BOULDER — Julian Lewis couldn’t cross the Delaware.
Not the Delaware 35-yard line, at any rate.
Kaidon Salter couldn’t throw on the run.
Or past the sticks.
CU’s Big 12 opener is Friday night. Dink and dunk in Houston, under the lights, and the Cougars will have you for brisket.
Which means the best option head coach Deion Sanders has at QB1, right now, is the guy nobody had on their bingo cards on Saturday morning.
Welcome to the party, Ryan Staub.
Sorry.
“Martin Luther Staub,” Coach Prime called him during a postgame chat with FOX Sports after the sophomore powered CU to a 31-7 rout of Delaware at Folsom Field.
Staub is one of those O.B.s — “Original Buffs,” Karl Dorrell holdovers who stuck it out while Deion portaled in people to push them off the roster.
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Thrust into a 10-7 game that saw Salter miss targets and Lewis smushed in the pocket, Staub led the Buffs to touchdowns — 21 points — on three of his four drives.
Salter, the senior transfer from Liberty making his second start, accounted for 10 points on four drives, with all of those points in the first quarter-and-a-half. Lewis, the five-star QB recruit and the people’s choice, looked good handing off and terrified on obvious passing downs. The Georgia native got three drives in that didn’t amount to a single point.
“I saw,” Sanders said, “what everybody else saw (Saturday).”
Colorado's Kaidon Salter stretches out for a touchdown against the Delaware Blue Hens during a game in Boulder on September 6, 2025.(Photo by Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)On one hand, it’s Delaware, the softest cupcake on CU’s non-conference fight card. With their blue-winged helmets, from a distance, the Blue Hens looked like Michigan — until they snapped the ball.
On the other hand, only one of the three QBs Coach Prime tested seems truly comfortable dialing up whatever offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur is running.
Only one guy reminded you of Shedeur Sanders a year ago.
Only one guy was seriously looking downfield in the pocket. Only one guy made linebackers and safeties creep back a little when they saw him behind center — which, in turn, opens up a little more room in the box for the Buffs’ run game.
Only one guy — Staub — averaged more than six yards per pass per attempt (7 for 10, 157 yards) against the Blue Hens. Only one guy turned the Buffs’ wideouts, most notably 6-foot-5 transfer Sincere Brown (four catches, 120 yards), into legitimate home-run threats.
“Those plays, he wasn’t supposed to run a ‘Go’ (route) and I told him to run a ‘Go’ route,” Staub explained later. “If they press Sincere, it’s going up.”
If you press Coach Prime, there’s really only one guy who reminded you of 2024. Only one guy who reminded you of The Shedeur and Travis Show.
“Staub don’t trip, man,” Sanders said. “Some guys just have that thing about them that you want to help them become successful. And he’s that kid.”
He is. No. 16, lest we forget, was also the kid who gave Utah all it could handle at Salt Lake in November 2023, deputizing for an injured Shedeur Sanders in a 23-17 loss. The same fearlessness, the same confidence, the same trust in his arm and his weapons, were back after a 22-month absence.
He also just put Coach Prime in line for some awkward conversations. In a pre-portal world, you’d sprinkle in some “Ju Ju” Lewis and ultimately shut the 17-year-old down for a redshirt year. The future is not the present.
But will Lewis, one of the most ballyhooed recruits ever to land in Boulder, accept being passed over for a starting role twice?
Would you simply flip Staub and Salter on the CU depth chart — moving your Week 1 starter, who was 13-for-16 passing on Saturday, to QB3, simply to keep a teenager happy?
“I wanted (the QB competition) to tell its own story,” Sanders said.
Colorado's Julian Lewis goes back to pass against the Delaware Blue Hens during a game in Boulder on September 6, 2025. (Photo by Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)Shurmur had a story, too. After the game, he recalled this exchange with Coach Prime as CU got the ball back coming off Delaware’s only score.
The crowd was getting squirrelly at the end of the second quarter. How was this a game?
“Let’s go,” Shumur said.
“Well, Staub’s in,” Coach Prime told him.
“Let’s go,” Shurmur replied.
He went, all right. He went 75 yards on six plays. And in just 36 seconds.
“Now these people are going to salute you,” Shurmur told Staub as the latter walked into the news conference room. Then he looked at the reporters. “Don’t let (Ryan) get a big head.”
That shouldn’t be a problem.
Staub watched the Shedeur social media love. Followed by the Julian Lewis social media love.
Like Coach Prime said, he didn’t trip. He stuck around.
“To be honest, I don’t know (why I stayed),” Staub said. “I kind of feel (that) I love the process. I really enjoyed being in this building under our coach. I didn’t really know where I was. I stuck my head down and tried to keep working. And I got rewarded for that.”
Staub didn’t trip.
And this next trip is huge.
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