Welcome back to another season preview pod with the Ralphie Report. We are finishing up the offense today. Let’s talk about the quarterbacks.
Who’s Gone
Last year’s quarterback situation could only be described as very dysfunctional. Ryan Staub, who started multiple games, is now at Tennessee. Kaidon Salter is lost to graduation. There were other guys behind them who left too, but not super important in the grand scheme.
Who’s Back
The starter is going to be Julian Lewis, a five star recruit and the crown jewel of last year’s recruiting class. Despite that dysfunctional situation around him, he was able to come in, start some games, and get valuable experience before the end of the season. He looked good when he was on the field, despite a very crappy offensive situation, and retaining him was probably one of the most important things that happened in the offseason.
There’s real belief in what was seen out of Julian Lewis in the spot he was thrown into last year. Not easy circumstances, but he showed promise, his throws had touch, there was zip over the middle, he could run a little bit. Good stuff there, exactly what you want to see out of a freshman. He has to take a step forward this year, and he also has to stay healthy this year.
New Arrivals
Behind Lewis, CU brought in Isaac Wilson from Utah, who looks like he’ll be the backup. If you remember watching that Utah game where Travis Hunter went up about ten feet in the air and caught the ball fully horizontally, Isaac Wilson was the starting quarterback for Utah in that game. It didn’t go great for him, but that was a very dysfunctional Utah team, dysfunctional being the buzzword of the day. Wilson does have Big 12 snaps under his belt, he’s started some games, but not in this system, and he did not look great when CU played him a few years back, though he did have that one touchdown pass on Travis Hunter that year, a dime to a USC transfer whose name escapes us right now. Still, a decent pickup overall.
Behind Wilson is true freshman Kaneal Sweetwyne, a gigantic guy, skinny, tall, slender frame, great athlete. He’ll probably be the third stringer, depending on how fall camp competition shakes out.
That’s it. Three quarterbacks, which is not ideal. There’s genuine surprise that CU didn’t go out and try to get at least one more arm, or a walk-on, heading into fall camp. That situation just didn’t end up happening.
Coaching and Scheme
A lot rests on Julian Lewis here, really hoping he doesn’t get hurt, because that is a scary quarterback depth chart. There’s not much there beyond him.
Thematically there’s a weird mix at play. The go-go offense, Brennan Marion’s system as offensive coordinator, is pretty different, definitely more gadgety than what CU has run in the past. It’s not going to be, as Julian Lewis himself said at media days, a “line it up, let’s play high school football” kind of offense. There are protections to learn, you’re playing fast, and you have to actually know what you’re doing out there.
In some ways this should suit Julian Lewis well. He’s a good, quick decision maker, and that’s what made him a five star in high school, in an RPO setting he can make the right choice ninety percent of the time and get the ball out quickly. That’s a skill, and it’s hard to do. The go-go offense can be shaped around that. The year Brennan Marion had Jaiden Maiava at quarterback, it looked more like that kind of quick-decision operation. The year he had Hajj-Malik Williams at quarterback, it was a much more quarterback-run-heavy offense. It’s a little strange to reconcile, because Julian Lewis profiles as more of the quick-decision, classic RPO type with gadget stuff and protection-based concepts layered around it, closer to that first mold. But if Isaac Wilson ends up playing games for CU this year, the offense would seemingly need to morph pretty quickly into more of a QB-run, traditional, almost triple-option style attack, and it’s unclear how you run both versions inside the same system.
The most important job for whoever starts is going to be making those split-second RPO decisions, rather than leaning purely on arm talent to push the ball down the field. That’s not a bad thing, and as noted, it fits Julian Lewis well.
Also worth noting, Hajj-Malik Williams, the quarterback who benefited from the whole Matt Sluka situation at UNLV in 2024, is in the building working with the quarterbacks. Unclear if he’s officially on staff, but he’s been present, helping get them ready for the go-go offense, even throwing passes to the receivers himself since he’s only a few years removed from playing. Having someone that is experienced in the system working with the room directly, so Marion isn’t the only one shouldering the teaching load, is a real positive.
Position Group Verdict
Somewhere between acceptable and a mild concern, depending on who you ask. One take lands on acceptable. It’s tough to put Julian Lewis specifically in that tier given his talent, but the question marks around depth push the overall grade there. The other take sits right on the line between acceptable and concern: Julian Lewis has to stay healthy, he’s clearly the best fit for this offense and the most talented quarterback on the roster, and if he’s not healthy, it’s an immediate red flag for the season. Even fully healthy, he has to adapt to a genuinely new offense quickly and make the right read often.
There’s a version of this season where all of that sounds overly cautious and Julian Lewis takes to it immediately, exactly the five star recruit he was billed as, and just goes and kills it. Equally possible: he gets hurt, or he’s simply inconsistent because he’s young, and that inconsistency at quarterback is the kind of thing that costs CU games outright. Not knowing how good he can be yet, and also not knowing what he’s actually going to look like week to week, is the source of the worry.
Player to Watch
Julian Lewis, unavoidably. Having a talent this touted, this promising in limited action last year, is not a bad place to start, in fact it’s a pretty great place to start. Everything about this group’s ceiling and floor runs through him.
Closing Note
There’s something almost cruelly fitting about the schedule here, kicking this offense off with a true road test in a hostile Atlanta environment against Georgia Tech, then turning around and doing the same thing on the road against Northwestern shortly after. Got to get ready soon. It’ll be a real quick test to see how good this group actually is.
