Colorado QB battle: College GameDay debates best way to replace Shedeur Sanders

Shedeur Sanders has been his father’s QB1 since he began coaching college football. The former Colorado star is now off to the NFL, which leaves Deion Sanders in Boulder with a quarterback battle on his hands.

The Buffaloes’ quarterback battle consists of veteran transfer Kaidon Salter, and Julian ‘Juju’ Lewis, who reclassified to the 2025 class following his junior year of high school. The competition remains up in the air with just over a month until the start of the season.

“I do think it’s wide open,” College GameDay Podcast host Pete Thamel told co-host, Rece Davis. “They’re very different players. Kaidon Salter, I believe had 23 wins as a starter at Liberty. That’s a lot of wins, just in general in modern college football. I think 23-9 might have been his record as a starter there. … That’s more wins than any Big 12 quarterback has who is returning — and this is a very good crop of Big 12 quarterbacks.”

Last season, Salter passed for 1,886 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions. On the ground, he rushed for 587 yards and seven more scores. The year before, he was a 1,000-yard rusher while passing for over 2,800 yards.

He was the experience that Lewis is lacking. However, Thamel is high on the young signal caller in Boulder.

“Juju Lewis was interesting,” Thamel said. “He was at Big 12 media days as well. He went to college a year early. So he’s not only a true freshman, he’s really a high school senior in age. … He was little shy, a little-wide eyed. I don’t know if I have ever seen a true freshman at media days, by the way, certainly never one that could still be in high school so God bless Coach Prime.

“He’s one of the most interesting players in in college football. Juju won’t have that element of the run game there. He’s a pure passer. Remember, he was committed to USC. He would have been the No. 1 player, or certainly No. 1 QB in his high school class, if he had stayed. But everything works faster in college football now and he went there early.”

Coach Prime will have to make a decision on the starter by the time the regular season kicks off on Friday, Aug. 29. Colorado will take on Georgia Tech, so there’s no tune-up game for the Buffaloes to figure out who fits at the position.