"He’s one of the most heavily scrutinized recruits": Julian Lewis' father reveals how Coach Prime potentially found Shedeur's replacement

With Shedeur Sanders heading to the 2025 NFL draft, fans expect five-star QB prospect Julian Lewis to be his replacement for the upcoming season. Sanders helped the Buffs to a 9-4 campaign in his final collegiate season and replacing him will be no easy task.

To fill the void left by his departure, Coach Prime flipped the commitment of Lewis from USC and also brought in Kaidon Salter from Liberty to compete for the QB1 spot.

On Wednesday, Julian Lewis' father, TC Lewis, had an interview with Rivals where he talked about his son's recruitment to the Colorado Buffaloes. He stated that the five-star prospect has what it takes to replace Shedeur Sanders in Boulder. According to TC Lewis, even Coach Prime saw his son's potential which is the reason why there are a lot of expectations from him in 2025:

"He (Julian Lewis) is one of the most heavily scrutinized recruits in a long time in terms of, you know, who he is," TC Lewis said.

"And I think Coach Prime valued who JuJu was and I think he valued his ability to withstand all the noise. ... I think that's probably the thing about JuJu that doesn't get talked about enough, in my opinion, is just his ability to kind of go through all that and continue to perform at a high level regardless of rankings going up or going down or anything else that went on. ...

"Talking to Prime, Prime was like, you know, like I understand those things. I understand the spotlight, I understand this stage and I think one of the things that drew them to Julian was his ability to perform under pressure."

In 2023 before his sophomore high school season, Lewis committed to the USC Trojans. In January 2024, he re-classified to the 2025 recruiting class while still being regarded as the No.1 prospect according to Rivals. In November, Lewis then flipped his commitment from the Trojans to the Buffs and signed for the University of Colorado in December.

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Julian Lewis is ready to work towards success alongside Coach Prime in Colorado

Last month, Deion Sanders held a team session where the 2025 recruits introduced themselves to the rest of the roster. When it was Julian Lewis' turn, the ex-Carrolton QB stated that he was ready to put in the work to be successful with the program.

"My name is Julian Lewis from Carrolton, Georgia. Yeah, I'm just ready to work."

It will be interesting to see how the Buffs perform this upcoming season. Coach Prime will also have to decide whether to let Lewis be the starting QB as a true freshman or let him learn the game under the experience of Kaidon Salter.