Colorado feeling sense of urgency following rapid roster turnover led by Deion Sanders

Colorado made waves this offseason when new coach Deion Sanders took over and aggressively flipped the roster, with more than 50 players utilizing the NCAA transfer portal. That quick roster turnover seemed to create a real sense of urgency to win and win quickly in the program.

Defensive coordinator Charles Kelly spoke to that sense of urgency at Pac-12 Media Days.

“Well there’s a sense of urgency, but I don’t think and, in fact, I can tell you it’s nobody outside going to put any more pressure on us than we’re going to put on ourselves,” Kelly said. “Coach Prime made it very clear his vision from the beginning.”

In other words, the roster overhaul via the transfer portal didn’t exactly take anyone by surprise. Sanders was up front about what he planned to do.

And while it remains to be seen how well Sanders’ approach to flipping the roster plays out, he’s had conviction in attacking it that way.

“That’s one thing, one of the things that I respect most about him is he tells the truth,” Kelly said. “He made it very clear what his vision for our program was and as a leader what you do is you make sure everybody in the organization understands your vision. We all understand that vision.”

Even coaches have felt the sense of urgency created by Sanders’ approach.

“It’s not necessarily fear for our jobs, it’s just this is our vision for where we want to go,” Kelly said. “We want to do it now. And we’ve taken criticism, that’s fine. People have their opinion to say what they want to. But we did within what the rules allowed for us to be able to create the best roster possible for the University of Colorado. And we don’t apologize for that.”

With the roster flipped already, now it’s up to the Colorado coaches to maximize what they have. The program won only one game a year ago, so the expectation will be to improve on that.

The Buffaloes seem to have at least some pieces, though quality depth is a definite concern.

That’s where the coaching can come in and help.

“So what our job is now is to make sure we coach and we develop and we bring these players along,” Kelly said. “Every day, every day when you’re in college coaching you do three things. You evaluate, you recruit and you develop. And you do that on a daily basis. So coach does that on our organization, with our team, our staff. He’s evaluating every day. If he can make something better, he’s going to make it better.

“And again, not fear for our job necessarily that we have a sense of urgency, it’s just a sense of urgency that, ‘Hey, this is what we’ve got to do to bring Colorado football back to where our fans deserve it.'”