Julian Lewis Struggles Early as Deion Sanders’ Colorado Opens Make-or-Break Year at Georgia Tech

Deion Sanders’ third season at Colorado is off to a shaky start. The Buffaloes opened their 2026 campaign Thursday night on the road against Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium, and it took all of one series for the pressure of a make-or-break year to show up on the scoreboard. Redshirt freshman Julian Lewis, the five-star recruit tasked with reviving Colorado’s offense, misfired on his first extended look under the lights, while Georgia Tech leaned on transfer running back Justice Haynes to seize early momentum in Atlanta.

Colorado enters 2026 needing a real turnaround after stumbling to a 3-9 finish a year ago, a collapse that turned Sanders’ third year in Boulder into a referendum on the program’s direction. Gone is the offense built around Shedeur Sanders and a wide receiver room led by Travis Hunter; in its place is a rebuilt attack under new offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, who installed his high-tempo “Go-Go” system around Lewis, and a defense now run by new coordinator Chris Marve. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, is breaking in its own new starter at quarterback in Alberto Mendoza after Haynes King departed for the NFL, but the Yellow Jackets clearly intended to lean on the ground game early with Haynes, a Michigan transfer, touching the ball on their opening possession.

Julian Lewis Struggles Out of the Gate

Lewis, an 18-year-old former five-star recruit out of Carrollton, Georgia, was making his first true test as a starter after appearing in four games late last season, when he completed 52-of-94 passes for 589 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. The homecoming narrative made for a compelling storyline given Lewis grew up less than an hour from Bobby Dodd Stadium, but the results through the opening stretch were rocky. Colorado went three-and-out on its first two possessions, and Lewis was 3-of-6 for just 18 yards early, including two deep shots off play-action that sailed well beyond his intended targets. Georgia Tech’s defensive front, meanwhile, stuffed Colorado’s run game on back-to-back snaps and forced an incompletion to end one short-lived drive, with defensive back Tae Harris recording multiple tackles on the possession.

On the other side, Georgia Tech wasted little time getting Haynes going. The Yellow Jackets’ opening drive featured Haynes carrying the ball on five of the possession’s plays for 26 yards, adding a four-yard catch out of the backfield before the drive stalled into a field goal for an early lead. It was the exact kind of early physicality Sanders has said Colorado needs to match if the Buffaloes want to avoid another long season — last year’s corresponding opener ended in a 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech, and an 0-1 start would put Colorado right back in familiar territory.

A Season Opener With a Courtroom Subplot

The Colorado program’s Week 1 storyline stretched well beyond the field this week. Deion Sanders’ son, Shilo Sanders, has been in a Denver bankruptcy courtroom since Monday fighting to have an $11.89 million judgment against him discharged, stemming from a 2015 incident with a former security guard at his high school. Shilo testified this week that he was the one attacked, not the aggressor, contradicting the 2022 ruling against him. A federal bankruptcy judge ordered Deion Sanders to make himself available for potential rebuttal testimony via Zoom on Friday afternoon, one day after Colorado’s trip to Atlanta — a scheduling wrinkle that had Sanders’ attorney publicly pushing back on any request for him to appear before Thursday’s kickoff. Whether the Colorado coach is actually called to the stand depends on what topics come up in the trial’s closing stretch.

For bettors who tracked the line into Thursday night, Georgia Tech opened as roughly a 6.5-point favorite with an over/under near 51.5, reflecting oddsmakers’ uncertainty about two offenses breaking in new quarterbacks and new schemes simultaneously. Anyone shopping college football odds ahead of kickoff saw a number that acknowledged Colorado’s talent question marks after last year’s exodus of stars, but also Georgia Tech’s own transition away from a 463-yard rushing performance that Haynes King put up in this exact matchup a season ago.

What’s Next for Colorado

Regardless of how Thursday’s opener finishes, the stakes for the rest of Colorado’s season are not going away. A 3-9 finish last year left little margin, and the pairing of a true freshman quarterback with two new coordinators means growing pains were always going to be part of the equation in Year 3 of the Coach Prime era. Marion’s up-tempo system is designed to eventually create explosive plays once Lewis settles in, and Marve’s defense will be tested immediately against a Georgia Tech backfield built around Haynes’ between-the-tackles running style.

The broader college football world will be watching how quickly Colorado’s new pieces come together, particularly with a manageable-but-unforgiving non-conference and Big 12 schedule still ahead. A slow start against a Power Four opponent on the road is not the ideal follow-up to last year’s disappointment, but Sanders has built a career on turning programs around under a spotlight — and this week, in more ways than one, the spotlight has never been brighter.