BOULDER — Deion Sanders 2.0 could be 4-0. But does Coach Prime have enough Kirk Ferentz in him? Can Sanders, college football’s most electric personality, do … boring? Safe?
“The next phase is, we’re going to win differently. But we’re going to win,” Sanders, entering his third year as coach of the Buffs, said Friday at CU’s annual fall sports media day.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Marys at the end of the game, but it’s going to be Hell during the game. Because we want to be physical. And we want to run the heck out of the football.”
One of your quarterbacks does the last part better than every other signal-caller in that room.
Will Coach Prime go with 5-star recruit Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, a freshman who threw for 11,010 yards over three high-school seasons in Georgia? Or Kaidon Salter, the Liberty transfer who ran for 2,006 yards and 21 touchdowns in 35 games with the Flames?
These Buffs will go as far as Shedeur Sanders’ successor can carry them. But if that’s by land, there’s really only one choice.
“They’re putting in these little plays designed to where I previously came from,” Kaidon Salter, CU’s senior transfer from Liberty, said of the Buffs’ QB competition. “And, of course, with me being in, they will call maybe two passes and two runs with me. Then ‘Ju Ju’ will go (in), and it’ll probably be all passes.
“So (offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur) is just putting us in certain situations that he knows that we’re comfortable at.”
Why let Lewis get Ramblin’ Wrecked in Week 1? Trot out a true freshman as your QB1 versus Georgia Tech, and the box in front of him will be clogged like Homer Simpson’s arteries at happy hour.
“We’re not thinking about long-term right now. We’re thinking about winning right now. So that’s the thing,” Coach Prime said. “(Lewis) is an unbelievable human being. He’s won a lot. I don’t know if he’s competed a lot for a position, but he’s not scared of the competition. He loves it. He embraces it.
“… I love everything about the kid, and he’s going to soar. When it’s his turn, trust me, you’re going to know, and he’s going to soar.”
Ju Ju’s got the arm. And the ceiling. Yet Salter has an ‘X’ factor on his CV, arguably the most valuable one when it comes to surviving a Shurmur offense: Escapability.
Salter is Houdini. Ju Ju is 17.
“(Salter) is going to cause havoc,” Coach Prime continued. “I’m just telling you, it’s going to be a totally different type of offense from what you’ve seen us do in the past, because we had a guy (Shedeur Sanders) that could spin it tremendously.”
Imagine the Buffs unlocking the zone read on an unsuspecting Big 12.
Imagine a QB who keeps linebackers’ heads on a constant swivel for three hours.
Imagine a signal-caller who can keep it and run to daylight. Who can make a crashing defensive end zig while Micah Welch or Dallan Hayden zag.
Imagine play-action. Imagine a safety who has to think twice at the snap instead of immediately dropping into coverage. Who has to hesitate for a half-second for fear of the quarterback taking off.
Imagine what Drelon Miller or Omarion Miller could do with that half-second.
“But don’t underestimate (Salter’s) throwing ability,” Coach Prime said. “We just want him to complete every darn pass he throws in practice and get in a habit of completions, completions, completions. We know he can run. But when he gets that second part down, it’s going to be a problem, a tremendous problem, for all defenses.”
As a passer, Salter’s no Shedeur. But as the Carolina Panthers found out Friday night, who is?
He’s no mug, either. At Liberty, Salter completed 58.7% of his passes and averaged 8.4 yards per attempt. (The younger Sanders’ average yards per attempt over two seasons at CU, if you’re curious, was 8.1.) In 2023, Salter posted a 112.0 passer rating against an Oregon defense that kept Shedeur at a 120.2 rating in Eugene earlier that season.
“It’s different, because (Salter) is such a running quarterback,” CU safety Ben Finneseth said. “That changes a lot of things with the post safety, and it changes a lot of things schematically. It’s a culture shock, kind of, is what I’ll say (about) going from Shedeur, a true pocket passer, to a guy (Salter) who’s a dual threat and wants the ball in his hands. It’s a different feel.”
We’ve been spoiled. Shedeur got the stuff Lewis has in front of him well out of the way before the former ever set foot in BoCo. In No. 2, CU fans got a polished, plug-and-play signal-caller hitting his peak with something to prove.
For two years, the defenses that lined up against CU pretty much knew what was coming: Shedeur to Travis Hunter. Most couldn’t stop it.
This offense is different. It’ll require steak to match the sizzle. Guile and physicality. Sleight-of-hand that can clench into a spiked fist.
“Sometimes in practice, you don’t get a chance to see how good (Salter) is because when you run the quarterback, (they) can’t hit him,” the elder Sanders said. “But you can see the burst, the speed, the knowledge of reading the defenses. Then he pulls it and keeps it.”
Don’t get me wrong — Lewis needs snaps, needs to learn on the job. He also needs two or three more Jordan Seatons in front of him or risk getting smushed by October.
The kind of identity shift, the kind of winning that Coach Prime talked about Friday, demands a steadier, more experienced touch. It demands legs as a weapon. Not a last resort.
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.