Stanford lineman describes Deion Sanders' Colorado transfer players as 'mercenaries'

Deion Sanders’ approach to roster-building heading into his first season at Colorado drew significant attention and criticism nationally.

Some of those critiques apparently go beyond pundits and opposing coaches.

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Following his team’s 46-43 double-overtime victory against Colorado in Week 7, Stanford offensive lineman Fisher Anderson described the Buffaloes as “mercenaries” in a post Saturday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Good always wins out, no matter how bleak it looks,” Anderson wrote. “When coach [Troy] Taylor got hired, he told everyone to stay and believe; Coach prime told everyone to leave. We are program builders; they are mercenaries. I believe in Stanford football; you should too.”

The Friday matchup between Colorado and Stanford presented a contrast in team construction in the modern age of one-time immediate eligibility for transfers.

While Taylor, who is in his first year at Stanford after being hired away from Sacramento State, brought aboard just five transfers to the Cardinal for the 2023 season, Sanders added nearly 60 transfers after arriving in Boulder, Colorado — by far the most in a single class in modern FBS history. All but a handful of Colorado scholarship players from the 2022 season left or were reportedly forced out of the program.

Of those transfers, 10 came with Sanders from Jackson State, most notably quarterback (and son) Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter. Sanders’ 2,420 passing yards are first among all FBS players and through only seven games, his 21 touchdown passes are just seven away from the program single-season record. Hunter has 353 receiving yards and two touchdowns on offense, as well as two pass break-ups and an interception on defense.

The other Jackson State players on Colorado’s roster are safety Shilo Sanders, safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig, wide receiver Willie Gaines, running back Sy’Veon Wilkerson, linebacker Jeremiah Brown, offensive lineman Tyler Brown, kicker Alejandro Mata and long snapper Jacob Politte.

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Other criticisms of Deion Sanders’ transfer overhaul at Colorado

Defenders of Sanders’ tactics have cited NCAA rules for first-year head coaches that permit such moves, as well as the need for wholesale change after the Buffaloes went 1-11 last season, with all but one of their losses coming by at least 23 points. The additions have clearly helped, too, as Colorado is 4-3 and spent three weeks in the top 25 of the US LBM Coaches Poll.

Negative evaluations of the roster overhaul, though, questioned whether such an undertaking was healthy not only for the athletes impacted by it, but for the sport of college football as a whole.

"That's not the way it's meant to be," Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said in an interview with 247Sports in May. "That's not what the rule intended to be. It was not to overhaul your roster. We'll see how it works out but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country.”

Brent Venables, whose Oklahoma team is No. 7 in the most recent Coaches Poll, voiced support for Narduzzi’s sentiment over the summer.

“We’re another year in establishing our standards and our culture and our values. That matters. A year ago, I challenged the guys. I wasn’t like Deion that gave guys a bunch of pink slips,” Venables said at Big 12 media days to OUNightlySports, a student-run television station associated with the university’s journalism school. “I gave guys 12 months of grace to go to class, live right off the field and show up with a great urgency and respect for your opportunity at the University of Oklahoma.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Stanford lineman describes Colorado transfer players as 'mercenaries'