Shortly after Colorado hired Brennan Marion as its new offensive coordinator in December, quarterback JuJu Lewis began his homework.
Marion is the architect of the Go-Go offense, a high-octane attack that features the run game and vertical passes downfield.
“Man, it looked beautiful to me,” Lewis said Wednesday after the Buffs’ second practice of spring drills.
Then, he started using the offense on an NCAA video game.
“You get on that NCAA playbook and you run it a couple times, you end up being like, ‘Oh goodness, what is it?’” Lewis said with a laugh. “But I mean, it’s going to be crazy, it’s exciting. I mean, coach Marion brought in that offense and I’m just blessed to run it.”
Now a redshirt freshman, Lewis is the odds-on favorite to be the Buffaloes’ starting quarterback this season. He got his feet wet last year by appearing in four games, including two starts. He completed 52 of 94 passes (55.3%) for 589 yards and four touchdowns.
“Honestly, it was a blessing,” he said of the game experience in 2025. “I mean, we all know I sat and waited last year for my turn, so getting the opportunity was big for me. Experience is big and going through this spring understanding what to look for … I mean a whole new coaching staff and all that, so I still had to adapt to some things, but just understanding spring football made it a lot better for me.”
Lewis doesn’t have the luxury of running the same offensive system he had a year ago under former coordinator Pat Shurmur. He’s also got a lot of new players around him, but the 18-year-old from Georgia has made significant strides from the time he arrived on campus about 14 months ago.
“Mentally,” he said of his biggest area of growth. “I mean, coach Marion brought in this Go-Go system and it’s been crazy to learn and try to read the defenses with all the progressions and things like that but honestly, it’s been awesome learning it.”
Although they’ve had just three months and two official practices together, Lewis said he’s developing a strong relationship with Marion, a former star receiver in college.
“Coach Marion is a great guy, great leader,” he said. “It’s always better coming from somebody with real football experience. So, knowing coach Marion was a receiver, just hearing his point of view coming from a receiver side, it doesn’t get any better than that. Knowing what he’s done with quarterbacks, you can’t really talk back to anything he says. You just got to listen and try to soak as much up as you can.”
In addition to Marion, the Buffs brought in Justin Houlihan as an analyst to work with the quarterbacks. He was a graduate assistant under Marion at Sacramento State last year. And, former UNLV quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams has mentored Lewis. Williams, who is also from the Atlanta area like Lewis, played in the Go-Go offense at UNLV in 2023 and 2024 while Marion was the offensive coordinator.
“I’ve known Hajj since I was six years old,” Lewis said. “He’s like a big brother to me. We grew up training together so bringing him in is, like I said, it’s kind of like having an older brother, somebody I can lean on and look for when I need a tip about coach Marion’s coaching. … Just having that right-hand guy who’s experienced it and understands the offense and you can hear it from a player, it feels good.”
With good resources at his disposal and strong talent around him, Lewis said it’s been a good offseason to this point, as the Buffs get rolling with spring.
“I mean, honestly, it’s been amazing,” he said. “We got a lot of guys with the same mindset. That makes practice a lot easier, makes bonding a lot easier when it’s a lot of guys that all have the same goals and we just want to win right now.”