Rivals' national recruiting director Adam Gorney shared a strong message on Deion Sanders' focus in building his 2025 Colorado football recruiting class: Coach Prime is more locked in on high school than he has been the past two years.
“My biggest impression overall is that high school recruiting was taken a lot more seriously this year after he loaded up on the two portal classes (since 2023) and really got some elite players in this class,” Gorney told USA Today Sports. “It wasn’t just filling out a roster on top of the portal guys… Obviously, JuJu Lewis is the star of the show here."
As Gorney made clear, Julian Lewis's commitment was sealed because Coach Prime is changing the narrative and focusing on building Colorado's roster for the long-haul instead of a quick-fix to make the team competitive while his sons were on his team.
“For Deion to do this was huge, because I think he had to convince JuJu and his family that he was staying in Boulder,” Gorney said.
Coach Prime is still going to find vets in the transfer portal to build the bulk of his roster, but the 2025 class included some foundational pieces. Beyond Lewis, Chauncey Gooden, London Merritt, Adrian Wilson, Quanell X Farrakhan Jr., and Carde Smith all figure to be important players in the team's road to sustained success.
The portal additions will dictate whether this team can maintain a nine-win standard. But the incoming freshman could be the building blocks for a potential title team.
Seriously. College football has never been more wide open, and Sanders seems to know how to navigate NIL.