Nick Saban reaffirms his faith in Deion Sanders amid Colorado QB debate
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 and has reportedly earned the starting job heading into the Buffaloes’ week three matchup against Houston Friday night.
During Friday’s edition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show‘, legendary head coach Nick Saban touched on the Colorado quarterback situation. He reaffirmed his faith in Coach Prime and his ability to handle the situation, but also revealed that he isn’t familiar with Ryan Staub.
“First of all, I don’t know enough about all these guys,” Saban said. “I know JuJu (Lewis) because we recruited him for a long time. He was in our camp and all that stuff for years. You gotta have a little faith, trust and confidence in the coaches and the coaching staff to help develop a guy and now throw him out there before he’s ready. One of the worst things you can do and one of the biggest reasons I think there are a lot of failures in the NFL at the quarterback position is because you draft a guy high and you feel like you’ve got to play him.”
Nick Saban reassures confidence in Coach Prime and Colorado
“If he’s not ready to play, he loses his confidence. He doesn’t have success, and that’s exactly what you don’t want to have. I can see that they’re trying to bring JuJu along the right way, and I don’t know this third string guy who everyone’s talking about, but I have a lot of faith, trust and confidence in Deion and his staff’s ability to make a decision about who’s gonna give them the best chance to win right now as they continue to develop JuJu.”
Staub has been with the program since 2023, backing up Shedeur Sanders for the past two seasons. In his three years in Boulder, Staub has completed 30/54 passes for 411 yards and three touchdowns. With disappointing play coming from Salter and Lewis early this season, it appears as if the signal caller will get a true chance to shine this weekend.
Kick-off between Colorado and Houston on Friday night is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. The game can be seen on ESPN.
