Sean Keeler: Deion Sanders and Colorado's fate about QB recruit Julian Lewis, not Lil Wayne

21/06/2024

Colorado safety Shilo Sanders and quarterback Shedeur Sanders after defeating TCU, 45-42, at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 2, 2023.

DENVER — The most interesting story involving Shedeur Sanders and Colorado football right now is who follows him on the big stage. And I’m not talking about Lil Wayne.

Judge The Deion Sanders Era not by Shedeur, a quarterback who can carry a tune almost as well as he carries an offense.

Oh, no. Judge it by Shedeur’s successor.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Buffs still didn’t have one yet.

Sorry, Ryan Staub. We’ll always have Salt Lake.

No program in the new, super-sized Big 12 has offered more quarterbacks in the Class of ’25 — 25, per the 247Sports.com database — than Coach Prime and the Buffs. None had fewer QB commitments, which would be zero. UCF, also per 247Sports, had 14 offers out and no takers.

Context: The other three “Four Corners” schools who’ll be joining CU in hopping from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 this summer — Utah, Arizona State and Arizona — had a combined 27 offers out as of Tuesday.

More context: Of the 16 programs in the new-look Big 12, 14 had at least one QB recruit committed to their Class of ’25.

You may contend that the transfer portal, and Deion’s preference to recruit players with experience rather than fresh from the prep ranks, makes this a moot point.

That’s fine, but I’m not buying any of Coach Prime’s bull junk about staying in Boulder for the next five to 10 years until there’s a post-Shedeur succession plan at QB1 laid out. Again, beyond Staub.

We bring this to the fore because this upcoming weekend, one of the quieter ones on the Front Range sporting calendar, has the potential to be a massive narrative-shifting one for Deion and the Buffs.

First, this weekend is the last for Sanders and CU football on the recruiting front before a dead period kicks in, one that begins on Monday and runs through July 24. Second, at least a half-dozen prospects, per 247Sports, are slated to visit Boulder over the weekend before the window shuts.

Chief among them is Julian Lewis, a five-star signal-caller out of Carrollton (Ga.) High School and ESPN.com’s No. 1 recruit for the Class of ’25. He’s a pocket passer with a “93” grade from The Worldwide Leader.

Lewis has been a USC commit since August 2023, but he’s spending this month giving his favorite suitors one more look in-person. He spent the first weekend of June in Los Angeles with Lincoln Riley and the Trojans. He spent last weekend with Hugh Freeze and Auburn. He’s making the final weekend trip of this window to CU.

If Deion flips this kid, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to stick around after sons Shedeur and Shilo cast their respective lots with the NFL. But, man, it would give you — it would give any of us — some serious pause before jumping ship.

Over the last two seasons, in one of the most competitive, cutthroat states for prep football in the country, the 6-foot-1 Lewis has thrown 96 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while posting a 25-3 record.

Landing him wouldn’t just stick it to Riley and Tommy Trojan, either. It could be the kind of transformative addition that signals to other star prep recruits that Deion’s in this for the medium haul, at least.

Forget Hollywood and music stars jetting to Boulder. It’s the kind of statement “get” that adds more steak to a program that’s been screaming its sizzle. Securing the top high-school QB in a class (Lewis) and the top offensive lineman (Jordan Seaton) figures to open way more doors than just Seaton alone.

Which, in turn, could give Coach Prime more leverage, if the end game is building something in Boulder that lasts.

Sanders getting to Year 3 matters — after the 2025 season, a clause in Deion’s contract kicks in that effectively opens up a window to completely re-negotiate his salary and separation terms with the Buffs.

Swaying Lewis would put rival recruiters on notice. It would stiff-arm concerns about CU’s in-house development and continuity — two of college football’s eternal, almost holy verities.

Sanders’ extreme, use-em-and-lose-em, high turnover approach isn’t just ahead of the curve. It’s so far out in front of everybody else that he’s either rewritten the rules forever, or The Devil’s about to make a beeline for Boulder in Shedeur’s Maybach to collect on the souls of athletic director Rick George and president Todd Saliman.

At the start of this week, everything after December with Sanders and CU still felt — well, vague. To be kind. The Buffs, per 247Sports.com and On3.com, had three reported commitments for ’25 as of Tuesday. If that sounds small, that’s because it is: Utah, Arizona State and Arizona had seven, 18 and seven, respectively, for an average of 10.7 commits.

So, yeah, Lewis matters. And for the Buffs, for a succession plan, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

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