There was a time when Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders had placed Julian Lewis on a pedestal. But with Lewis completely missing action in the Texas Tech game, there seem to cracks in that relationship.
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Coach Prime broke his silence on demoting Lewis. But the answer did not sit well with former Colorado player Christian Fauria.
“This is what’s insufferable,” wrote the 2x Super Bowl champion. “He wants his QB to come explain what happened so the outcome is off his shoulders. Because it can’t possibly be his fault, right? If he just blamed himself, he’d have substance and style. His ego can’t handle that, so he achieves neither. The lack of accountability is immeasurable.”
During the post-game presser after the Buffaloes’ loss to Texas Tech, Sanders received a question from BuffBlitz.com’s Brian Howell, who used the word “benched” for Lewis’ demotion from first to third string. However, Deion cut him off midway to clarify things.
“No, no, no, I would love Juju to come in and he tell you what happens,” Coach Prime said. “So don’t you bench Juju first to third string? No, that’s not how it went down. It didn’t happen like that.”
Lewis started at quarterback for Colorado against Baylor. But things started to go downhill soon, and Sanders replaced Lewis in favor of quarterback Isaac Wilson in the second half. Until that point, Lewis had only thrown for 75 yards and was sacked thrice.
Deion Sanders and Colorado are back to square one. Since Shedeur Sanders left for the NFL, the team hasn’t found a steady quarterback who can give them wins.
Last year, Sanders cycled past three quarterbacks: Lewis, Kaidon Salter, and Ryan Staub. Salter started the first two games for Colorado, then was replaced by Staub for one game. Salter returned, but Sanders benched him for Julian Lewis in the latter part of the season.
This year, it’s the same story. Five games in, and Colorado has already seen two different starting quarterbacks.
Colorado, led by Wilson, entered halftime against Texas Tech with a 7-3 lead. Three second-half interceptions helped the Red Raiders rally and extend the lead to double digits in the fourth quarter.
Alarmingly enough, Sanders said that the QB1 job is still open for battle.
“It’s always open competition; every darn day is an open competition,” he said. “That’s the position that is somewhat disabling us and disarming us.”
Even though Deion now stays tight-lipped after slipping Lewis to No.3, he did share about choosing Wilson over JuJu during the Baylor game.
“When you go to Isaac, it’s like, Isaac is going to come in and clean it up, he’s going to do his job, he’s going to get us in the right positions and he’s going to do his thing,” he said after Colorado’s 23-13 loss to Baylor. “Don’t give up on JuJu…That kid plays with tremendous effort and heart; he’s not quitting and he’s not abandoning anybody. We just needed a change. We needed inspiration in that time in some kind of way.”
Wilson finished the Baylor game completing 11 of his 22 passes for 129 yards and a TD. Against Texas Tech, he completed 26 of his 44 passes for 290 yards, but those three picks ended whatever momentum the offense was trying to generate. Backup QB Kaneal Sweetwyne also saw ome time on the field and posted one completed pass for seven yards.
Fauria knows that Colorado has seen better days. He himself was a standout in the program, First-Team All-Big Eight honors once and Second-team honors twice, and helped the Buffaloes with a National Championship. However, those glory days seem way too far back in the rearview mirror now, given the current state of the program.