Anthony Wilson
High-end fashion tends to change every season, so perhaps that’s what’s happened in recent months at Colorado. Last year’s Louis Vuitton? Old news. Twenty-three of Dean Sanders‘2,023 additions left the program this spring, while the Buffaloes added six players (and counting) for what is already a 34-player transfer class.
This group of departures includes starters such as left tackle Salvador Washington. Includes key contributors like wide receiver Tar’Varish Dawson. It even includes signees from Sanders’ 2023 class like running back Dylan Edwards or cornerback Cormani McClain.
The Buffaloes saw 24 players enter the transfer portal since it opened on April 16th. Of those 26, all but 10 previously arrived at Colorado as a transfer. One of them, four-star tight end Chamon Metayer, arrived in January.
That’s the beginning and the depth going out the door. Let’s delve deeper into the transfer numbers:
- Colorado signed 72 new scholars in the class of 2023 (high school and transfers), with 61% of them no longer on the roster.
- Thirty-five of the team’s 51 transfers in the 2023 cycle are no longer on the roster, with 21 of them (43.1%) entering the portal over the winter or this spring.
- Ten members of Colorado’s 21-player high school class of 2023 (47.6%) have already entered the portal.
- It is worth mentioning again that Colorado is replacing its entire offensive line.
A year ago, when Sanders led a roster overhaul unlike anything we’d ever seen in college football – only 10 scholarship players returned from Colorado’s 2022 roster for 2023 — seemed like a bold but informed move, especially considering Colorado’s No. 1-ranked incoming transfer class nationally.
Not only could Sanders quickly rebuild his team with experienced pieces, but those players were also locked in long-term under old NCAA rules that prohibited underclassmen from transferring more than once without spending a year in residence.
That calculation changed in December when the NCAA lost a court case in West Virginia in which the judge issued a 14-day temporary restraining order against the NCAA that prevented it from enforcing its multi-time transfer rule. A few weeks later, the NCAA issued a memo telling schools that it had suspended its multi-time transfer rules for the rest of the 2023-24 academic year, which opened the door for all previous transfers to do so again. Colorado players took advantage.
The Buffaloes aren’t the only school affected by this, of course. Iowa I felt when you briefly added Kadyn Proctor in Alabamaonly for him to re-enter the transfer portal two months later. Louisville saw two recent high-profile transfers, running back Penny Boone and defensive end Tyler Baron, has already reached the portal. Louisville’s outgoing transfer count reached 30 on May 1, the date college football’s spring portal window closed. But no one was impacted more than Colorado, where more than 50% of the scholarship list was made up of transfers.
Could you argue that Colorado wanted to get rid of some players they are missing? Definitely. Sanders, like many college coaches, is not shy about cutting players, as recently detailed in an excellent story from The Athletic. Even a starter like Washington came under a lot of criticism this year when the Buffaloes’ offline came under fire. And some of those outgoing players have allowed the Buffaloes to sign a new wave of transfers this cycle, including seven four-star transfers.
“Some guys left the program that Colorado would like to have on its roster in 2024,” said Adam Munsterteiger, editor of 247Sports’ BuffStampede.com. “However, a lot of the guys who left wouldn’t be starters. It’s hard to maintain depth in the portal era. You have this revolving door with depth pieces. The overall picture still looks very promising for Colorado. There was an overreaction when the guys accessed the portal at the beginning of each portal window. Were they better off with a full talent at the end of each window?
Five former Buffaloes signed with Power Four teams this offseason. Three others will play at Oregon State, an independent in 2024. Many others will remain at the power-conference level. Many will also fall to the ground.
Did former high-ranking recruits like it? Myles Slusher It is Demouy Kennedy emerge as holders? No. But they stepped in at some key moments and could have contributed in 2024. That kind of natural progression — from talented reserve to contributor — defines the roster approach most programs take. Instead, the Buffaloes will once again introduce more than 40 new scholarship players.
It’s no surprise that two consecutive years of unrest have led to a strange cultural mix. An unfortunate consequence of The Athletic’s report was that one of the interviewees, former safety Xavier Smith, was attacked by quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Smith was signed by Colorado in 2022 under the regime of Karl Dorell, who missed that season due to injury. He transferred from Colorado in the spring of 2023, played a year at Austin Peay and is now at UTEP.
“Ion even remembers him. His brother had to be right in the middle at best.” Shedeur Sanders wrote, Republishing a quote graphic from Atlético detailing Smith’s comments about Colorado.
Scotty Walden, who coached Smith at Austin Peay and will do the same again at UTEP, defended Smith at X.
“He’s far from soft. He’s a great kid/player and led us to the conference title,” Walden tweeted. “He answered a question honestly in an interview and was just giving his opinion. He was a freshman (All-American) and has an extremely bright future on and off the field. .”
Maybe the NCAA rules change will end up being a positive for Colorado, allowing Sanders a second chance at a big reset for a team coming off a 4-8 campaign that was fun for a month but ultimately disappointing. Unquestionably, new additions like running back Dallan Hayden and offensive lineman Rayyan Buell make the Buffaloes better. Early win totals for Colorado are 4.5 at some sportsbooks, and of course it will be a different kind of path in the new-look Big 12: less elite weekly competition, but arguably with better depth.
But these additions didn’t have to be mutually exclusive to keep talent on the roster. Mostly, it seems like last year’s designer clothes that would have remained in rotation are able to just walk out the door and find a new home.
A roster shakeup unlike anything we’ve seen in college football continues.
