Deion Sanders evaluates ‘youth’ from JuJu Lewis in debut performance
Colorado could be undergoing a rare early-season change at quarterback ahead of Friday’s Big 12 opener at Houston (7:30 pm ET, ESPN) with the expected promotion of former third-string QB Ryan Staub to the starting spot. Of course, third-year Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders isn’t tipping his hand just yet.
Still, Staub’s expected promotion to QB1 means the other Colorado quarterbacks — senior transfer Kaidon Salter and four-star true freshman Julian Lewis — move down a peg in the pecking order for snaps. The Buffs quarterback change comes after Staub impressed with 157 yards and two touchdowns on 7-of-10 passing in last Saturday’s 31-7 win over Delaware.
While it’s clear Colorado’s quarterback situation could continue to remain in flux moving forward, it does bury Lewis — the Buffs’ superstar 2025 recruit — even further down on the depth chart. Lewis has completed just 2-of-4 passes for 8 yards in very limited action so far this season, all coming Saturday against Delaware.
When asked about what he’s seen from his four-star true freshman quarterback, Coach Prime explained his approach to managing Lewis’ workload. Sanders compared it to more of a protective father.
“Youth. … I mean, he’s just young. You can’t throw everything at him. You don’t want to do that. You don’t want him to feel like he failed. So you’ve got to proceed with caution,” Sanders said of Lewis after last week’s game against Delaware. “Some guys want you to just throw them in there, but I’m too protective. I love the kid and I want the kid to be successful. So we’re very protective of what we do with him and what we can do with him, and really how we call things with him. We want him to be in a situation to excel.”
Deion Sanders praises Ryan Staub mindset: ‘He sees the darn moment’
Heading into Colorado‘s 2025 season, the conversation around the quarterback position involved Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter and incoming four-star freshman Julian Lewis. Just three weeks into the season, however, redshirt sophomore three-star quarterback Ryan Staub has looked like the most polished arm of the trio.
All three players saw playing time in Colorado‘s 31-7 drumming of Delaware last Saturday, with Staub easily looking the most impressive. He completed 7/10 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns, earning a boatload of praise from head coach Deion Sanders on Tuesday.
“He did what he was supposed to do,” Sanders said at Tuesday’s presser. “He did what he (was) supposed to do. We did what we were supposed to do last week as a team. We need to do what we’re expected to do this week. Staub did what we expected him to do. You all are surprised. We weren’t. We’re thankful, appreciative and happy for him and elated for him. He sees the darn moment. We talk about the moment all the time in our meetings. We talk about taking advantage of opportunities not only on the football field, but in life. And he did that. He did that. I’m proud of him.”
— On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this report.
