One week before college football's Early Signing Day and Deion Sanders is set to sign his worst high school class yet in Boulder. Colorado currently has only 10 commitments in its 2026 class, which ranks 99th in the composite and is next-to-last in the Big 12.
With Colorado sitting at 3-8 heading into the final game of the season, that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that Sanders is going to be able to turn things around anytime soon. His reliance on the Transfer Portal has been hit or miss, with the Buffs taking some significant misses this season that led to the team tumbling toward the bottom of the Big 12.
Coach Prime has frequently defended his recruiting practices and doesn't believe it's time to sound the alarm even after a wave of recent decommitments from some of Colorado's top commitments.
"Check the statistics," Sanders said this week. "You get 30 (recruits), are they going to be here in two years? Check the statistics so when I talk to you you understand what I'm saying and the method to my madness. Nowadays, if kids aren't playing by that second spring of that second go-around, they're out."
Of course, that makes little sense considering you are still going to see roster attrition of young players entering the Transfer Portal, no matter how many you sign. You still have to fill out the roster, and taking fliers on young talent to do so makes more sense than an over-reliance on the portal.
There's direct evidence of the success Coach Prime has had recruiting high schoolers. It cannot be ignored.
Rivals recruiting expert Josh Newberg was quick to point it out on social media in response to the recent comments made by Sanders.
Josh Newberg drops the mic on Deion Sanders for recruiting philosophy
I know @JakeDNVR will call me crazy for this take, but it's been disappointing to see coach Prime's recruiting at CU. I really thought he'd come in and disrupt the way things had been done and I thought top players would want to go to CU to play for Prime.
— Josh Newberg (@josh_newberg) November 25, 2025
Newberg is correct in his stance. The best players Coach Prime has had at Colorado were recruited out of high school. While Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter were technically Transfer Portal additions by the Buffs, Sanders landed them out of high school at Jackson State.
It's why this newfound reliance on the portal has made little sense. It's foolish at best, and outright lazy at worst.
Sanders has faced criticism over his lack of traveling to visit recruits in their homes. He has stated before that he didn't like that aspect when he was a recruit, but it's clear that his current strategy isn't working.
Sanders has the ability to be one of the elite recruiters in college football. He's a great salesman, and it's hard not to buy into what he's saying when you listen to him talk. If he took that on the road and invested into it, the Buffs would be signing Top 10 classes every single cycle.
Instead, Colorado is about to sign a small class and hope to strike gold in the portal. Another swing-and-miss this offseason in roster building could spell the end of the Coach Prime era.