Colorado AD Rick George explains how Deion Sanders has brought life to Colorado's program

Deion Sanders has changed everything about the Colorado football program except for their colors and the team’s name. Everything else is going to be different. New players, new staff, new mindset — a new lease on life.

Following a successful spring sale, Colorado athletic director Rick George explained what has changed since Coach Prime arrived on campus earlier this year with his Louis Vuitton luggage.

“The dynamic has changed. There wasn’t a lot of energy in our program at the end of the football season. Today, there is an incredible amount of energy in our program,” George said. “I think our fans are so thirsty to win that having him with the energy behind that … they’ve gotten behind that. I can’t wait for the season to get here. I think [Deion is] going to win and win at a high level.”

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One major aspect of the program that is almost completely different from last season — the roster. Colorado players were flying into the transfer portal this spring at a faster rate than we’ve ever seen, and just as many are transferring into the program to counter that.

Dozens upon dozens of scholarship players packed their bags and left Boulder after Colorado’s spring game. After the spring transfer portal window closed, Sanders has been left with just 19 returning scholarship players out of 83 from last season.

To even it out, Sanders went out and plucked 36 kids from the portal as of this report. A healthy chunk of those names come from his former school Jackson State, but other high-profile transfers have been flocking to Sanders’ program as well. Becuase of that, Colorado easily has the No. 1 transfer portal class this cycle.

This isn’t the first mass portal exodus on Colorado history, though. According to George, around 25 Buffs left the program to hop in the transfer portal back in December of 2021 right after the season. Colorado isn’t even the first team to have that type of exodus, either. 25 players left USC as the Trojans brought in 19 players before Lincoln Riley’s first season in LA.

The same — only on a much larger scale — is happening with Sanders at Colorado. The only difference? Riley took over a program that regularly signs blue-chip prospects. Sanders was working with the bottom of the barrel following the Buffs’ 1-11 season last year. This year’s portal madness in Boulder is to prevent that type of season from occuring again.