Colorado coach Deion Sanders signed a small high school recruiting class, ranking near the bottom of the Big 12.
Sanders defends his strategy of relying on the transfer portal over traditional high school recruiting.
Critics argue this approach hinders team chemistry and long-term development after a 3-9 season in 2025.
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders signed only nine high school players to his 2026 recruiting class Wednesday after some top recruits withdrew their commitment to play for him recently — dropping the Buffaloes to 16th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 Conference, according to the recruiting rankings of 247Sports’ and On3, as of Dec. 3.
But signing such a small freshman class is all part of Sanders’ plan, according to him. He doesn’t make off-campus visits to high school recruits and was a pioneer in college football for relying on transfer players instead.
The question is whether this is the right strategy after his team finished 3-9 in 2025. Should he focus more on developing high school players and getting them to stick around in Boulder? Or is his strategy still sensible since players can transfer to a new school every year if they’re not happy with their playing time or compensation?
The debate rages on at the start of the football signing period on Dec. 3.
“Just to go into the (transfer) portal, it becomes like trying to build through free agency,’ former Colorado and NFL linebacker Chad Brown told USA TODAY Sports recently. ‘You can get it done in spots if you’ve got a hole that you need filled, but home-grown talent is always going to be the best to coach up and get up to speed with your offense and defense.
‘If every year you’re trying to build a new team, you can’t ever get to layer two in your playbook. You’re always operating on the surface, and then these guys don’t get the chance to come together as a team.”
Deion Sanders sees it differently
The high school recruiting class Sanders signed included four-star defensive back Preston Ashley and four-star linebacker Carson Crawford. Colorado still could sign more players in the next day or two and move up in the subjective rankings after confirming nine high school signees as of Dec. 3, plus Ventura College defensive lineman Domata Peko Jr., son of the Colorado assistant coach and former NFL star.
But these signings are only a precursor to his bigger roster moves coming when the transfer portal opens Jan. 2. That’s when Sanders will bring in players from other colleges, many of them backups looking for better playing time or income opportunities. Sanders pioneered the portal-heavy strategy during his first year in 2023, when he brought in 47 scholarship transfer players from other four-year colleges to fill a roster limited to 85 scholarship players.
“You want about 15 to 17 high school kids,” Sanders said at a news conference last week in Boulder. “Why do you say that, coach?’ Well, check the statistics. You get 30. Are they gonna be here in two years? Statistically, check the statistics.”
USA TODAY Sports checked the statistics: He’s signed 43 total high school scholarship recruits during his first three seasons at Colorado, an average of 14 per year, compared to the 25 or 30 that some schools sign. Only 21 of those 43 were still on Colorado’s roster at the end of the 2025 season. The rest transferred out already or left for other reasons.
One was freshman four-star linebacker Mantrez Walker, who signed with Colorado out of high school last year and recently announced his decision to transfer out.
“In Mantrez’s case, he had a situation where his playing time was pretty limited this season and there were opportunities that he believes are going to be a better fit,” said Jacob Piasecki, co-founder of A&P Sports, the agency that represented Walker’s name, image and likeness (NIL) interests for compensation.
Piasecki told USA TODAY Sports it was more about Colorado’s plan for him, not NIL money, per se, but playing time and money are intertwined. “There’s definitely a correlation between how much they pay you and how much they play you,” Piasecki told USA TODAY Sports.
Why didn’t Deion Sanders’ recruiting strategy work in 2025?
Sanders said he mostly “hit” on his high school recruits but missed on his transfer portal recruits. His most high-profile transfer recruit last year was former Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter, whose record as a starter for Colorado was 3-6 in 2025.
In previous years, Colorado “hit” on transfer recruits that included his quarterback son Shedeur (Jackson State), Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter (Jackson State), receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. (South Florida) and receiver LaJohntay Wester (Florida Atlantic). All four were drafted into the NFL in April after leading the Buffaloes to a 9-4 season in 2024.
“Nowadays, if kids aren’t playing by that spring of that second go-round, they out — they jump in the portal,” Deion Sanders said. “You got to figure out the strategy. What do you want to go? How do you want to get it? The strategy a year ago was the same strategy it was last year. And you hit on your portal guys. You hit on your freshman guys. This year, you hit on your freshmen, to me, some of them. And you missed on your portal. So that’s why we’ sitting where we sit. It’s not like you didn’t have a strategic plan. No, you had a strategic plan. You missed. Sometimes it happens. And I’m going to take responsibility. I’m not going to say we missed. I missed.”
The risk of Deion Sanders’ strategy
Sanders’ teams have been up and down since his arrival: a 3-0 start in 2023 followed by a 1-8 finish, then 9-4 in 2024, followed by five straight losses to end the 2025 season at 3-9. It’s arguable that trait is a symptom of the roster churn, with so many new players every year who have no prior chemistry.
By contrast, several top teams today were expected to sign around 25 to 30 high school recruits this week, including Southern California, Georgia and Ohio State. Those schools just hope they can hang on to those players beyond next year.
In Colorado’s case, Sanders also hopes to hang on to his own former high school recruits, including standout offensive tackle Jordan Seaton and quarterback Julian Lewis. Lewis has said he’s staying after redshirting in 2025. Seaton’s future isn’t clear.
“Buffs could have consistently brought in great players from the high school level, but instead, just don’t,” On3 recruiting analyst Josh Newberg recently said on social media site X. “You’re not finding Jordan Seaton-type players in the portal.”
But Sanders did find NFL-caliber players in the portal before. In 2025, his best defensive player was safety Tawfiq Byard, a transfer from South Florida who led the team in tackles (84). He has two more years of college eligibility but could jump in the portal Jan. 2 just like the rest after the NCAA allowed unrestricted annual player transfers last year.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com