DENVER (KDVR) — Things have not been going great for the University of Colorado Boulder football team this season, and the team’s last two games will have most fans calling the season downright ugly.
Two games ago, the Buffs lost to Utah 53-7 and followed that up with a 52-17 loss against Arizona a week later — losing by a combined total of 105-24 and bringing their record to 3-6.
The Buffs’ hope for postseason football is all but over. They could win out the season, finishing 6-6, and have marginal odds for making a bowl game, but don’t put much faith into that possibility.
Deion Sanders and the players will, of course, look to end the season on a strong note, and while they don’t have much to play for aside from pride at this point, the rest of the season can be used to move one eye towards the future — that’s exactly what Coach Prime is doing.
Sanders confirmed that five-star freshman Julian Lewis will be the starting quarterback for the Buffs against West Virginia on Saturday.
Fans might not have seen a lot of Lewis this season, but the young quarterback still remains one of the most hyped prospects in football history.
Julian ‘JuJu’ Lewis refresher
Lewis isn’t actually meant to be in college football this year. If he were still in line with his schoolmates, he would have been in his senior year of high school, but he reclassified to the year above his own age group.
He was actually only 17 years old until Sept. 21, when he celebrated his 18th birthday and officially stepped into adulthood.
Saturday’s game will be the next stage where Lewis can bask in the limelight, something he is used to, with his accomplishments being highlighted since middle school.
Middle school
In middle school, he was named the eighth-grade National Player of the Year. He hadn’t even set foot into high school yet, and college coaches were lining up to watch the phenom. By September 2021, he was already receiving Division I college offers from teams with massive football programs like Florida and Penn State.
Before he started high school, he reportedly had over 15 Division I offers.
Freshman year
Lewis immediately won the starting spot for the high school team as a freshman. He led his team to the state final in Georgia’s highest classification, 7A, posting a 14-1 record.
During the season, he threw for 4,118 yards, 48 touchdown passes and a record 531 yards in the state championship game.
Lewis was named the 2022 MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year.
Sports Illustrated called his freshman year “the most staggering freshman season in Georgia’s robust high school football history.”
He announced his commitment to USC before the start of his sophomore year.
Sophomore year
Next year, he went 11-2, throwing for 3,094 yards, 48 touchdown passes and only two interceptions.
He was named the 2023 MaxPreps National Sophomore of the Year, the 2023 Gatorade Georgia Football Player of the Year and was a finalist for the 2023 Gatorade National Player of the Year.
In September of 2023, Lewis featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, making him the youngest football player to ever be on the cover.
ESPN rated him as the best football player in the country for the 2026 class.
That wouldn’t last for long, as Lewis announced he was going to reclassify to the 2025 class, and despite being a year younger than those players, was still ranked as the No. 2 player in the country by ESPN.
He later moved down to the No. 12 ranking after an updated list was released by ESPN.
Junior year
In his junior year and final season, he once again, somehow threw for 48 touchdown passes, meaning in every year he played in high school, he ended with 48 touchdown passes.
He led his team to a 14-1 record, throwing for 3,798 yards, 48 touchdown passes, 86 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Following in the footsteps of NFL star Trevor Lawrence, Lewis became the only other player to be named Gatorade Georgia National Player of the Year twice, once in 2023 and once in 2024.
Lewis ended his high school career with statistics, including:
- 11,010 passing yards: 7th-most in Georgia history
- 144 passing touchdowns: 5th-most in Georgia history
Every quarterback that placed ahead of him played for four complete years.
On Nov. 21, 2024, Lewis appeared on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” to make a big announcement.
Lewis announced that he was decommitting from USC to play for coach Sanders at CU. He became the second player to commit on a national show, according to CU.
CU freshman year
Lewis hasn’t spent too much time on the field during his freshman year. His first action came in a brief cameo in the Buffs’ second game against Delaware, where he only threw four passes.
It wouldn’t be until the game against Arizona that he would see more game time.
The Buffs were getting blown out by Arizona in a game that ended 52-17. After the damage was already dealt, Lewis was brought in for his first proper go in a college game, and he excelled, going 9-17 for 121 yards and throwing a 59-yard touchdown pass.
Senior Kaidon Salter has been the starter for CU all season, but has failed to lead the team to success, and it seems like his claim to the starting spot has been revoked.
“Let’s stick JuJu getting experience, he’s getting the opportunity,” said Sanders after the loss. “That’s where we are right now.”
Salter is in his final year of eligibility, and although sophomore Ryan Staub earned a start against Houston early in the season, it seems like Lewis is the go-to moving forward. One of the reasons he didn’t feature much this year was due to Sanders protecting him.
“Sometimes you want guys to just throw somebody out there, so you can see him,” said Sanders. “I’m more protective as a father spirit, as an athlete spirit, as a guy who knows this game — I’ve got to protect him. I can’t throw him out there and he’s not fully ready, and now you jump all over him, and now we’re in a mental health situation.”
Lewis was 17 for most of the season.
Another reason is his ability to redshirt; he is still a true freshman at the moment. However, he can still be considered a redshirt freshman in the future if certain criteria are met. The Buffs have three games left this season, and Lewis will lose redshirt eligibility if he plays in more than two of those games.
As it stands, he can play the two games and sit out the third to retain his redshirt status, which means next year would technically be his first freshman season of full play time, adding a fifth year of eligibility for him.
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