No. 25 Arizona State faces Colorado on Saturday in Boulder, Colo., riding a two-game winning streak under veteran backup quarterback Jeff Sims, while the Buffaloes look to the future with freshman quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis.
Colorado (3-7, 1-6 Big 12) is assured of the second losing season in Deion Sanders’ three-year tenure as head coach following the 29-22 loss at West Virginia on Nov. 8.
A bright spot for the Buffaloes, who are on a three-game losing skid, was the play of Lewis in his first collegiate start against the Mountaineers.
He finished 22 of 35 for 299 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the ninth true freshman to start a game at quarterback for Colorado and the fifth since 2000.
The 299 passing yards were the second-most by a freshman in a starting debut, behind Sanders’ son, Shedeur Sanders, who passed for 510 yards against TCU in the 2023 season opener.
Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said Monday that Lewis’ performance with Colorado is indicative of high-caliber recruits wanting to play for Deion Sanders at Colorado.
He defended Deion Sanders’ performance as head coach by saying, “You know, he’s won 300 percent more games this year than the year before he took over? That’s pretty good. I think he’s done a great job there.”
Colorado was 1-11 in 2022, the season before Deion Sanders was hired.
“I haven’t forgotten how to coach in a year,” Sanders said Tuesday in his weekly press conference. “A lot of these wonderful coaches out there that’s not winning haven’t forgotten how to coach.”
Sims, a redshirt senior formerly of Georgia Tech and Nebraska, has led Arizona State (7-3, 5-2) to wins over Iowa State and West Virginia after Sam Leavitt suffered a season-ending foot injury in a loss to Houston on Oct. 25.
Against Iowa State and West Virginia, Sims passed for 384 yards while completing 32 of 52 passes with four touchdowns and an interception.
He rushed for 309 yards on 46 carries, including a 228-yard performance on 29 rushes against Iowa State.
