Getty Colorado head coach Deion Sanders on the field pre game
Head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, Deion “Coach Prime’ Sanders, does things differently from others in college football. He is also not afraid to defend his decisions, something he did when his recruiting strategy was addressed.
During the March 20 Colorado spring ball media day, Coach Prime answered questions from the media, mainly on the roster. However, near the end of the 26 minutes he was seated, Sanders addressed a past written article.
The article on USA Today mentioned the unique recruiting strategy, claiming Sanders had no in-home recruiting visits as Colorado’s head coach. The number was used alongside others like previous Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who made over 100 in-home visits from Dec 1, 2022.
In typical fashion, amongst all the other pushback against the article, he delivered a quote in the style only Coach Prime could.
“I’ve really pretty much done a personal survey. I really truly in all my heart believe, parents don’t want me at their house,” Sanders said. “They want to come see my house. They want to see how I live, how I get down”
Sanders also spoke about being a businessman, trying to save the university money at every chance. Not travelling on the road to meet high school recruits would do that.
Sanders Approach is Different When Roster Building
In his 14 months as head coach of Colorado, Sanders has done things differently when building the team roster
With the new era of how college football players can transfer, Sanders has taken advantage of the new rules. In 2023, Colorado had the number 1 ranked transfer portal class, per 247 Sports. Fast forward to this year’s class, they were ranked number 6, combining 76 total players transferring into Boulder over the two seasons.
Sanders has spoken before about moving away from recruiting high school players. He believes the way high school recruits look at how they commit to schools is not always with playing time in mind. With NIL, another new piece in the ever-changing college environment, players have different alignments in why they choose to commit to schools. That’s why his decision is to lean more on experienced players from the transfer portal.
“Unlеss thеy’rе rеally maturе or thеy can flat out ball, I gеt thеm out of thе portal. Bеcausе I alrеady know thе rights, thе wrongs, thе lеfts, and thе mistakеs that hе’s madе” Sanders said when speaking on RG3 and The Ones on Jan 18.
It doesn’t mean he has shut the door on high school recruiting. Despite ranking bottom of the Big 12 in the 2024 recruiting class per 247 Sports, Sanders still pulled in some high recruits. As well as two 4-star recruits, Colorado grabbed a commitment from the number one offensive tackle in the class, 5-star Jordan Seaton.
It’s a different approach to other teams in college football. However, teams like Ole Miss and Louisville have benefited over the last two seasons.
Will We See Further Progression From Colorado In Year 2?
Colorado returned many of last season’s starters, including Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. The Buffaloes were ranked 15 in returning talent by Bill Connelly of ESPN.
Sanders has also brought in two new coordinators as they return to the Big 12 Conference. Pat Shurmur will be the offensive coordinator, who called plays for Colorado in the final four games of the 2023 season. Robert Livingstone, who previously was the safeties coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, will take the defensive coordinator job in Boulder.
With experienced coaching and players familiar with playing under Sanders, the expectation is for improvement in year 2. However, despite the strong start last season, we saw that the Colorado team were still a work in progress.
Moving conferences from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 gives Colorado a slightly more favourable schedule. The expectation could be higher for Sanders in 2024, with a handful of his game-changing players potentially departing.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Heavy
