Colorado’s 34-point loss at Northwestern didn’t just leave the Buffaloes looking for answers. It left them looking for a voice.
Aqib Talib thinks that voice has to come from Julian Lewis.
The former Super Bowl 50 champion and All-Pro cornerback laid out his view on No Lie Zone with DNVR’s Ryan Koenigsberg, and the point he kept circling back to was leadership. Colorado, he argued, has already lived through a version of this movie.
“Buffs last year, like they got smacked by Utah coming out of the bye week, and then they just kind of laid down for the rest of the season,” Talib said. “What’s the difference between those two types of teams? The leaders, it’s the leaders, man.”
The comparison is a sharp one. Colorado came out of its 2025 bye and got blasted 53-7 at Utah, then dropped its final five games and finished 3-9. Talib’s message was clear: one bad loss can snowball fast if the locker room doesn’t answer it the right way.
He stopped short of claiming to know exactly who drives that room from the inside. But when he looked at the quarterback spot, he saw the player who has to set the tone.
“I don’t necessarily know who the leaders, the player leaders, who they are in Colorado,” Talib said. “I ain’t on the team. I’m not in the locker room, but I promise you one of them gotta be JuJu.”
That lines up with what Lewis has already said about himself. After the loss at Northwestern, he didn’t hide from it. He finished 19 of 29 for 168 yards, one touchdown, and the first two interceptions of his college career, then owned the result before turning to the rest of the team.
“It all starts with the quarterback, right?” Lewis said.
“It starts with me. I have to do better, just getting the ball to the open guys, just keeping everybody motivated to continue to drive.”
Talib’s point wasn’t about a speech or some grand locker-room speech. It was about what Lewis looks like when the team gets back to work after a rough Saturday.
“He gotta exude confidence this week, man,” Talib said. “He gotta be the one like, nah, we straight. Watch this.”
That’s the test Colorado is carrying into Baylor. The Buffaloes are 2-1, but the mood around them has shifted quickly after turning the ball over four times at Northwestern. Lewis has already shown both ends of the spectrum this season, throwing four touchdown passes against Weber State before the interceptions against Northwestern.
Talib wants the response to show up in the small stuff first - the way Lewis throws in practice, the way he carries himself, the way the rest of the offense feels about what comes next.
“Like, you know, making throws in practice. His bounce gotta be there,” Talib said.
“It’s a quarterback-driven league. They say that for a reason.”
In Talib’s view, the quarterback doesn’t have to solve everything alone. He just has to make sure the group believes the next week can look different.
“He gotta be one of the guys who makes us feel good about the next week,” Talib said.
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