Colorado coach Deion Sanders revealed on Tuesday that freshman quarterback Julian Lewis would redshirt this season after playing in four games for the Buffaloes. Lewis will sit out the 3-8 Buffs’ last game of the season against the Kansas State Wildcats in Week 14 of college football action.
Deion Sanders Clarifies Julian Lewis Redshirt Decision
The Buffs have struggled in the quarterback department since the departure of Coach Prime’s son, Shedeur Sanders, to the NFL, with the starting job rotating among Kaidon Salter, Ryan Staub, and Lewis.
During Wednesday’s segment of ‘Coach Prime’s Playbook’, Sanders clarified his decision to redshirt Lewis, despite the freshman quarterback’s insistence earlier in the season that he wanted to play.
“I gotta do what’s best for these young men,” Sanders said. “And what’s best for he and his family is to elongate his college career by allowing him to sit out this week. Kaidon Salter will come in and start. Staub (Ryan) will be his backup. And now he gets another year, so you’re not burning that from him, which is the best thing for the young man.
“You never know. The thing about these kids, they ball out for two years and then they’re out anyway. But I just want him to have that option. It’s not something that they came to me, I went to them. Because he’s a baller and he wants to play. He wants to compete, he wants to be involved, but what’s best for he and his family is to retain that extra year.”
Lewis flipped his commitment from the USC Trojans to Colorado after being aggressively courted by Coach Prime and the city of Boulder in multiple visits last year. After only getting token minutes at the start of the season, Lewis demoted Salter from QB1 for the Buffs’ losses to the Arizona State Sun Devils and West Virginia Mountaineers.
Coach Prime Reveals Lewis’ Reaction to Redshirt Decision
During Wednesday’s segment of ‘Coach Prime’s Playbook’, Sanders revealed how Lewis reacted to the news of the Buffs coach deciding to redshirt him.
“He was cool. He’s maturing tremendously and he took it well,” Sanders said. “He wants to play, believe me. But I told him, I don’t want him to feel like he was letting his teammates down. You’re not tapping out, you’re not shedding down. This is on me. I gotta look out for what’s best for you, what’s best for this program.”
In his four games played, the former five-star quarterback has gone 52-of-94 for 589 yards, resulting in four touchdowns and no interceptions for the Buffs.
