Deion Sanders‘ overhaul of the Colorado football roster following his December 3 hiring was done partly “by force” according to OutKick’s Grayson Weir — who, to be fair, prefaced that by acknowledging a good bit of it happened “organically.”
“Part of the rebuilding process happened organically. A record number of players entered the transfer portal and left the Buffaloes program, which allowed Sanders and his staff to bring in their own guys,” Weir prefaced before saying, “Part of the rebuilding process happened by force. Sanders made it abundantly clear that nothing was going to be given, and presumably processed out (at least) a few players to get things how he wants them.”
Weir is right. And what of it? Sanders was never going to fall in line and do things the way it is usually done. He quite literally built a career on bucking the trend and spreading his talents across multiple sports, knowing his potential career earnings in football were limited to how long the game would allow his body to play. While Coach Prime hasn’t always come off as a loving person, he likely figured he was doing the kids he told to hit the transfer portal a favor by installing a chip on their shoulder the size of a literal boulder.
Colorado football roster overhaul could continue the sport’s transfer portal trend
One look at the 2022 transfer class rankings shows that some of the sport’s sleeping giants, including Pac-12 runner-up and near-College Football Playoff seed USC, and SEC West champion LSU, were able to parlay the top portal groups into success immediately. Even Ole Miss started the year off 7-0 before Lane Kiffin rumors bottomed out the Rebels. Let’s not forget that TCU brought in a first-year head coach Sonny Dykes, as well as 14 new recruits, en route to a College Football Playoff National Championship appearance, either.
Colorado brought in double the blue-chip recruits in 2023 that the Horned Frogs did in 2022. Do with that information as you will.
Glory Colorado is thinking that the sport could continue to shift in front of our eyes via a smash-mouth style of recruiting, coaching, and leadership only Coach Prime could deliver leading the charge with that information.