How Deion Sanders is culling the Colorado herd with massive team makeover

Deion Sanders has a math problem to solve sometime in the coming weeks.

By NCAA rule, the University of Colorado head football coach is limited to 85 scholarship players per year. But he wanted to bring in dozens of new players as part of his plan to supercharge his roster after being hired at the school in early December.

He’s already signed 42 newcomers and has hinted he wants to bring in even more.

So what does he do with the 51 active players this spring who were already there before he was?

How many does he want to cull from the Buffaloes’ herd?

"We don’t weed anyone out; they weed themselves out," Sanders said Monday.

When he first met those players in December, he told them, "We're going to try to make you quit."

Those are the same players who went 1-11 last season.

And now comes their reckoning as the Buffs conclude the spring practice season Saturday with a sold-out intrasquad game at Folsom Field. Sanders said Monday the game will not just be another opportunity for players to prove themselves on a big stage. More recruits will be visiting this weekend who could replace them now or next year.

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"This weekend is going to be phenomenal," Sanders said. "It’s going to be a lot of ‘24 players as well as guys that … we’re going to sign right now and hope to sign and hope to get a commitment when they come on the trip and see how beautiful this city is and this university is. We’re happy."

What is going on here?

This is part of arguably the most significant college football roster overhaul of the offseason in terms of the severity and scope of the change. After getting blown out in nearly every game last year, Colorado has the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class of transfers for 2023, according to 247Sports. Fourteen four-year college transfers and seven graduate transfers enrolled and have nearly completed their first set of spring practices.

Now more could be coming – and going. Players are eligible to enter the spring transfer portal in football, which opened Saturday, until April 30.

Sanders and his staff have been evaluating players this spring as part of an effort to decide how much further they can improve the roster.

The depth of his makeover could be unprecedented considering that before 2021, players generally were not allowed to transfer to another school without first sitting out a year of competition. Colorado also has eased academic restrictions that previously hindered their ability to transfer there.

"We’re not upset that anybody jumped in the portal and left, OK?" Sanders told reporters. "And we’re elated (with) the young men that we have coming in, because they’re difference-makers."

Some are already leaving

Nikko Reed started every game last year as a sophomore cornerback but didn’t see a future for himself at Colorado and recently announced he has entered the transfer portal. Competition was going to be stiff at his position, with the addition of Travis Hunter and Cormani McClain, the No. 1 cornerback recruits in the nation in 2022 and 2023, according to 247Sports.

"I am still confident in what Coach Prime and the new coaching staff will do for the Colorado Buffaloes, but I am sad to say that I will not be apart of it," Reed wrote in a post on Twitter Saturday.

After the transfer portal opened again Saturday, several other players from last year’s  team announced they planned to leave, including defensive tackle Tyas Martin and running back Jayle Stacks. The latter also faced heightened competition at his position with graduate transfer Kevosiey Smoke scheduled to join the program this summer from Kentucky.

"I think it’s going to help it for sure turn the program around," Smoke said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. "It’s going to help with recruiting too, as long as we win. Colorado is going to stay on the map. I feel like it’s not really a challenge. It’s an opportunity."

Former Minnesota and Old Dominion defensive end Deeve Harris feels the same way. On Saturday he announced he was transferring to Colorado. “We coming,” said the picture he posted on Twitter of himself and Sanders.

Of those players who said they planned to leave, Sanders noted they made their decisions before a sold-out spring game on national television.

"We don’t make them quit," he said. "They quit. I don’t want to say quit. They jump in the transfer portal. You call that what you want before a nationally televised game, before a sellout crowd. You call that what you want."

What is the impact of this overhaul so far?

On the field, Sanders required his players to practice this spring with blank jerseys until they “earned” their preferred jersey numbers. After several practices, the first three players to earn their jersey numbers were all new transfer players – receiver Jimmy Horn (South Florida), defensive lineman Shane Cokes (Dartmouth) and Hunter (Jackson State).

"Those three guys, they’re ballers," Sanders said earlier this month. Hunter was the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit in 2022. On Monday Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, said Hunter "is better than I was at this age and stage."

Sanders’ son Shedeur also is the team's top quarterback after transferring from Jackson State, where Sanders previously coached.

Off the field, the roster overhaul has fueled hope and helped drive demand for merchandise and tickets. The spring football game is sold out at about 45,000, smashing Colorado’s previous spring game record of 17,800 in 2008. ESPN will televise it nationally as the only college spring football on its main network. Sanders also announced Monday that the school had sold out of season tickets for the first time in 27 years.

"He’s trying make people tough," said Hunter, who has worked on offense this spring as a receiver. "He want everybody to be tough and let everybody know we’re going to win games."

How much of his roster will be new?

It will be at least half by the fall but could creep up to near 70%, or 60 of 85 players, depending on what they find in the portal market.

Asked Monday what specific positions he’s targeting in the transfer portal, Sanders said “everything. Every group.”

Why is Deion Sanders doing this?

He wants to win now, not have an old-fashioned three-year rebuilding process. This is possible in the transfer portal era, which allows players to come and go freely. In this case, he does want some players to transfer out, as he said in his first team meeting in December.

"I want you all to get ready to go ahead and jump in that (transfer) portal," he said then.

Sanders hasn’t named names, but he’s dropped hints that the players he inherited don’t measure up to his standards.

On Monday, he was asked what has surprised him about his team, good or bad. He seemed to reference the state of the team he inherited but didn’t say so outright.

"I can’t say it," he said. "A whole lot has surprised me, but I can’t speak on that. I’m a head coach."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deion Sanders leading Colorado football makeover with transfer portal