Deion Sanders lost several coaches this offseason from his Colorado football coaching staff, including Phil Loadholt and Vincent Dancey. After Loadholt helped reel in the Buffs' No. 1 recruit from their 2024 class, Jordan Seaton, hearing about his loss stung for CU fans.
But as USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer explained, Colorado's offensive line was actually a weak link in 2025.
"Much of the trouble with the running game and in the Alamo Bowl involved blocking. Deion Sanders made it an obvious priority to overhaul his offensive line after his team gave up the second-most quarterback sacks in the nation in 2023 (56). He brought in nine transfers and the top offensive tackle recruit in the nation as a freshman: Jordan Seaton, who started every game at left tackle and will only get better as a sophomore in 2025," Schrotenboer wrote.
"But the Buffs still gave up 43 sacks, the most in the Big 12. Of those nine transfers on the offensive line, few panned out over the course of the full season because of injuries or substandard play. They had to reshuffle their line often because of that, raising questions about whether Sanders can solve this issue with more newcomers and reshuffling in 2025."
Several down games, most notably the Alamo Bowl against BYU and a Week 2 matchup in Lincoln against Nebraska, bring the OL's body of work down as a whole. But those showings were brutal, and show that the line never grew together like they should.
Loadholt was a great recruiter, but Sanders needs to find someone who can establish a brick wall in front of Kaidon Salter or Julian Lewis -- or, if Coach Prime deploys a two-QB system, both.
Basically, find someone who brings an intensity to the OL that Warren Sapp brought to the DL in a GA role.