Colorado football recruiting: 2024 and 2025 classes ‘paying attention’

The 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes are “paying attention” to what Coach Prime is building with the Colorado football program according to ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren — with Deion Sanders’ no-nonsense disciplinarian attitude being particularly attractive to the parents of recruits.

“Sanders has had stunning recruiting wins the past two cycles, flipping elite playmakers and using the transfer portal to bring 86 new players into the program in one offseason,” VanHaaren prefaced before saying, “When Sanders was at Jackson State from 2020-2022, he flipped five-star cornerback Travis Hunter from Florida State on national signing day in the 2022 cycle. He did it again in 2023 when he got five-star defensive back Cormani McClain to Colorado from Miami.

“Recruits from the 2024 and 2025 classes and their parents are paying attention. Not just to the hype, but to the no-nonsense, disciplinarian coach at the center of the process and the two-time consensus All-American, two-time Super Bowl winner and Pro and College Football Hall of Famer who has succeeded in every part of the sport.”

Colorado football target: Recruits are drawn to Coach Prime

Statesboro, Georgia recruit Kamron Mikell shared his opinion that Coach Prime is magnetic to recruits around the country, while also acknowledging that his own mother came away impressed with Sanders.

“He’s just a laid-back person, he just talks about life. He said [on a visit], ‘Don’t lie to a kid,’ and that really made my mom smile,” Mikell said. “I think recruits are drawn to him, because people see him as somebody who turns us kids into believers and he makes everyone believe in themselves.”

Featuring kids from talent-rich areas like Florida, Texas, Florida, and Alabama, Coach Prime’s first Colorado football roster certainly proves Mikell’s words as true; particularly considering a good deal of them had followed Sanders to FCS Jackson State during their initial high school recruitment, and others came from proven programs like Alabama and FSU to join a Buffs program that has struggled to keep up in the College Football Playoff era.