Five-star quarterback Julian “Juju” Lewis committed to Colorado on Thursday.
Lewis, the No. 35 overall prospect in the Class of 2025 in the 247Sports Composite, had been committed to USC for more than a year but backed off that pledge on Nov. 17.
He visited Colorado last month for the Buffaloes’ win over Cincinnati and took a surprise visit to Georgia last weekend and watched the Bulldogs top Tennessee. He announced his decision on the “Pat McAfee Show.”
Lewis plays at Carrollton High School, about 50 miles west of Atlanta. His team is 11-0 and will play Valdosta in a state playoff game on Friday night. For the season, Lewis is 200-for-257 passing for 2,842 yards with 40 touchdowns and four interceptions. He is completing 77.8 percent of his passes, a career high and 10 percentage points higher than last season.
What does this mean for Colorado?
Colorado doesn’t have an experienced backup quarterback or a plan at the position beyond Shedeur Sanders, who will enter the NFL Draft after this season.
Now, Colorado has a plan beyond the next few months, and Lewis would likely be a Day 1 starter in Boulder. It’s also evidence in favor of Deion Sanders staying at Colorado after his sons (Shedeur and Shilo) and Travis Hunter leave. It’s the biggest recruiting win for Sanders since flipping Hunter from Florida State to Jackson State during the early signing period in December 2021.
It’s hard to think the on-field fortunes of both teams didn’t have an impact. USC (5-5) has lost four of its last five games and the trajectory for Lincoln Riley’s program has never been worse. The Trojans need to rally just to reach a bowl game.
Colorado, meanwhile, has played its way into Big 12 title contention and the College Football Playoff picture with six wins in seven games. Sanders’ stock hasn’t been higher since the Buffaloes’ 3-0 start in 2023 against a trio of teams that ended up missing bowl games. It’s not hard to sell the idea that Lewis could be the key piece in program-building for Sanders moving forward while Riley’s future in a USC program at transition looks far less rosy. — Ubben
What happened with USC?
While Lewis had been committed to USC for nearly a year and a half, he hadn’t shunned interest from other programs. In the spring, he visited some SEC schools as well as Indiana and Colorado. The SEC schools found other quarterbacks, but the Hoosiers and Buffaloes remained persistent. Even though Lewis did visit USC, the fact that he never publicly reaffirmed his commitment to the Trojans and visited other programs certainly raised questions. It basically made the separation inevitable.
And USC obviously was not caught off guard. The staff stayed in contact with Husan Longstreet and made a strong — and ultimately successful — push to flip the five-star prospect from his Texas A&M commitment. — Morales
Required reading
(Photo: John David Mercer / Imagn Images)
