Colorado football has contingency plan for Bishop Thomas after DT's suspension

As BuffsBeat's Josh Tolle relays, Coach Prime's Colorado football program has a contingency plan for suspended DT Bishop Thomas doesn't return to the Buffs in time for CU's spring game in April: deploying the deep transfer class Deion Sanders' coaching staff brought in this offseason.

"If Thomas isn't ready to go for Spring Ball, the Buffs were able to secure another four high-quality talents on the defensive line during the open window period for the portal," Tolle prefaced before saying, "This included a pair of four-star players with LSU's Quency Wiggins and Pittsburgh's Samuel Okunlola announcing they were Boulder bound."

As the "Coach Prime" Amazon documentary series revealed, Thomas is still being evaluated by the Buffs coaching staff after the FSU transfer violated team conduct rules.

One of Bishop Thomas's main recruiters left Colorado football

One of the primary recruiters who reeled Bishop in from Tallahassee, Charles Kelly, -- as Ralphie Report's Jeff Hauser pointed out -- left Colorado on December 30 to join Hugh Freeze's Auburn Tigers staff on the Plains.

"Thomas along with defensive back Omarion Cooper, edge rusher Derrick McLendon and linebacker Brendan Gant are the four new CU transfers from FSU. Deion Sanders went there, sure, but Charles Kelly also worked there for years and knows Florida well, and David Kelly on staff served as Willie Taggart’s director of player personnel at Florida State."

Thomas's future could go one of two ways.

Either he can rise up over the criticism from Coach Prime and become a featured contributor for the Buffs, or he can let his talent go by the wayside and ride the pine, unable to prove himself in the "Prime Time" spotlight like former Tennessee LB Juwan Mitchell.

Being that he's still on the team and hasn't been dismissed like the 50+ players Coach Prime dismissed from the 2022 team, there's still hope the former situation occurs in 2024.