Through 13 spring practices, the Colorado football team doesn’t have much clarity on its quarterback competition, but that’s just fine with offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.
“I’d like to see them both be doing things where, at the end of it, it would be a flip of the coin who plays,” Shurmur, who also coaches quarterbacks, said Tuesday. “That’s what I’m looking for.”
CU will wrap up spring practices with its annual Black & Gold scrimmage at Folsom Field on Saturday (2:30 p.m., ESPN2). It’ll be the first opportunity for fans to get a live look at the players battling to replace star Shedeur Sanders, who is a little more than a week away from getting his named called during the NFL Draft.
Senior Kaidon Salter, who transferred to CU from Liberty, and true freshman Julian “JuJu” Lewis are the frontrunners for the job, although third-year sophomore Ryan Staub is battling also.
“I see them challenging each other,” Shurmur said. “It’s a super healthy quarterback room, too. They’re just all trying to do the best with the plays that I give them. I’m getting a feel for the ones that Kaidon can do that fit his skill set, and I certainly know the ones that JuJu can execute.
“That’s part of coaching, too. I mean, you got to play to the strengths of the guy that you have, so that allows our offense to kind of grow wide and deep.”
CU was one of the most prolific passing offenses in the country last year with Sanders, who shattered single-season school records for completion percentage (74.0), passing yards (4,134) and passing touchdowns (37).
How the Buffs look in 2025 will be different, but Shurmur said the basic goal remains the same.
“My only concern for our offense is when the ball goes down, we’ve got to go score touchdowns,” he said. “So we can run it across the goal line, we can throw it across, we can send it via text; I don’t care. We need to get the ball across the goal line. That’s the challenge. Last year we did it a certain way, and this year we may do it the same way, but my sense is it’s going to be a little bit different.”
Salter is the most experienced of the group, as he was a 29-game starter at Liberty, going 21-4 in his last two years with the Flames. He has thrown for 5,887 yards, 56 touchdowns and only 17 interceptions during his career, while adding 2,063 yards and 21 touchdowns as a runner. He was the Conference USA Most Valuable Player in 2023.
Lewis, meanwhile, is a five-star recruit who enrolled at CU a year-and-a-half early and is just getting his feet wet with college football. Staub is going into his third year with the Buffs.
“The three quarterbacks that are performing are doing a good job,” Shurmur said. “I see improvement every day. They’re all kind of on a different stage of their journey. Obviously, Kaidon’s got one year left, and he’s learning what we’re doing very well.
“JuJu is a young man with an amazing amount of talent that’s got a bright future, and he’s doing extremely well. And then Ryan Staub … we grade everything they do and Ryan is grading out very well each day. He’s making plays. And so we feel good about his progress, along with the other guys in the room, (walk-ons) Colton (Allen) and obviously (Dominiq Ponder), they do a good job as well.”
Shurmur added that he is “more and more impressed every day” with Lewis, adding he’s seen a lot of physical development, as well.
“He’s bigger and stronger, and every day he does something that shows you why he’s here and why we’re glad he is here,” Shurmur said. “Very, very, very talented young man. Really all the things you need to do as a quarterback, he can do. Now it’s just a matter of him growing in what we do and getting himself ready to play.”