talib, they think of Aqib. So now I just want to change it — try to make my own pathway with Talib."
Saturday was a start. Playing the bulk of the snaps at defensive end in Colorado's 27-24 overtime win over Kansas State, Talib recorded the first two sacks of his Buffaloes career — a 1-yard takedown on third-and-4 that forced a first-quarter punt, and a 4-yard sack in the second quarter — and set a CU high with eight tackles. He came into the game with nine tackles and no tackles for loss as a Buff. He left it with 17, two and two.
The journey to that afternoon was not a straight line. Talib began as a walk-on at Oklahoma State, where he played in one game. He entered the transfer portal, landed at Charlotte and played all 12 games for the 49ers before entering the portal again and choosing Colorado. He tells the story in four sentences, without embellishment, the way he seems to say most things.
"I started as a walk-on at Oklahoma State," Talib said. "I ended up playing one game there, and then I hit the portal. Went to Charlotte, and then played all 12 games there. Hit the portal, and now I'm here."
An early-season shoulder injury kept the first half of his first Colorado season from looking like the second half might. Getting past it, he said, was less about the shoulder than about his head.
"It was really just more mental, overcoming an injury," Talib said. "I had a little shoulder injury, so just getting to where I can fully rely on my shoulder without it getting hurt — that's really what it was. I just felt like I was able to fully play on it Saturday."
He credits the room he walked into as much as his own health. Colorado's defensive front, doubted from the outside in August, has become one of the nation's most disruptive, and Talib points to the two players who set its standard every day.
"I really think it's the older guys in the group, like Tana and Toby," Talib said, referring to defensive tackle Santana Hopper and defensive end Toby Anene. "They come be the same guys every day at practice. So the younger guys, we just try to follow in their footsteps and play the game how they do."
He marvels at the snap counts Hopper and Dylan Manuel carry on the interior — 70 and 80 a game, numbers he had never seen a lineman handle.
"I think it's crazy," Talib said. "I never played where somebody was getting, like, 70, 80 snaps a game. So I think they're some dogs, for sure, to be able to do that every week."
Then, with the quickest of scouting reports on the two: "Dill, he gonna talk. Tana, he a little quieter."
Talib is closer to the quiet end himself. Finneseth, who has gotten to know the whole family — the uncle on his visit, the brothers at games — describes a teammate who has earned his way with the parts of the job nobody sees.
"He's a heck of a worker," Finneseth said. "He's got a great work ethic, always got a good attitude, and he just puts his head down and does the right things, man. He's one of the best teammates I've ever had, and he's gonna go very far in life. He's been an absolute blessing to have as a teammate and to call a brother. I've got nothing bad to say about that dude."
For all the distance between the positions — Aqib made his living on an island at cornerback; Yamil makes his in the trenches — the nephew says the most useful thing his uncle gave him translates to any spot on the field.
"Really, film watching," Talib said. "Film will tell you. Especially in college, most college teams be doing the same things throughout the year. So the more you watch film and are able to identify formations and kind of guess what you're going to get before the play, you'll be able to play better."
That habit is already shaping his week. Arizona State, which hosts the Buffs on Saturday, comes in with an unsettled quarterback situation, and Talib has watched enough to know what the Sun Devils will try regardless of who takes the snap.
"Depending on what quarterback we get, I feel like they're still gonna come out and try to run the ball," Talib said. "So we're gonna have to set the tone early, stop the run, and get them to third-and-longs."
As for the uncle, he is never far away. He was in Boulder for the visit, and he has kept showing up.
"Oh yeah, that's my guy," Talib said. "He be up here at the games and everything."
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The five-time Pro Bowl cornerback, a cornerstone of the Denver defense that won Super Bowl 50, was in Boulder on a recruiting visit with his nephew. Finneseth, the sixth-year Colorado defensive back, walked up to introduce himself, and his hand went straight to his neck.
"When I met him, I went up to him and I tucked my chain," Finneseth said, grinning. "I was headed out, and I went and tucked my chain."
The nephew, Yamil Talib, has spent his football life around that kind of reaction. He knows what the name means in Texas, where he grew up, and in Denver, where it is a piece of civic history. What he wanted when he arrived at Colorado last winter was a chance to add something of his own to it.
"I already knew my last name," Talib said Tuesday. "I know how it goes. But I just wanted to put my own footsteps behind it. People think of Talib, they think of Aqib. So now I just want to change it — try to make my own pathway with Talib."
Saturday was a start. Playing the bulk of the snaps at defensive end in Colorado's 27-24 overtime win over Kansas State, Talib recorded the first two sacks of his Buffaloes career — a 1-yard takedown on third-and-4 that forced a first-quarter punt, and a 4-yard sack in the second quarter — and set a CU high with eight tackles. He came into the game with nine tackles and no tackles for loss as a Buff. He left it with 17, two and two.
The journey to that afternoon was not a straight line. Talib began as a walk-on at Oklahoma State, where he played in one game. He entered the transfer portal, landed at Charlotte and played all 12 games for the 49ers before entering the portal again and choosing Colorado. He tells the story in four sentences, without embellishment, the way he seems to say most things.
"I started as a walk-on at Oklahoma State," Talib said. "I ended up playing one game there, and then I hit the portal. Went to Charlotte, and then played all 12 games there. Hit the portal, and now I'm here."
An early-season shoulder injury kept the first half of his first Colorado season from looking like the second half might. Getting past it, he said, was less about the shoulder than about his head.
"It was really just more mental, overcoming an injury," Talib said. "I had a little shoulder injury, so just getting to where I can fully rely on my shoulder without it getting hurt — that's really what it was. I just felt like I was able to fully play on it Saturday."
He credits the room he walked into as much as his own health. Colorado's defensive front, doubted from the outside in August, has become one of the nation's most disruptive, and Talib points to the two players who set its standard every day.
"I really think it's the older guys in the group, like Tana and Toby," Talib said, referring to defensive tackle Santana Hopper and defensive end Toby Anene. "They come be the same guys every day at practice. So the younger guys, we just try to follow in their footsteps and play the game how they do."
He marvels at the snap counts Hopper and Dylan Manuel carry on the interior — 70 and 80 a game, numbers he had never seen a lineman handle.
"I think it's crazy," Talib said. "I never played where somebody was getting, like, 70, 80 snaps a game. So I think they're some dogs, for sure, to be able to do that every week."
Then, with the quickest of scouting reports on the two: "Dill, he gonna talk. Tana, he a little quieter."
Talib is closer to the quiet end himself. Finneseth, who has gotten to know the whole family — the uncle on his visit, the brothers at games — describes a teammate who has earned his way with the parts of the job nobody sees.
"He's a heck of a worker," Finneseth said. "He's got a great work ethic, always got a good attitude, and he just puts his head down and does the right things, man. He's one of the best teammates I've ever had, and he's gonna go very far in life. He's been an absolute blessing to have as a teammate and to call a brother. I've got nothing bad to say about that dude."
For all the distance between the positions — Aqib made his living on an island at cornerback; Yamil makes his in the trenches — the nephew says the most useful thing his uncle gave him translates to any spot on the field.
"Really, film watching," Talib said. "Film will tell you. Especially in college, most college teams be doing the same things throughout the year. So the more you watch film and are able to identify formations and kind of guess what you're going to get before the play, you'll be able to play better."
That habit is already shaping his week. Arizona State, which hosts the Buffs on Saturday, comes in with an unsettled quarterback situation, and Talib has watched enough to know what the Sun Devils will try regardless of who takes the snap.
"Depending on what quarterback we get, I feel like they're still gonna come out and try to run the ball," Talib said. "So we're gonna have to set the tone early, stop the run, and get them to third-and-longs."
As for the uncle, he is never far away. He was in Boulder for the visit, and he has kept showing up.
"Oh yeah, that's my guy," Talib said. "He be up here at the games and everything."
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