BOULDER — There will be another Ju Ju.
Lots of them, actually. If we’ve learned anything about CU recruiting in the Deion Sanders Era, it’s that if Coach Prime wants someone — like, really, really, really wants them — he gets them.
Left tackle Jordan Seaton? Got him.
Cornerback Cormani McClain? Got him. (Best not look at the young man’s Florida Gators numbers right now if you’re a Buffs fan. Seriously. Don’t.)
Quarterback Julian Lewis? Got him, too.
Keeping him? Well …
At 2-4, 0-3 in Big 12 play, CU football is staring at a crisis/inflection point right now. No. 22 Iowa State (5-1) rolls into town for a Saturday matinee, and a trip to Utah (4-1), which is back to running the ball at will again, looms after that.
Meanwhile, Coach Prime’s health concerns are mounting. And the Buffs have played three QBs in six games because, as the old adage goes, they don’t really have one. Not one who can sling it consistently at a Big 12 level, at any rate.
After Kaidon Salter just tossed three interceptions at TCU, Ju Ju is the people’s choice again.
Build for the future!
The season’s already lost!
What’s the difference between 4-8 and 2-10?
If we don’t play Ju Ju this fall, we’ll lose him to the transfer portal! And that would be a tragedy!
Would it, though?
I mean, in terms of Lewis’ value in the open market, you’re absolutely right. Big Ten and SEC football programs, even bad ones, have more money right now than they know what to do with. The Buffs, as with many of their Big 12 peers, have to pick and choose their bidding wars.
Although CU also, at the moment, has 24 offers out to quarterbacks in the Class of ’26, according to the 247Sports database. They’ve got five out to signal-callers in the Class of ’27, and four in the Class of ’28.
Recruiting, at its core, is about salesmanship. Nobody sells — themselves, their school, a product, the future — the way Coach Prime sells. Charmers are charmers for life.
Ask yourself this, too: If Lewis is that hot, why hasn’t he beaten out the two guys who’ve been driving you crazy?
You’ve watched Salter for five games. You’ve watched backup Ryan Staub for two.
As Coach Prime points out, he sees what you saw.
Yet when asked about Ju Ju’s progress on Tuesday, Sanders said this, and bluntly:
“He’s coming around the mountain when he comes.”
Will he be driving six white horses?
We kid, we kid. But the hesitation, given precedent, is more than curious, isn’t it?
After all, Coach Prime has made a point of playing freshmen who earned his trust early. Seaton. Micah Welch. Omarion Miller. Dre’Lon Miller.
Lewis, though?
Not so much. Not yet, anyway.
“I mean, he’s young, and you can’t throw everything at him,” Sanders explained after playing Lewis for two rocky series vs. Delaware last month. “So you don’t want to do that. You don’t want him to feel like he failed.
“So you’ve got to proceed with — some guys want you to just throw him in there, and I’m too protective. I mean, I love the kid and I want the kid to be successful, so we’re very protective on 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.”
Again, he sees what you see. He sees a young man who only turned 18 two-and-a-half weeks ago. And it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see a QB who isn’t quite ready yet.
Although …
“I’ve never sat on the bench and said, ‘Whoa, I learned a lot today.’”
That quote also came from Sanders, when he was a guest on the Kelce Brothers’ “New Heights” podcast a fortnight ago. He’d said that while explaining why son Shedeur didn’t want to be drafted by Baltimore and become All-Pro QB Lamar Jackson’s understudy
“Who learns sitting on the bench?” Coach Prime continued. “Who does that?”
Meanwhile, in BoCo, Lewis is … sitting on the bench.
Ju Ju sure as heck didn’t come here for that. He didn’t blow off his senior year of high school to watch the Buffs fold in the second half, week after week.
“Ju Ju was in there with a lot of rookies and freshmen, so to speak,” offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said after the Delaware game. “And we believe in playing freshmen.”
Just not this one, apparently.
Still, the Buffs have a bye week coming up after the Cyclones visit. If there’s ever a time to change horses, that’s probably it.
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