Keeler: CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders set new bar in Boulder. Will Julian Lewis rise to meet it?

The touchstone wore diamonds and spun gold. Shedeur Sanders, the greatest pure passer to ever run behind Ralphie, takes a CU snap for the last time Saturday night. Flex your watches accordingly.

“I don’t see how you don’t consider him the best QB that ever played at CU outside of Darian Hagan, because (Hagan) got the national championship,” former Buffs QB Steven Montez, no slouch himself, told me recently when the conversation shifted to Shedeur. “I feel that Hagan having won the national championship, he’ll probably always be No. 1 in my mind.

“And then after that, there are some other names in there. Kordell Stewart is someone I think about when I think of all-time (best). But don’t get me wrong, Shedeur is absolutely up there.”

The son of CU coach Deion Sanders split the difference between John Elway and Harry Houdini, a dash of Patrick Mahomes with a pinch of Harry Potter.

You’ll miss the way he painted the corners like Greg Maddux. The way he made third-and-forevers look like layups, a skill you took for granted — until a Buffs bye week, when 99.8% of Sanders’ peers tripped all over themselves trying to do the same.

He was bruised. He was beaten. He was unbowed. Shedeur’s only weakness was occasionally playing the hero for a second or two too long. The only assured way to beat him was to take the rock, run it and hog it until the clock mercifully ran out. Any time was too much time.

“Yeah,” Stewart, another Buffs giant, told me earlier this fall, chuckling like a proud uncle. “I’ve got some company.”

Julian Lewis, CU’s key high school get from the Class of ’25 and one of the best prep QBs in the country, has been practicing with the Buffs during their Alamo prep, a taster for what’s to come.

Like Sanders, he’s been raised for massive moments and big stages. But fair or not, every Buffs signal-caller from now on will feel the shadow of No. 12 looming. Starting with Ju Ju.

Shedeur would’ve completed that.

Shedeur would’ve seen the rusher.

Shedeur would’ve kept the play alive.

Shedeur would’ve scored.

The younger Sanders is one passing touchdown at the 2024 Alamo Bowl away from tying Montez and Cody Hawkins for CU’s all-time, lifetime record of 63 scores. Hawkins did it in 45 games; Montez in 47.

Sanders is about to do it in 24.

“I will say this: (Shedeur) has shown how resilient he is, considering some of the things I’ve heard him speak on,” Stewart continued.

“Shedeur has proven himself to be a top-notch quarterback. If not the best, one of the best two or three quarterbacks in all of college football. And, of course, it’s about winning, right? … When you win, it makes all of what he’s doing right now to be more worthy. (It helps him) to be recognized, respected, appreciated and most importantly, identified as one of the top quarterbacks in this (draft) that’s coming up.”

The Giants (2-13) need Shedeur. The Raiders (3-12) covet him. He’ll be long gone by the seventh pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, another CU first.

Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, only five Buffs players have been drafted to play QB at the next level. Koy Detmer was the last, in 1997, and he waited until the seventh round. Stewart, a second-round pick tapped by Pittsburgh with pick No. 60 in 1995, was the highest.

“He’s just so cool and calm in that pocket,” Montez gushed. “And when he steps up, it’s trouble for the defense because somebody’s running open downfield. You get Travis (Hunter) or Jimmy Horn Jr. the ball, no matter where you’re at on the field, they’ve got a chance to go all the way. It looks really easy for him.”

The impossible looked routine. You’ll miss that, too. Legends, like diamonds, are forever.

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