Colorado QB JT Shrout plans to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

Head coach Deion Sanders pointed to his son Sheduer Sanders and named him Colorado’s starting quarterback during the Dec. 4 introductory press conference, creating speculation about the Buffs’ off-and-on starter, J.T. Shrout’s, next move.

With Sanders penciled in as the starter and two three-star 2023 quarterbacks, Kasen Weisman and Ryan Staub, added to the room, only backup Drew Carter and Shrout remained from the 2022 roster. However, Shrout is set to enter the portal after announcing his decision Tuesday leaving just Carter (and walk-on Colten Allen) at CU as Brendon Lewis (Nevada), Owen McCown (UTSA) and Maddox Kopp (Miami (Ohio)) also entered the portal earlier in the offseason.

Colorado now has a total of five quarterbacks on its roster and the backup position is up for grabs. Carter could claim QB2, but on Sanders’ team, he’ll likely want to appoint a different player.

Shrout has the potential to apply for a medical redshirt after he experienced a season-ending knee injury in 2021 and also redshirted in 2018 at Tennessee, but as of now, he has at least one more year of eligibility.

Last season, CU’s quarterback situation was ever changing. Lewis and Shrout competed for the starting role early on. Both shared time at TCU, where Shrout appeared to be the better QB leading to him earning a start against Air Force. Shrout completed 5 of 21 passes for 51 yards resulting to the Lewis-Shrout competition returning against Minnesota.

True freshman Owen McCown emerged at the end of the Minnesota game throwing for more yards (52) than Shrout and Lewis combined in the last four minutes, putting Shrout and Lewis into backup roles.

The hectic season continued with the firing of Karl Dorrell after the Arizona game and new interim head coach Mike Sanford kept McCown at the top of the depth chart going into the Cal game. McCown absorbed a hard hit midway through that contest, which brought Shrout back into the spotlight to claim CU’s first win of the season.

From then on Shrout started and competed against some of the toughest teams in the conference, but his final snaps in black and gold came against Washington and he came out with a minor leg injury.

Shrout spent two seasons with the Buffs, one spent healing from injury and the other riding the tumultuous rollercoaster that was CU’s 2022 season. He finished his career at Colorado with a 44% completion rate (90-203) with 1,220 yards, seven touchdowns and eight interceptions.