CU Buffs position preview: Shedeur Sanders leading way at quarterback

Colorado defensive coordinator Charles Kelly doesn’t coach quarterbacks, but he’s coached against enough of them to be able to spot a good one.
Kelly sees a good one when he watches the Buffaloes’ Shedeur Sanders operate.
“I’m glad he is our quarterback,” Kelly said at Pac-12 media day in Las Vegas last week. “I mean, you look at his numbers, where he’s at; you look at him as a player on the field of what he does. He’s got great command of our team. He can execute the offense. He’s very bright, he makes really good decisions.”
Leading up to preseason camp, BuffZone.com will preview each position group for CU and in this installment, we look at the quarterbacks.
CU will lean heavily on Sanders, a transfer from Jackson State and the son of CU head coach Deion Sanders.
In two seasons as a starter at Jackson State, Shedeur Sanders threw for 6,963 yards, 70 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He also scored nine touchdowns as a runner.
A year ago, Sanders completed 70.6% of his passes for 3,732 yards, 40 touchdowns and only six interceptions.
Jackson State plays in the Football Championship Subdivision and some have wondered how good Sanders’ numbers would be at the Power 5 level. Kelly doesn’t question the production.
“Listen, he can’t help who he was playing against,” Kelly said. “All he did was complete passes and threw for a lot of yards and won a lot of football games. That’s one thing that when you look at as a quarterback, if you’re a winner, that affects the rest of the team.”
Kelly, who spent the previous four years at Alabama, is on the same team as Sanders for the first time, but it didn’t take long this spring to realize the Buffs had a special player leading the offense.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be on some teams with some very good quarterbacks,” Kelly said. “They all have some really good characteristics.
“The first thing is, Shedeur is very smart, all right? He understands the game. He understands what people (on defense) are giving him. One of the most important things that a quarterback can do is to make good decisions. He makes good decisions. We go against him in practice and I watch him. He has a strong arm, he’s very accurate. … He’s got the traits that make him a great quarterback.”
CU hasn’t had a great quarterback in a long time. Since 1996, only one CU quarterback has earned first or second team all-conference honors (Sam Noyer) and that came in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Sanders doesn’t have to earn all-conference honors or be great to be an upgrade for the Buffs. Five different players have seen time at quarterback for CU in the last two years, posting combined numbers of 3,650 yards, 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions with a completion percentage of just 52.9. CU’s passer rating over the past two years is 108.04 – well below the 160.4 posted by Sanders last season.
CU needs Sanders not only to be good, but to stay healthy, because the Buffs don’t have experience behind him.
Aside from Sanders, the only other scholarship quarterbacks on the roster are true freshmen Ryan Staub and Kasen Weisman. Staub enrolled in January and went through spring practices, perhaps giving him a leg up in the competition for the No. 2 spot.
In working with Sanders and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Sean Lewis this spring, Staub said in April, “My knowledge of the game has massively increased. I think going from high school where stuff is pretty basic to college football under coach Lewis, my knowledge of the game has gone through the roof and I’m still learning. I’ve still got to learn a lot. A lot of room to learn and grow.”
Position: Quarterbacks
Returners: None.
Transfers: Shedeur Sanders, Jr.
True freshmen: Ryan Staub, Kasen Weisman
Walk-ons: Gavin Kuld, Jr.; Colton Allen, R-Fr.
Key losses: Owen McCown (transferred to UTSA); JT Shrout (transferred to Arkansas State)