Colorado coach Deion Sanders unsure who primary Buffaloes QB will be: "Don't know how it's going to play out"
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders appeared on the main stage at Big 12 football media days on Wednesday and opted to talk about football, not his health. It comes at a time when there are some big questions about why he has been absent from team activities recently, but also about what his new-look Buffaloes team is going to be able to do this fall.
During his question-and-answer session that lasted nearly 17 minutes, Sanders addressed topics such as his coaching staff and the quarterbacks on the Buffs roster.
With Sanders's son Shedeur Sanders off to the NFL, both Julian "JuJu" Lewis and Kaidon Salter have a shot at being the primary quarterback for the Colorado Buffaloes this season.
"Well, Kaidon's off the chain," Sanders said. "He's been there, done that. He can get the job done. I wouldn't have brought him here if I didn't trust him."
"But JuJu is coming 'round the mountain when he comes. And I love him. I love what he brings to the table."
Lewis is a blue-chip freshman and Salter is a transfer from Liberty who has excelled in the run game as well as the pass game and had a 23-6 record as a starter. The two players became good friends in the past year.
"I don't know how it's going to play out. As long as it plays out, we can't lose either way with either of those two," Sanders said.
Sanders also says he likes what he's got in his receivers room this season.
"I can't wait to unleash them. They're great. Now you've got to understand they're replacing some dogs ... that all of them, all four of them will be in a professional camp from a year ago," he said.
Sanders is going into his third season as the Buffaloes coach and this will be his first season at CU without having one of his sons on the team. Shedeur was a fifth-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Draft, and safety Shilo Sanders signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent.
Also gone is Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the two-way standout who was also like a son to Sanders. Hunter played for him at Jackson State and in Boulder, and now will try to play both ways in the NFL after Jacksonville drafted him second overall.
"Now I only have to be a coach. I don't have the coach and a dad," Sanders said during a segment with ESPN. "You've got to understand, when you're the coach and the dad ... make sure you watch the defense, make sure you watch the offense, but you want to watch your kids as well. I don't have to have that dilemma. Now I can just pour into everything I got into all of these young men."
Sanders is 13-12 in his two seasons with the revived Buffaloes, who in their return to the Big 12 last season missed making the league championship game on a tiebreaker after being one of four teams to finish 7-2 in conference play.
The goal for the Buffs to be even better this year.
"We play to win. We don't just play to compete," Sanders said.
Sanders is under contract with the Buffaloes through the 2029 season after agreeing to a new $54 million, five-year deal this spring that made him the Big 12's highest-paid coach.
