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What should be the plan at QB & who is the starter this week?

1 week of prep for Julian heading into Iowa State at home is preferable to two weeks of prep heading on the road to Utah.

Salter is a great QB against G5 teams, and dogwater against P4.

Summon Game Show GIF by ABC Network
 
Robert Sorell said:
1 week of prep for Julian heading into Iowa State at home is preferable to two weeks of prep heading on the road to Utah.

Salter is a great QB against G5 teams, and dogwater against P4.

Summon Game Show GIF by ABC Network
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If they start Juju against Iowa State then he’s going to be the starter against Utah, so I don’t see why it matters. It comes down to who gives them the best chance to win against Iowa State, and I still maintain the Salter is likely that guy.
 
The Alabaster Yak said:
If they start Juju against Iowa State then he’s going to be the starter against Utah, so I don’t see why it matters. It comes down to who gives them the best chance to win against Iowa State, and I still maintain the Salter is likely that guy.
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I think getting a full game under his belt, at home, makes it a lot easier to play in a hostile environment. Not saying it's the deciding factor, but the home/away split negates the idea that doing it after the bye week is unequivocally better.

I'm with you that you go with who gives you a better chance to win; I think that's Julian.
 
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dio said:
We aren't winning. If we aren't going to win then we should get JuJu ready
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That's not true, 3 of the 4 losses went down to pretty much the very end and we could've easily won any or all of them. And the one game that was over before the last few minutes Salter didn't play. So we can certainly beat ISU at home with Salter playing. I'd also be fine if we switched to JuJu, it's just a matter of if they want to preserve his redshirt or not. If not then might as well play him and get him some experience.
 
Coming in I knew Salter was a bad passer but I thought we were getting a guy who was a big time playmaker with his legs. I only feared his running might not transfer over to the P4. Not only has his passing been bad as I expected, based on his history, but his running is not even good, it doesn't scare anyone. No reason for Salter to continue to get playing time. Time to turn the team over to JuJu and let him go through his growing pains in this lost season.
 
Felmo45 said:
Coming in I knew Salter was a bad passer but I thought we were getting a guy who was a big time playmaker with his legs. I only feared his running might not transfer over to the P4. Not only has his passing been bad as I expected, based on his history, but his running is not even good, it doesn't scare anyone. No reason for Salter to continue to get playing time. Time to turn the team over to JuJu and let him go through his growing pains in this lost season.
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I actually agree about his running. He’s had some big runs that were wide open but he’s really not that fast and he’s only kind of elusive. Juju can do a lot of what he’s done with his legs.
 
Talking to various friends that follow the buffs throughout the course of this season, I've tried to be a voice of reason. Many of them were negative on Salter by the 2nd quarter of the Georgia Tech game. I kept saying that we'd been spoiled by Shedeur and that we had forgotten how bad the average college QB can be. I argued that Salter had some great playmaking ability that we could build our offense around.

BYU was hard to swallow, but I still felt he needed to be the guy. Last night, my patience gave way completely. Not only does it seem like the dual-threat aspect of his game has been depleted, his INTs were terrible and ruined a game that was absolutely winnable. The first pick was basically an exact replica of the mistake that ended the BYU game. The second made me feel like we might as well just have a WR line up at qb and try his best.

It's awful to watch the rest of the team play well only for the main guy to seem completely lost the entire time. It seems like he thinks the game is just supposed to magically happen for him and blames others when things go wrong. I don't believe he is capable of fixing anything in his processing or his mechanics. He seems like he wants to play QB in a really flashy, showy way, without thinking at all. He's athletic enough that it can work against teams like Wyoming and whoever he was playing at Liberty. But in the Big XII, he is absolutely a limited player and a thorn in the side of the team at large. Even a lot of his successful passes have come on terribly thrown balls, like the turd he threw to Omarion to set up the soul-crushing pick he threw a couple plays later right before the end of half.

I'd like to see Juju be the guy the rest of the year, and would even rather see Staub at this point. Other than the circus of QBs in 2022 and 2012, I'm not sure I've ever had less confidence in a CU QB. Even Brendan Lewis had some tough, gritty moments in 2021.
 
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You cannot play Salter. I'd rather see the punter back there taking snaps.

There is no figuring it out for Salter. He simply cannot process the game fast enough to play at this level. He is a fifth year senior, if he doesn't get it now, he never will. It is almost like he spends the first three seconds in the pocket trying to remember what color jerseys his team wears. He is a liability and it is going to get worse. DC's are dying to see him taking snaps now.

Load the box, stop the run, play zone and spy. Game over. It is that simple. You cannot ride with Salter unless you are willing to throw in the towel.
 
dio said:
We aren't winning. If we aren't going to win then we should get JuJu ready
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This.

The only thing is to be sure you don't break the confidence of the freshman by asking too much too soon.

I think he will step up and surprise to the upside.

Edit to add: most rookie qbs get terrible habits because they have lines that can't pass block, and no running game. Both of those are somewhere between serviceable and quite good, so I think that risk is low.
 
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If Juju is ready, play him. If he isn't keep preparing him.

Don't get all wrapped up in the RS. If he turns out to be what he was expected to be he's going to be in the draft before he spends 5 years in Boulder.

If he's not ready you can do more harm than good but even giving him limited possessions should help him adjust to the college game.

This season, hate to say it, is already a bust for us. Play Juju, if he isn't ready then sit him back down and work on what he needs to do for next year.
 
i suspect not starting Juju is more about how small he and the fact he is working on his body more than it is about his ability to play QB. So I don’t think he will start until you get past Iowa state and Utah.
 
1 based on the first five games, it's fair to assume the coaching staff believes Walter gives us the best chance to win. I don't have an opinion stronger than that. The season isn't over, yet, so you go with the best chance to win now.

2 a variable we don't know is how much of a transfer risk Lewis is at the end of the season. He probably doesn't know right now either. So, playing him now mitigates that risk, that should be a strong factor. There's likely already data out there that shows if there's a correlation between "playing time in season n" and "transferring for season n+1"

3 I see no point in redshirting Lewis. If he's what we think, he's not sticking around college for five years. Use him if and when it makes sense.
 
redshirt smedshirt...redshirt means squat nowadays. Play him. Lets see what we have and I doubt seriously if he is being developed in the background, by whom? there are no QB coaches on the staff.
 
hokiehead said:
3 I see no point in redshirting Lewis. If he's what we think, he's not sticking around college for five years. Use him if and when it makes sense.
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Unless he (or his family) values the redshirt.

4 more games and it doesn't matter. Pretty sure he can play the last 3 with no loss of redshirt.
 
rosstr said:
You can’t pay a million dollars for a redshirt and go into next year never finding out what you have in Lewis. It’s time to play.
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Unfortunately we're in an era where that's likely decided by Juju and his "camp" - burn his RS, and we'll hit the portal...

I would go Staub with Salter (cringe) sprinkled in as a wrinkle situationally (e.g. 2nd/3rd n short). With Salter's play calling very run heavy. Veer, zone read, QB power/counter - absolutely no reason not to run him between the tackles with the back as an extra blocker.

Run with that for the next 3 weeks, if it fails then give Juju the last 3.
 
Ctrl+Z said:
Unfortunately we're in an era where that's likely decided by Juju and his "camp" - burn his RS, and we'll hit the portal...

I would go Staub with Salter (cringe) sprinkled in as a wrinkle situationally (e.g. 2nd/3rd n short). With Salter's play calling very run heavy. Veer, zone read, QB power/counter - absolutely no reason not to run him between the tackles with the back as an extra blocker.

Run with that for the next 3 weeks, if it fails then give Juju the last 3.
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I think the JUJU option was already decided by him, his dad and coach prime.
 
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CitizenKane said:
i suspect not starting Juju is more about how small he and the fact he is working on his body more than it is about his ability to play QB. So I don’t think he will start until you get past Iowa state and Utah.
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You have a great point. I'd love to see Juju, but as I think about things more, Juju only spent 3 years in HS and is 17. At this juncture it depends both on what Juju wants and whether he is ready enough to protect himself and not get totally overwhelmed. The true-Frosh that play (aka..Underwood) are manchilds.

Also, much depends on how Juju and the staff agreed to develop him. If this year's goal was to have Juju get bigger/sculpt his body, adjust to college life/see P-4 football, work on P-4 game speed, and slowly improve his preparation/craft into the next level, then honor that, unless Juju says let's go. I'm inclined to give into two weeks with Salter/Staub getting past ISU/Utah, and look to end the season with Juju playing but not burning a RS. He may not play here for 4 years, but IMO still there is no sense in completely burning his RS given he is the future.

It just sucks that KS has not worked out/regressed, and Staub had the Houston debacle.
 
Unfortunately Salter is just not working out and he is dragging the whole team down. It's time to go with Juju. He said when he signed with CU that one of the reasons he chose CU was they would give him the opportunity to compete for the starting job as a freshman. I don't think there's an issue with him or his family not wanting him to start. He is the future, the future starts Saturday.
 
GRM said:
You have a great point. I'd love to see Juju, but as I think about things more, Juju only spent 3 years in HS and is 17. At this juncture it depends both on what Juju wants and whether he is ready enough to protect himself and not get totally overwhelmed. The true-Frosh that play (aka..Underwood) are manchilds.

Also, much depends on how Juju and the staff agreed to develop him. If this year's goal was to have Juju get bigger/sculpt his body, adjust to college life/see P-4 football, work on P-4 game speed, and slowly improve his preparation/craft into the next level, then honor that, unless Juju says let's go. I'm inclined to give into two weeks with Salter/Staub getting past ISU/Utah, and look to end the season with Juju playing but not burning a RS. He may not play here for 4 years, but IMO still there is no sense in completely burning his RS given he is the future.

It just sucks that KS has not worked out/regressed, and Staub had the Houston debacle.
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This is perfectly said. The expectations for someone leaving HS early is that they should/will RS. It's embarrassing that we've gotten ourselves in this situation without a run of injuries.

This team has proven that they can compete and easily be sitting 4-2, 5-1 with competent/average quarterback play. I personally don't think Juju is ready and not worth burning the RS at this point, but I think he could('ve) manufacture(d) some wins.
 
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Not Sure said:
If you believe there’s a way to beat ISU with JuJu, you do it. If it’s a toss up regardless of the qb, protect the redshirt.
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IMO, a redshirt is not nearly as valuable as it used to be (to the program - it's still valuable to the player) now that we have free agency after every season in college football. You can't assume a player, especially a QB, will stick with a single program his entire career. And if he does, it means you are paying him what other programs are willing to pay him.

I think the decision could/should come down to what JuJu wants. If he wants to keep the redshirt, allow him to keep it. If he wants to play, and we lose to ISU, then play him.
 
Inside JuJu Lewis' Recruiting Rankings - and the honest truth about what to expect if Lewis is CU's QB1 the rest of the season.

buffsblog.com

Inside Juju Lewis’ Recruiting Ranking — and the Honest Truth about What to Expect if He’s QB1 for the Rest of the Season - BuffsBlog.com

Setting the Record Straight on Lewis' Recruiting Ranking In many of my interactions with CU fans, I’m told that Lewis was a 5-star “can’t miss” recruit. This is incorrect. Lewis was not a 5-star QB coming out of high school. Was he considered he a high-level recruit? Definitely. But we need to...
buffsblog.com buffsblog.com

This post has a twist that is very on-brand for CU football.
 
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