Highlights of the Athletic article:
-Most of the 23 Colorado players who entered the transfer portal or announced plans to on Monday and Tuesday were told to do so, players say. A total of 51 Buffaloes have entered or said they plan to since the portal first opened in December – 46 since Sanders took over Dec. 2.
-“I’m bringing my luggage with me, and it’s Louis,” the Pro Football Hall of Famer famously told his team in their first meeting, referencing the luxury brand Louis Vuitton as a way of announcing better players would be joining the program. “I want y’all to get ready to go ahead and jump in that portal. … The more you jump in, the more room you make.”
Over the weekend, Sanders reiterated that Colorado would be making room for incoming transfers who Sanders has been chasing.
“You all know that we’re gonna move on from some of the team members, and we’re gonna reload and get some kids that we really identify with,” Sanders said after Saturday’s spring game. “So this process is gonna be quick, it’s gonna be fast, but we’re gonna get it done.”
“We’ve got to make some decisions,” Sanders continued. “That’s gonna be on me now.”
The Athletic reached out to dozens of Colorado’s transfers and spoke with five players who departed the program — three who left before Saturday and two who were cut on Sunday — to get a clearer picture of how the roster turnover has played out inside the Buffaloes program.
It was clear where Sanders and his staff were investing their efforts. A line emerged, players said, between the returning players and newcomers.
“None of the new coaches would talk to the old players and treat us the same as the people they brought in,” said tight end
Zach Courtney, who entered the transfer portal April 19. “The new guys wouldn’t be picked on as much in film. Coaches would tell them to just do better, but if it was an old player, they’d keep going off on what you did wrong and keep yelling about it.”
The five players
The Athletic spoke with relayed one consistent reality for players Sanders inherited: He spent little to no time coaching or speaking with them.
“I felt like he was more of a motivational speaker. He gives good advice, but he didn’t really talk to me once,” Courtney said. “I never really got to experience his coaching.”
“No relationship with him at all. I said what’s up to him a few times,” said Gray, who practiced with the second team before an injury during a scrimmage forced him to miss two days of spring practice. “I’m not sure he knew the names of half the kids he got rid of. He was worried about who he brought in. If you were on the 1-11 team, it seemed like he didn’t really care about us at all. He already said he was going to get rid of 25-30 of us, and that’s exactly what he did.”
-Eight Jackson State transfers were on Colorado’s spring roster. One is Sanders’ son,
Shedeur Sanders, who Sanders introduced as the starting quarterback at his introductory news conference. Another is Travis Hunter, the nation’s top-ranked recruit in the Class of 2022.
-So far, the Buffaloes have accepted 29 incoming transfers, some of whom practiced this spring, and more are expected to arrive this summer.
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Sanders elected to make players earn their jersey numbers in spring practice, with newcomer
Jimmy Horn Jr., a transfer receiver from USF, being the first player to be given his.
“Everything you do around here will be earned. We ain’t giving you nothing,” Sanders told the team, according to a video posted to YouTube this spring. “So you gotta go get it, and you gotta take it.”
- Cameras are common in the facility at practice, documenting the program for an upcoming reality show and a variety of YouTube channels that cover the program and players within it.
Added one player who is transferring and asked not to be identified so that he wouldn’t have trouble finding a new school: “Wherever the camera’s at, that’s where Deion is.”
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A recent NCAA rule change allows first-year coaches to cut players from the roster as long as they also honor their scholarships even though they’re no longer part of the football program. Asked about the rule, a Colorado spokesman said the university plans to honor all NCAA rules and bylaws.
It appears that all of the athletes "cut" from the program were given that option - most wanted to move on to play football somewhere.
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: Deion did this.
: How dare you follow Deion stuff.
