5-star quarterback, Julian Lewis, has been the prize of the USC Trojans 2025 recruiting class since last August. He actually began as the prize of the 2026 class before re-classifying to the ’25 class.
Since his commitment, the Carrollton, Georgia native has been a flip candidate for many major programs including Georgia, Auburn, and, most recently, Indiana and Colorado.
During his recruiting process, he has remained steadfast to Lincoln Riley and the Trojans, but he continued to take visits and has yet to officially shut down his recruitment, less than a month from early signing day.
We wrote just a week ago about the possibility of Lewis flipping to either Indiana or Colorado and why that was a real possibility simply due to playing time.
Tom Loy, 247 Sports National Recruiting Analyst, has been pretty adamant since Lewis first committed to SC that he would eventually flip. He has always had him flipping to a different school, and now he has just logged a Crystal Ball Prediction of Julian Lewis flipping his commitment to Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes.
Crystal Ball For Julian Lewis To Flip From USC Trojans To Colorado Buffaloes
While the optics of this would certainly look bad for USC and Lincoln Riley, it really might come down to one thing, playing time.
At Colorado, Lewis would almost undoubtedly be the Day 1 starter. At USC, that is no guarantee as Jayden Maiava was just handed the keys to the quarterback room, and has at least two years of eligibility remaining. Also, depending on whether Miller Moss ends up transferring, Riley would most likely add another QB to the room via the portal.
You still never want to lose a top prospect, especially one that is the face of your entire class and you have invested heavily in.
However, perhaps the Trojans brass could feel this potentially coming as Riley has seemed to garner more interest in local QB prospect Husan Longstreet.
The Texas A&M commit has not received an offer from USC, but if Lewis does indeed flip, the Trojans could have the benefit of being the hometown team as Longstreet plays at public powerhouse Centennial in Corona, CA.
And for those that don’t want to see this as a doomsday scenario, Ryder Lyons, the number two rated QB in the 2026 class, is heavily favored to commit to SC, and his brother, Walker Lyons, is already on the team.
It is going to be an interesting final few weeks before the early signing period in December.