Serious Trouble Awaits Deion Sanders as CU Insider Confirms Unexpected Julian Lewis Crisis in New Era

“He’s everything that we desire in a quarterback,” Colorado Buffaloes’ coach Deion Sanders had said about four-star prospect Julian Lewis weeks after he’d signed to play for the team. With a spectacular 75.8% completion rate for 3,272 yards and 44 touchdowns in his final season in high school, it almost seemed like the Buffs’ hunt for a successor had met a favorable end. The team even took it up a notch by posting a highly dramatic ‘passing the baton’ image where Shedeur was seen giving the keys to Lewis, with the latter sitting on a throne. But all that hype for what? Soon, the young QB faced reality. His new team had caught wind of another superstar, giving Deion Sanders a dilemma he didn’t expect. But before we get to that…

It’s not like Lewis is a bad quarterback. Throwing for 7,000 yards and 96 touchdowns over two seasons at Carrollton High School, there’s no doubt that JuJu can shake up opponents like a house of cards. Described as a “polished, productive signal caller with the skill set of an accurate distributor” by On3, the youngster is ranked as the sixth-best quarterback prospect in the class by 247 Sports (Class of 2025) in November last year. What’s more? He had already committed to USC before Sanders’ pitch compelled him to question his loyalties. But…

Just a month after Lewis’ signing, the Boulder front office roped in Liberty transfer and dual-threat quarterback Kaidon Salter for his final season. Why? Well, why not? The 21-year-old is as accomplished as a college football player can get. We’re talking about leading the Flames to a 13-1 record in 2023 and earning the Conference USA MVP honors that year, and accounting for 5,889 yards, 56 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, a 58.7% completion percentage, 2,006 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns over four seasons. Explains why Sanders seems ecstatic about the future. However, there’s also a certain level of difficult decision-making that awaits him, which was addressed by industry insider Kevin Borba on the ‘Locked on Buffs’ podcast.

Borba asked his viewers on February 26, “Does Deion Sanders have a quarterback dilemma on his hands, or is the answer pretty straightforward on how to handle this quarterback battle?” Interestingly, this is going to be Coach Prime’s first quarterback battle at Colorado, and second overall in his coaching career. The biggest problem with that?

“So you have a really interesting debacle because I think a lot of people instantly go, ‘Hey, if Julian doesn’t start right away, he’s going to leave the program,’ or ‘Hey, if Kaiden…if he’s not the number one guy coming out spring, he’s going to leave the program,” Borba stated. So how can the Buffs coach even create the fine balance? Well…

“You split the first team reps. You go Kaidon Salter-Julian Lewis in order one day with the first team. Say, there’s a hundred first team reps… Kaidon gets 50, Julian gets 50. The next day Julian goes first 50-50. Same thing throughout the entire spring. They each get a chance to work with the starters and they each are at least of the mindset that they’re in the mix for the job. So that way you don’t lose either one.” While this might be a wonderful solution and will help Deion to chart his way forward in a balanced way, Borba hinted at how Lewis might get to the backseat in the QB race.

“I think Kaidon Salter, he’s obviously proven more because he’s played at the college level. He’s a veteran quarterback with let me pull up his stats here. He’s literally one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in college football…So he’s dynamic, right? He is one of the most electric quarterbacks in the country,” shared the analyst. 

Meanwhile, discussing Lewis’ stats, Borba stated, “Julian Lewis has absolutely shredded the high school ring…he’s clearly much more of a pocket passer and clearly he’s a good one at that at the high school level.”

Concluding his sentiment, the journalist said, “How do I think this is going to play out? I think you go with experience. I think the quarterback debacle, you don’t settle in spring, you settle it in fall. Unless it’s really obvious in spring that one of these quarterbacks is better than the other. Because then, if it’s obvious, you go into fall camp, and that’s one question you don’t have to answer, right?” But what do the QBs think of this battle? Are they even ready? Well, clearly.

“No promises, all competition, and I’m willing to come in and compete. JuJu (Lewis), he’s a younger guy, of course, so they wanted somebody in the room that can mentor him and help him come into college and feel comfortable. They felt that I was that guy that can do that…”(He’s) one of the best quarterbacks in his class. It’s all love over there, and it’ll be a great competition between us,” the former Liberty Flames QB mentioned in January this year.

Lewis, on the other hand, has always considered playing under Sanders’ tutelage as a “huge opportunity”. However, looks like he’ll have to wait for that, especially with community opinions favoring Salter over him yet again…

Julian Lewis will have to be patient for some more time  

On the On3 Recruits podcast, host Josh Newberg asked national recruiting scout Cody Bellaire about Lewis’ freshman year. For the analyst, JuJu won’t stand a chance. As he stated, “I think you have to start with Kaden Salter, Josh. I think you have to say what is this offense going to look like going from Shedeur Sanders to Kaidon Salter. Kaidon Salter brings an element to the quarterback position that haven’t seen for last couple years, which is the ability to run.”

In case Lewis does not get the golden chance to fill in Shedeur’s shoes, will it be a big loss? Absolutely not. It will be a blessing in disguise instead. 

The analyst pointed out, “So being able to take mental reps and learn from someone that’s as experienced as Kaidon Salter is extremely valuable for his development. That way, he doesn’t have to be thrown into the fire and he can take a year to learn and grow as a player.” Looks like the time has come for Kaidon Salter to live by his words. On the Well Off Media podcast, he came up with a 7-word vow, “It’s time for me to come in.” Deion went all in on Lewis, but will Salter rewrite the script?