The Colorado Buffaloes’ season under first-year head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders came to an end on Saturday with a 23-17 loss to the Utah Utes.
In his postgame interview Sanders reiterated that the team’s 4-8 record isn’t something that they’ll hang their head about, and they know what they need to do to improve. It begins with recruiting, and getting the NIL collectives to become more active so they can compete for the best players.
Deion Sanders Losing Recruits
A pretty upbeat Sanders sounded like someone who’s ready for the challenge of building the Buffaloes programs brick-by-brick.
But that’s going to be hard to do if he keeps losing recruits. In all, Coach Prime has seen four prominent recruits decide to reopen their recruitment after verbally committing to the Buffaloes since Sanders arrived last December.
The first was 2025 four-star wide receiver Winston Watkins Jr., who de-committed on Nov. 12. That move sparked Sanders to make some comments that may have played a role in losing three more recruits recently.
Sanders Wants NCAA To Change Some Things
In a recent interview, Sanders mentioned that he believed the NCAA should stop allowing players who commit to a school to still take official visits and keep their options open.
“A kid ain’t even faithful to his girlfriend. You think he’s gonna be faithful to a school? Come on, man. That’s an emotional thing,” Sanders said.
“What I wish the NCAA would do, if you’re committed somewhere, you can’t go any other visits,” he continued. “If you’re committed, that means you’re committed. You can’t go on no other visits. Why would you be committed but you’re still letting kids go on other visits? That means you just playing.”
On Sunday 2025 four-star QB Antwann Hill, the No. 5 signal-caller in the class, reopened his commitment. He was followed by two more 2025 recruits, three-star quarterback Danny O’Neil and three-star running back Jamarice Wilder.
Deion Sanders Was The Flip King
It’s weird that Deion would complain about commits flipping when he snagged the top recruit in HBCU history, Travis Hunter, the same way. And Prime bragged about it and used it as an example of how he is able to lure and relate to recruits better than other Power 5 coaches.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Sanders seems a bit flustered.
Did Coach Prime’s comments play a role in those recent decommits?
Sure seems that way, and one thing Sanders must remember is today’s player loves to be courted, and that means taking all the official visits the NCAA permits. Also, if they’re forced to stay with a commitment, they can always transfer out and not have to sit out anymore. That means everything.
Love Sanders, but in a way it sounds like sour grapes because his recruits are looking elsewhere. That’s their right until they sign that national letter of intent.
Demoted OC Sean Lewis Departs
Adding insult to injury on Tuesday was former play-caller Sean Lewis, who was demoted in-season, took the head coach position at San Diego State, which in many ways is on par with Kent State where he left to join Sanders at Colorado.
He joins renowned tight ends coach Tim Brewster, who resigned Sunday morning after he was demoted to an off-field position to make room for Pat Shurmur to call plays.
A lot of moving and shaking going on in Boulder, and with the early signing period right around the corner, Sanders has some major work to do. With just nine recruits in the 2024 class, the pressure is on to add some quality pieces for next year’s team.
