05/14/24
August 30, 2023
Coach Prime Decimated the Roster in Colorado: Deion Sanders has 86 new players on his roster in Colorado including 53 incoming transfers, the most ever in college football. Only 10 scholarship athletes survived the purge. Former FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, a Sanders mentor who played under Alabama legend Paul "Bear" Bryant, said, "It reminded me so much of Coach Bryant. His deal was you get in or you get out. He wasn't going to have a meeting and try to encourage you to join his team."
The recruiting pitch may have more or less written itself and Sanders is a deeply compelling figure, but he and his staff still had to study a ton of other college rosters and HS talent and evaluate the existing squad, walk ons and projected non-scholarship players to figure out who they wanted on the team.
Or they're just winging it and going with the players and people that want to be on Team Prime
posted by NoMich at 03:47 PM on August 30, 2023
Most everything Deion does has at least a little bit of intrigue, but this should be a fascinating experiment. I wish the Buffaloes were (re)joining the Big 12 this season instead of next so I could keep a closer eye on how it plays out.
posted by Ufez Jones at 05:55 PM on August 30, 2023
It's interesting to see Colorado jumping back to the Big 12. When it left the Big 12 that conference seemed doomed. Now it's the same for the Pac-12.
Colorado was so bad that a total teardown seems appropriate. It appears that Sanders was blunt with athletes about where they stood soon after his arrival, which is more fair than a lot of college coaches have been.
I lived briefly in Denver in the 1990s when Colorado was good. The upside for Sanders is huge.
posted by rcade at 10:58 AM on August 31, 2023
Fittingly, it took 5 people to write the story.
What isn't talked about much is the sheer amount of scouting and evaluating that must have taken place to build a roster with that much overhaul and such exacting standards.
The recruiting pitch may have more or less written itself and Sanders is a deeply compelling figure, but he and his staff still had to study a ton of other college rosters and HS talent and evaluate the existing squad, walk ons and projected non-scholarship players to figure out who they wanted on the team.