Keeler: CU Buffs spring football takeaway? Best thing Deion Sanders can do for QB Julian Lewis is redshirt him

BOULDER When they notified us Julian Lewis was going to hit the ground running they left out the part about it being for his life I guess there s a little anxiety going out there just with this crowd and stuff like that a bigger stadium than I ve ever been in the CU Buffs true freshman quarterback announced after his Folsom Field debut at Saturday s spring contest So I guess there was a little bit of nervousness But I mean this is what I signed up for I knew what I was getting into So there s no complaints It s just a lot to grow from He ll get better He ll look better too in part because Lewis ostensibly couldn t have scripted his start much worse Lewis completed his first throw a dump-off to running back Dallan Hayden for a -yard gain On his second drop-back he got chased to the right and sacked by Arden Walker On his third he tripped and sacked himself On his fourth he fired up the left boundary for wideout Kam Mikell and missed him by about seven or eight feet His second series began with another roll to the right and with the ball being batted back into his face by safety Tawfiq Byard who nearly picked the carom off JuJu s second throw landed at Hayden s feet He looked his age basically The -year-old he ll turn in late September connected on two of his first five attempts unofficially while working with CU s first-team offense You ve got to understand he s still a young man We don t care about the age of the stage though third-year Buffs football coach Deion Sanders revealed of Lewis He s been held accountable If you re a starter we re going to expect you to perform as a starter right now When you re with the s you ve got to be a We ve got time to say You re coming and you re growing We ve got time They do He does If Saturday was any indication the best thing Sanders could do for Lewis in the long term is to pump the brakes To give a talented teenager a year in the weight room a year with the playbook a year with his new teammates and a year to figure all this new stuff out before being thrown to the wolves Head coach Deion Sanders coaches during the University of Colorado Black and Gold Spring Championship at Folsom Field on April in Boulder Colorado Cliff Grassmick Staff Photographer A redshirt isn t an insult It isn t a slap in the face nor particular scarlet letter that says Lewis couldn t cut it The kid we saw Saturday has all kinds of upside But that kid also possibly requirements to sit He demands to watch He requirements to get bigger and stronger so that particular -year-old linebacker doesn t break him in half If Lewis is -foot- I m a lean mean and change There s no sin in being a -foot-ish college quarterback especially one who can work hashmark to hashmark But JuJu can t beat anybody if he s too busy lying on his back Like the whole Shedeur Sanders jersey retirement the prudent call with Lewis would be to not rush anything But the young man came here for the express lane not the local Lewis didn t bail on USC to watch from the bench And he sure as heck didn t enroll early and join the Alamo Bowl prep to take off Coach Prime even laughed off a suggestion late last week that he would consider redshirting his freshman signal-caller Nobody stated that man Nobody mentioned that Sanders revealed That s not our plan That s not his plan but if it happens it happens If he sustains an injury that puts him in that situation but you never know I mean the guy could be a or he could be a I don t think we re going to put him in a box like that We re not doing that Based on the spring contest the closest thing Coach Prime has to a on-hand is senior transfer Kaidon Salter who didn t exactly light what s left of the grass at Folsom on fire either In fact the best throw of the day by any QB likely came from Ryan Staub during -on- s The largest part effective throw the CU offense had going was to loft - balls up into the air and try and bait the other company into a pass-interference call I see JuJu growing a lot every day noted left tackle Jordan Seaton who as a sophomore leader has grown up a lot himself over the last months He and Salter both complement each other The QB battle is going to be really good this year so we re still trying to figure that out But those two quarterbacks they re both competing right now They couldn t have inquired for a better backdrop Saturday offered up the first sunny spring meeting of the Prime Era buffeted by a crisp dry breeze under an egg-blue sky It was also the least well-attended officially It was beautiful Sanders commented I just wish we had a little more endorsement fanwise Was it the sunshine A holiday weekend The ticket price Crowd size matters to Sanders and after seeing this plenty of empty seats especially in the trainee section you d be shocked if the wheels aren t already turning for an inter-squad scrimmage with another association at this time next year Coach Prime doesn t like to leave a planted seed without water and tending after all It was my first college scrimmage at least with people around it so it s definitely a big big milestone for me Saturday reported Lewis who wore a giant Darth Vader necklace into the postgame news conference But yeah seeing the turnout and just as players we ve got a lot of stuff to grow on The Force will be with him In due time But if the end tournament is to retire JuJu s jersey they d be wise to redshirt it first