Colorado coach Deion Sanders made waves with his rapid roster turnover last year, netting 72 new additions before his first season with the Buffaloes. Of those, 21 came from the high school ranks — a rather standard prep recruiting class in the modern age of college football. Following that tone-setting first offseason, the Buffaloes were relatively quiet this year.
With the dust settled following February’s traditional national signing day, a peek at Colorado’s class reveals Sanders and and his staff only signed seven high school players. It is by far the smallest recruiting class among power conference programs and sits at 117th in the 247Sports Team Composite — right behind the likes of Hawaii, Connecticut and Buffalo.
Don’t let the ranking fool you, though; Colorado eschewed quantity for quality. Four of the Buffaloes’ seven signees rate as four-star prospects. Three of those players sit inside the top 100, highlighted by five-star offensive lineman Jordan Seaton, who is the No. 1 interior offensive lineman and No. 13 overall prospect in his class.
This marks the second straight year that Sanders has signed a five-star prospect from the prep level. Still, no matter how impressive the list of names might be, a seven-player signing class is certainly strange. Let’s take a look at why Sanders may have taken such a light approach to high school recruiting, and whether the transfer-first method he often employs is a sustainable model.
Transfers take priority again
Even when Sanders was adding 70-plus new players to his roster, an overwhelming majority of those came from the transfer portal. A year after signing a robust 51 transfers in 2023, Colorado added just under half that number with 24 transfers headed to Boulder ahead…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/colorado-football-recruiting-national-signing-day-class-falls-flat-as-deion-sanders-doubles-down-on-transfers/
Author : Will Backus
Publish date : 2024-02-08 18:30:42
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