Deion Sanders Downplays Portal Exodus at Colorado: ‘We Good’
Strictly in terms of numbers, you’d be hard-pressed to find a program that’s lost more to the spring transfer portal than the Colorado Buffaloes.
As of Thursday afternoon, fifteen CU players had entered their names into the portal, including a couple of high-profile names like Cormani McClain and Alton McCaskill.
The Buffaloes portal exodus comes one season after Deion Sanders completely overhauled the roster using the very same tool.
The sheer number of players leaving has fans and media in Buffalo scrambling to figure out what’s going on. Yet, it appears that Coach Prime isn’t all that worried about the number of players leaving his program this spring. In fact, he says the Buffs haven’t really lost anything in this cycle.
“I wish you guys did a little more homework when you start talking about the portal and understand what we losing,” Sanders said when asked to address the exodus. “What are we losing? I got time today,” he said, waiting for a member of the media to answer.
“Backups,” someone off-camera answered.
“What we losing,” Sanders asked again.
“Potential starters,” another braver soul said inquisitively.
“Potential? Where?”
“Tight end. Running back.”
“You haven’t been watching practice, huh,” Sanders asked with a grin, eliciting laughter from the rest of the room.
“We’re good. I trust the recruiting team. I trust our coaches, and please have some faith in me,” Sanders said. “We good. We all right. We all right.”
Sanders then explained how the transfer portal works from his point of view, trying to help those around him see it for what it is.
“What happens with the portal man, and you guys need to know, a lot of people are fighting for backups. When a guy is a starter, and he transfers, you’ve got to really think about that. I mean, is he really that? I don’t think really many starters have transferred around the country. I think we got some coming in from visits pretty soon, maybe even this weekend. We can attract those types of players, but I don’t think we’re losing those types of players. And if we do, we’re good. We’re good. Quit making a big deal out of nothing.
“God, I want to say so much stuff, but I can’t. I want to say so much stuff but I’ve got to remember I’m a head coach.”
He was also asked about his sons, Shilo and Shedeur, hitting Instagram to try and help recruit the transfer portal, which he defended.
“That’s how stuff happens,” Sanders said. “Players recruit players, man. We do a wonderful job as the staff, but they got to be validated by players because they play with those players that you’re talking about either in high school or at all-star games. They know somebody that knows somebody. That’s how the recruiting thing works, man. For real. It’s players. They know who the dogs are and who the cats are.”
The spring transfer portal will remain open until April 30, three days after Colorado’s spring game on April 27.
