Colorado Buffaloes 2026 starting quarterback Julian Lewis has been in the news since his controversial comments at the Big 12 Media Day. Now, he makes the headlines again, although for different reasons. Ahead of Colorado’s season opener against Georgia Tech, Lewis became the subject of discussion and trolling after a Georgia Tech athlete made bold claims about him.

“Colorado, they got Julian Lewis as quarterback as a kid. We walking there, I could go get the 13 [sacks],” Georgia Tech defensive lineman Brayden Manley said in an appearance on the Cov3rd Pod. “I’m going for, like, for real, I’m going for two [sacks]. And one of them, I gotta get the ball out.”

Considering how inconsistent Manley was in the 2025 season, he probably was not in the best position to fire shots at the opponents of the Yellow Jackets. In essence, Georgia Tech did not make the best use of him. He transferred to the Yellow Jackets before the 2025 season after winning SoCon Defensive Player of the Year and was a second-team All-American as a sophomore at Mercer.

However, his season was marked by a mix of brilliant and dull performances, as he finished with 18 tackles, three sacks, and a forced fumble. According to Pro Football Focus, Manley finished with a 66.8 defensive grade, a 69.6 pass rush grade, and a 64.1 run defense grade, while also registering 32 defensive pressures.

Lewis was one of the six signal-callers who played quarterback for the Buffaloes in 2025. In his four appearances, the QB threw for 589 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions, completing 52 of 94 passes (55.3%).

In the upcoming season, he will lead the Colorado offense, which is looking to bounce back from 2025, when it ranked No. 103 in the nation in SP+ efficiency, per ESPN. Days ago, Lewis highlighted how much of an upgrade new OC Brennan Marion is over Pat Shurmur, whose offensive system the quarterback randomly compared to “high school freeballing.”

However, Manley’s confidence also stems from Colorado’s O-line’s performance last year. In his four games, Lewis was sacked 12 times. Overall, the Buffs allowed 38 sacks during the 2025 campaign. Deion Sanders’ O-line ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 in pass protection. It also didn’t help the offense that the Buffs never got their run game going.

For the 2026 campaign, Deion Sanders has added a number of players from the portal. Georgia transfer Bo Hughley, Missouri transfer Jayven Richardson, and Cal transfer Leon Bell are considerable additions at the tackle position. Ohio State transfer Jayvon McFadden and San Jose State transfer Jose Soto are the new guards. And even at center, Houston transfer Demetrius Hunter is a valuable addition. So, we can hope for a better performance from the O-line.

Georgia Tech finds itself in a very comfortable position ahead of the season opener. Of course, the team with a better record in the previous season always has the bragging rights in cases like this. 2025 was a great one for the ACC program, which finished with a 9-4 record. The Buffaloes lacked such luxury, and the consequence was the number of trolls and underdog narratives they had to put up with until they had a chance to turn things around in the season opener.