Surprising transfer can be answer to Colorado football QB question in 2025 and beyond

Colorado football could be led under center by a surprising transfer who is showing out in fall camp with the second-stringers: Dominiq Ponder, a Bethune-Cookman transfer out of Miami Carol City in Opa Locka, Florida.

Ponder has been far more impressive than Vanderbilt's Walter Taylor, Kentucky's Destin Wade, and even second-year Buff Ryan Staub this summer and even forced a conversation on the DNVR Buffs podcast about whether Ponder can already be considered the answer for 2025.

“Never ever, ever let the quality of one player on your roster preclude you from recruiting another player at that position," Ryan Koenigsberg prefaced before saying, "Said it once, and will say it a million times. The coach’s job is to recruit a player better than the players on the roster. Players on the roster’s job is to make those coaches wrong. Rinse and repeat."

Colorado football still hasn't given up on recruiting Julian Lewis

Ponder isn't precluding the Buffs from recruiting Julian Lewis. That's for sure. Whether or not Colorado is able to land Lewis is the more pertinent question right now.

CU is the only team that has a realistic chance of flipping Lewis. But they're no guarantee to take him away from the City of Angels -- even if Lincoln Riley and the Trojans are in on 2025 QB Husan Longstreet, a possible sign they feel Lewis can flip.

If Lewis doesn't choose Boulder, you can't say the city didn't try. Lewis got his own burger from The Sink and the #WeWantJuJu hashtag went viral on social media. Unfortunately, USC's NIL money may go further in the Big Ten than what Colorado's boosters are willing to pay for.

If that's the case, perhaps it';; be Ponder who will lead the Buffs into the post-Shedeur era of "Prime Time."