Colorado football's 2023 recruitment and transfer breakdown

The GIST: The biggest story around recruitment and transfers this year is Colorado football. Thanks to a new HC and a completely revamped roster, the team that went 1-11 last season has higher expectations than Leslie Knope with a well-organized binder — but don’t call it a glow-up until the Buffs prove their chops on the gridiron.

How it started: Needing a major shake-up after an abysmal 2022–23 season, Colorado hired NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, aka Coach Prime, as their new HC following his wildly successful two years leading Jackson State. Sanders proved his mettle — especially in recruiting — by turning the HBCU program around, and Buffs fans’ hopes are now through the roof.

• Coach Prime promptly invited Colorado’s players to GTFO transfer, remaking the roster almost from scratch with his choice of portal players and new prospects. Sanders’ sometimes harsh words and unique style, though, are untested at this level.

• The scale of Colorado’s roster turnover is unheard of — 52 of the team’s 85 scholarship players hit the transfer portal within five months of Prime’s hiring — and the recruitment of Sanders’ own son rightfully raised eyebrows. Bold strategy…let’s see if it pays off.

The expectations: They couldn’t be higher. Folks are already betting on the Buffs to make the College Football Playoff, and CU season tickets are sold out for the first time since 1996. Ticket prices are even skyrocketing for their road games, too.

• Are they overhyped? Again, and we cannot stress this enough, Colorado only won one game last year, and they haven’t posted a winning season since 2005. But this is literally a whole new team, and Sanders knows how to draw top talent. Truth and time tell all.