Deion Sanders has turned Colorado soccer right into a harmful program on the recruiting path, and he’s performed it with out having to go away Boulder.
Sanders, who took over the Buffaloes in 2022 after three seasons at Jackson State, shortly turned over the roster he inherited, bringing in a major variety of transfers. That development continued with Colorado’s class in 2023–24. The most recent class of latest Buffaloes options simply seven highschool recruits (together with five-star IMG Academy product Jordan Seaton) and a whopping 24 transfers.
Given his strategy to crew constructing, it isn’t an enormous shock that Sanders does issues otherwise in main his program. Even so, USA At this time‘s revelation that he hasn’t made a single in-home recruiting go to is fairly gorgeous.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports activities
The publication obtained data exhibiting that Coach Prime has not made a single off-campus contact with recruits since taking the job, regardless of having a $200,000 annual allowance for personal air journey for recruiting functions. That funds has gone unused.
The varsity confirmed each information to USA At this time in a February electronic mail.
Time will inform whether or not this strategy works for Sanders. Colorado’s 4–8 file in 2023 was a stark enchancment from the 1–11 mark a yr earlier than, however the crew hit a severe skid within the again half of the season after a 3–0 begin. Nevertheless, his transfer-heavy recruiting strategy didn’t undergo considerably coming into yr two, with considered one of nation’s prime teams of incoming transfers becoming a member of this system for the ’24 season. That group consists of gamers from applications like Alabama, LSU and TCU.
This can be a very totally different strategy from coaches reminiscent of Jim Harbaugh, who did quite a few in-home visits whereas at Michigan, going as far as to sleep on the home of former Michigan kicker Quinn Nordin in 2016. Whereas Harbaugh went past the norm that yr, in-home visits have lengthy been a means for coaches to show their curiosity degree to highschool gamers. Nevertheless, the recruiting panorama has modified dramatically lately, and Sanders’s resolution to focus on older switch gamers could but pan out as he seems to be to make Colorado a contender within the Huge 12.
