Mike Farrell of the Mike Farrell Sports brand called Coach Prime's Colorado football roster-building process -- one that is almost entirely focused on the transfer portal after signing just five high school recruits during Early Signing Day -- is a "recipe for disaster."
"It’s just not going to work for Deion Sanders at Colorado," Farrell prefaced before saying, "Call me what you want and cry if you will, but this isn’t the way to build a program in college football. Reliance on the portal instead of building culture from the ground up is a recipe for disaster.
"I know what the Deion defenders will say. We are in a new age of college football with the transfer portal and NIL and Coach Prime is doing things his way. And that’s all fine and dandy, but signing five recruits out of high school in the 2024 class is simply a massive mistake. Deion has 16 commits already on the portal this cycle after 51 last year and it’s simply the lazy approach to building a roster. Of course there wasn’t a ton of talent left after a 1-11 season and Coach Prime improved his team to 4-8 this season which is even better than I expected but this portal approach is just naive and ignorant and an attempt to take a shortcut that just won’t work."
Coach Prime is running out of time to make something of Colorado football
Coach Prime has not had a winning attitude when it comes to college football. Not hopping on planes to visit recruits at their homes or schools, not meeting with boosters and having a defiant "I don't need that" attitude, and claiming that Colorado isn't an ATM is the absolute wrong attitude to have.
We know Deion Sanders has the pull to bring on blue chips like Travis Hunter and Cormani McClain, but as he continues to rely on the transfer portal for his offensive line, Coach Prime is running out of time to build something sustainable past the 2024 season.