The NCAA's all-time leader in passing touchdowns (155), passing yards (19,217), and pass completions (1,546) and current Houston Texans backup quarterback Case Keenum strongly endorsed first-year full-time Colorado football offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur after Keenum's former head coach with the Minnesota Vikings was promoted from co-OC last season.
"He was great, I love coach Shurmur," Keenum told The Coloradoan on January 17. "He challenged me in the meeting room, film room and made sure I was on my toes with being ready to go and that was, honestly, before I was even starting. No matter who it was on the roster, he was coaching us up and having us prepared.
"We did a great job communicating as a play caller, what he expected on certain plays, and we gelled pretty quickly."
Getting into more specifics, Keenum talked about how Shurmur's game-planning will benefit Shedeur Sanders.
"He does an incredible job of tailoring the offense to whoever it is (at QB)," Keenum said of Shurmur. "He's been at a lot of places, called a lot of big games in big situations and run a lot of different types of offenses.
"Having his finger on the pulse of what the NFL is doing and where it's going, it's obviously turned into a thrower's league, being able to know what's coming and what defenses are doing in college, it's going to be priceless for a guy like Shedeur and that transition of making a jump to the next level."
Pat Shurmur hired as Colorado football OC to develop Shedeur Sanders
While some fear what Shurmur may do to Shedeur's development, the truth of the matter is that this move is designed almost solely to have Coach Prime's son ready for the NFL in 2025 and beyond. As the missed team practice from Shedeur and Shilo Sanders showed, there are different goals for everyone on the Buffs' roster.
Shurmur could have a short leash if his schemes are doing damage to Shedeur's draft stock, though.