Deion Sanders isn’t rushing Julian Lewis, even after the Colorado quarterback put together a record-setting afternoon against Weber State.
The message from Sanders on Tuesday was plain: the production is real, but the climb still has time left on it.
“He’s coming,” Sanders said. “You can’t expect certain things to happen expeditiously because he hasn’t played a lot of this level.”
That patience has been part of Sanders’ stance from the start. Before the season, he described Lewis’ job in the simplest possible terms and made it clear Colorado wasn’t asking the young quarterback to carry everything at once.
“You’re not looking for leadership, you’re not looking for this, you’re not looking for that,” Sanders said. “All we’re looking for is to execute the plays, throw the ball to the man that’s open.
We’re good. Move down the field.”
Sanders followed that up with another reminder that the job doesn’t have to be overloaded.
“One thing I don’t want to do is add pressure on that position,” Sanders commented. “Don’t have to be great.
You don’t have to be outstanding. Just do what we ask you to do, and he’s gonna do that.”
Lewis is starting to show more than just the basic quarterback checklist, though. Sanders pointed to the fact that Lewis has been taking Colorado’s offensive line out to eat, a small but telling sign of a player beginning to grow into the wider responsibilities of the position.
That matters in a room that has been reshaped around him. Colorado’s offensive line features several transfers while offensive coordinator Brennan Marion installs his Go-Go offense, and building comfort with new teammates away from practice can go a long way.
The dinner trips also stand out because Sanders had not asked Lewis to become the emotional center of the team yet. First came execution, then command, then the rest. Lewis appears to be moving into the other parts of quarterbacking that never show up on a stat sheet.
Sanders’ patience speech is nothing new, either. After Lewis made his first career start at West Virginia last November, Sanders praised the flashes while also calling out the growing pains that come with a young quarterback.
“He played a good game. In his first start, he did some wonderful things that you can see he’s going to be special,” Sanders said at the time. “Did some things that you can see his youth.”
Lewis reclassified out of high school, skipped what would have been his senior season, and made his college debut at 17 years old. That background explains why Sanders keeps circling back to patience even as Lewis keeps producing more on the field.
Marion has taken a similar tack. In the spring, he called Lewis’ arm a “million-dollar arm” before immediately turning to the habits and details the quarterback was still learning.
Now comes a different test against Northwestern this weekend, and Sanders is not about to let one standout afternoon against Weber State rewrite the development plan. For the moment, he seems every bit as interested in how Lewis is growing into the role off the field as in what he can already do between the lines.
In Other News...
Hope Leyba Is Giving Colorado Another Reason To Believe
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It was her fourth career Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honor and her first this season, another sign that Leyba remains a central figure for Colorados attack. She also moved to 83 career points, which puts her fifth on the programs all-time scoring list, and gives the Buffaloes even more reason to keep watching how high her final chapter can climb. [Read more 🡒]
Colorados Next Two Road Tests Will Define This Teams Ceiling
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The next two road games will say plenty about whether this group is just off to a decent start or capable of something bigger. Northwestern and Baylor offer very different kinds of tests, and handling both would go a long way toward keeping Colorado on a path that could actually lead to bowl eligibility and a more meaningful season. For a team trying to prove the early results are real, this stretch feels like the hinge point. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Faces An Early Reality Check In Its First Real Road Test
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Evanston adds another layer to the test, because this is not just a change of opponent but a change of setting, with weather and stadium conditions potentially shaping how cleanly Colorado can play. The matchup comes in the Buffaloes third game, so there is still time for a bounce-back or a statement either way, but this is the first real road exam and it should reveal whether Colorado is simply surviving early or actually built to handle the kind of games that tend to define a season. [Read more 🡒]