Keeler: CU Buffs greats trust Deion Sanders with 5-star QB Julian Lewis: “Age is just a number. If he can play, he can play”

Lesson No. 1, Julian Lewis: The eyes lie. Like dogs and cheap rugs. All the time.

You scan the box. Jabrill Peppers is standing upright, west of the left tackle, 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Miles away. You motion for the snap.

“I knew Peppers was spying me,” former CU Buffs quarterback Steven Montez said of the Michigan safety who introduced him to Big Ten defenses nine years ago. “We’d talked about the look. I recognized the look.”

Didn’t matter. About 1.3 seconds later, Peppers shot through the “B” gap and rolled Montez like a croissant.

“Our answer was, ‘Throw shallow on the right-hand side,'” Montez recalled. “But they had pressed the shallow. Then I was like, ‘Well, what do I do now?’ (Peppers) was just looking dead at me, and I was just like, ‘Oh, shoot. I’m just going to try to step off and make him miss.’ That didn’t work too well.”

He laughs about it now, of course. Every NCAA signal-caller has a Peppers story. A Peppers scar. A survivor’s scar. The kind of wound you’ll roll up your sleeves to show strangers and grandchildren at banquets, weddings and golf tournaments.

“That’ll live with me forever,” Montez chuckled.

Steven’s already walked a few miles where Lewis, the jewel of Deion Sanders’ 2025 recruiting class, is going. As a redshirt freshman in 2016, Montez became the first CU quarterback to throw for a touchdown on his initial NCAA pass attempt since 1959. That was against Idaho State. The next week, an injury to starter Sefo Liufau at Michigan brought him off the bench and into the Big House.

“Lewis is a stud,” Montez said of the phenom from Georgia, who’s slated to tussle with senior transfer Kaidon Salter and Ryan Staubfor the right to replace Shedeur Sanders as CU’s QB1.

“From what I’ve heard about him, the kid’s a stud. He can play. From what I saw in the spring, he throws it really well. No matter who they put out there, Coach Sanders is going to put them in a position to succeed.”

The Buffs start preseason camp Monday. The season opener against Georgia Tech under the lights at Folsom Field is just a month away. After two years of watching a Heisman Trophy winner (Travis Hunter) and the best passing QB ever at CU (Shedeur Sanders) take a chainsaw to Boulder’s record books, the Buffs could be handing the keys to a teenager.

Coach Prime started Lewis, who’s just 17, with the first-team offense at CU’s spring game a few months back. He brought the 2025 5-star prospect to Big 12 Media Days in Texas earlier this month.

“Props to him,” Liufau said of Lewis, “if he believes in himself, and if the coaches believe in him and see something in him.”

Montez has been there. Same for Liufau, who made seven starts as a true freshman in 2013. When I called them recently to ask what advice they’d give Lewis, they immediately went back to those freshman scars. And what JuJu can do to avoid them.

•••

Lesson No. 2: Diplomacy is hard. Really, really, really hard. Practice it anyway.

“Over the years, I’ve learned a little bit (more) how to talk to guys,” Liufau said. “How you have to pull them aside and talk to them when something goes wrong.”

Nobody likes to play the bad cop on the sidelines. The best QBs know how to do it constructively. How to not let the heat of the moment burn a bridge with a teammate who’d just missed a block or whiffed on a route.

“As a freshman, the thing I wish I’d learned a little sooner was just kind of getting to know your teammates inside and out,” Liufau said. “Not to say I didn’t know guys. But as a freshman, you’re really trying to figure out your playbook and you’re new to college life.

“For a 17-year-old, especially at the quarterback position, you’ve got a lot going on. You need to know your position. You’ve got to know everyone else’s positions on the field, so you can put the ball in the right hands.”

Liufau came to campus early in 2013 to speed up the acclimation process. He didn’t win the job during camp, which hurt. Yet that August, he also got the best piece of advice he’d receive all season, via a conversation with his father. One he’d also prescribe to Lewis.

“Stay ready,” Sefo’s dad said. “Stay humble. And stay ready. And whenever the opportunity arises, just take it.”

It came. With the Buffs floundering, Liufau made his first collegiate start against Charleston Southern on Oct. 19, throwing for 198 yards in a 43-10 CU romp.

“It was kind of hard, when you’re in the moment and when you’re in camp,” Liufau continued, “to kind of sit back and kind of see where you came from.”

The rest is BoCo history. Sefo still owns CU’s lifetime mark for passing yards (9,763) and for the single-game record passing touchdowns (seven in 2014).

“I think it was good for me to stay in high school and continue my development there, and for (Lewis), it’s different,” Liufau said. “Age is really just a number. If he can play, he can play.”

•••

Lesson No. 3: Head high. Feet on the ground. Always.

“If you win a couple of games, don’t start thinking your (stuff) don’t stink and you end up cutting corners — that you don’t have to do all the stuff you did to get there,” Montez stressed.

“And don’t get too low. Don’t ever lose confidence in yourself as a quarterback. Because if you lose that, then you lose the ability to really play at a high level. Confidence is one of the most important things to have as a quarterback.”

That and perspective. As a high school QB, think of your receiver as a door with a small window at eye level. As a prep, as long as you hit that door, you’re probably fine.

In college, you’re going to have to learn to consistently hit that window. If you’re in the NFL, it’s about hitting the keyhole. With Peppers in your face.

“Everybody kind of has that ‘Welcome To College Football’ moment, right?” Montez said.

“Mine was Peppers. I kind of had another one when Adoree Jackson picked me off when 75% of his body was out of bounds.”

Old wounds can offer a map to grace, as long as you know where you’re going. It’s not about how many times you get knocked on your can, kid. It’s how many times you pop right back up.

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