Connelly: What will Deion’s Colorado roster actually look like on the field?
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff Writer
If you’ve talked to a coach or a fan or a writer or an analyst or anyone else about use of the transfer portal in college football, you’ve probably either said it or heard it: “It’s like free agency!” Indeed, player movement has increased significantly, so there’s an element of truth to the thought, if exaggerated. But credit Colorado‘s Deion Sanders for changing the game a bit. It’s not like free agency for Coach Prime and his Buffaloes in 2023 — it’s like an expansion draft.
After Sanders’ first spring practice was over in Boulder, 47 players entered the transfer portal, joining the many former Buffaloes who were already there. Some left of their own volition, and others were told to go. The portal and the (temporary, for now) elimination of signing limits have allowed new coaches to flip large portions of their inherited rosters in much quicker fashion than was previously possible. But Sanders has attempted to flip nearly the entire dang thing.
We don’t really know how this will all work out, but there can be no doubting two things:
1. Sanders has upgraded the amount of higher-end talent on his roster. By my count, there were two former blue-chip recruits on Colorado’s roster last year. Including incoming freshmen, there are now something in the neighborhood of 15 or 16, including five — five-star sophomore corner Travis Hunter (Jackson State), junior corner Omarion Cooper (Florida State), junior nickelback Myles Slusher (Arkansas), junior safety Travis Jay (Florida State) and five-star freshman corner Cormani McClain — in a potentially dynamite secondary.
2. Colorado is almost guaranteed to improve, both because of the talent upgrade and the fact that the team almost literally couldn’t be worse. The Buffaloes went 1-11 last season and ranked a dreadful 124th in SP+. In the past 15 years, a power-conference team has never ranked worse. In terms of SP+ percentile ratings, the only CU team that has graded out lower was the 1962 edition, which at one point lost to six straight Big 8 opponents by a combined 278-49.
That doesn’t mean that every player on the team was terrible and needed to be replaced — a lot of CU’s incoming transfers don’t appear to be any better or more successful than some of the players who left, and quite a few of the outgoing transfers landed at schools that have been a lot better than Colorado of late. But while this overhaul feels like overkill, it will generate improvement. There’s almost no choice.
Personally, I’m not a fan of this grand experiment, if primarily for the scope of the precedent it sets. After a lengthy fight, college athletes have begun to actually earn what’s theirs in terms of both money and control over their playing careers. The idea that a coach can come in and boot nearly everyone on the roster flips the balance of power too far in the other direction. Colorado technically followed protocol by allowing players who have been cut to continue on scholarship at CU, but a coach never has to worry about too many players selecting that option since they wouldn’t be allowed to play football anymore.
Nearly every coach in the country ends up asking a few players to transfer to make the scholarship math work, but Sanders’ moves had nothing to do with scholarship math and everything to do with exerting total control over a roster. I wrote in March that I was a fan of getting rid of the annual 25-man limit on scholarships a school can give out — it feels like a grave necessity in the portal era — but this makes me think there should still be some sort of limit, even if it’s a huge one (40? 50?).
My personal opinions don’t really matter, though. This is happening, and aside from “They can’t get worse,” it’s been pretty difficult to get a grasp on how Colorado might fare on the field in Sanders’ first season. Hell, it’s been difficult to even envision what a two-deep might look like. But with portal activity slowing down, let’s take a shot.
Below, we’re going to walk through a potential position-by-position depth chart for Sanders’ Buffaloes in 2023. It’s a loose estimate based almost entirely on known production and/or recruiting rankings. Call it a best-case scenario two-deep of sorts — if everyone lives up to potential, this could be a version of Colorado’s best lineup. How much of an upgrade are we talking about here, and how much of Sanders’ moves were more of the “trading like for like” variety?
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Max Olson
Oklahoma defensive tackle David Stone entered the NCAA transfer portal Friday, sources told ESPN.
Stone, a former five-star recruit and the No. 6 overall player in the ESPN 300 for the 2024 class, made the surprising decision to enter the portal after playing in all 13 games as a true freshman with the Sooners. The 6-foot-3 313-pounder saw limited playing time, playing 88 snaps and recording 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1 sack.
Stone was expected to compete for a more significant role as a sophomore, and Oklahoma coach Brent Venables recently praised him as the Sooners’ most improved defensive tackle this offseason.
The Oklahoma native finished his high school career at IMG Academy in Florida and was a significant recruiting victory for Venables and his coaching staff in August 2023. Stone chose the Sooners over Texas A&M, Oregon, Florida, Miami and Michigan State.
The SEC does not grant immediate eligibility to players who transfer within the conference during the spring transfer window, so Stone would need to sit out the 2025 season if he moves on to another SEC program.
Oklahoma returns its top three defensive tackles from 2024 in Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and Jayden Jackson. It also added Trent Wilson, the No. 164 recruit in the ESPN 300 for 2025, as an early enrollee this spring.
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Max Olson
Quarterback Ryan Browne has decided to transfer back to Purdue after joining North Carolina earlier this offseason.
Browne committed to rejoining the Boilermakers on Friday after entering his name in the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound redshirt sophomore started two games for Purdue in 2024 but moved on amid the program’s head coaching change and went through spring practice under new Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick.
North Carolina landed a commitment from South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez on Thursday.
Browne and freshman Bryce Baker were North Carolina’s lone scholarship quarterbacks available for spring practice and were competing with three walk-ons while sixth-year senior Max Johnson recovers from a broken leg.
Browne threw for 636 yards, rushed for 240 yards and scored four touchdowns while appearing in nine games as Hudson Card’s backup over the past two seasons at Purdue, earning starts in losses to Illinois and Oregon.
By returning to West Lafayette, Browne will get an opportunity to compete for a starting job with Arkansas transfer Malachi Singleton, Washington State transfer Evans Chuba and Bennett Meredith, a former Arizona State transfer.
The Boilermakers lost one quarterback, EJ Colson, to the transfer portal earlier this week.
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood showed glimpses of the growing pains he will experience as a freshman and flashes of the promise that made him the nation’s top-rated high school football recruit in the Wolverines’ spring game Saturday.
Underwood was 12 of 26 for 187 yards with a scrimmage-ending, 88-yard pass to tight end Jalen Hoffman on a reverse flea-flicker in a 17-0 win for the Blue over the Maize.
He also recovered his fumble, had a pair of delay-of-game penalties, several errant throws – high and wide – and some dropped. Underwood lost 12 yards on two sacks and gained 17 yards on three runs.
“He did well,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “Made some really, good throws and had some things we need to clean up and get better at.”
As the Wolverines wrapped up spring football in front of about 40,000 fans at the Big House, all eyes were on Underwood and he has become comfortable with that.
“It’s just the pressure that came with my arm,” Underwood told The Detroit News earlier this spring. “I can’t stop that.”
Underwood was sacked on his first snap and his first completion went for a loss. He did throw some darts, usually in the flat, and was quick enough to escape collapsed pockets to pick up yardage with his feet.
Underwood is expected to compete with sophomore Jadyn Davis and Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for playing time ahead of the season-opening game on Aug. 30 at home against Fresno State.
“It’s a battle,” Moore said. “It’s going to go all the way to fall camp.”
Underwood is motivated to start and kick off a legacy-building career with lofty goals.
“A couple of Heismans and at least one natty,” Underwood said last month in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show.
Underwood knows there will be people doubting he can live up to the hype.
‘He’s just a freshman. He won’t be good enough,'” Underwood said. “I might keep that chip my whole three years.”
He attended at Belleville High School, which is about 15 miles east of Ann Arbor, and flipped his commitment to Michigan after telling LSU coaches last year he intended to play there.
Tom Brady, a former Wolverine and seven-time Super Bowl winner, talked with Underwood during the school’s recruitment via FaceTime and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, also connected with him.
Jay Underwood told the Wall Street Journal that his son is expected to make more than $15 million at Michigan, but that doesn’t guarantee he will take the first snap next fall.
“He wants to earn everything,” Moore has said. “He doesn’t want to be given anything.”
Hoffman said Underwood has simply blended in with his teammates.
“He’s really humble, like not a big head, ego, nothing like that,” he said. “Comes into work and every day, he wants to get better every day. He’s not riding off his success in high school. He’s really trying to be one of those top players in college football.”
Underwood participated in practices with the team before it beat Alabama in a bowl game, enrolled in classes in January and gained a lot experience in 14 private practices before a public scrimmage.
“Football is football,” he told MLive.com. “School is a little bit more overwhelming now.”
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