Colorado legacy Travis Gray, son of 1990 national champion, reveals blunt way Deion Sanders cut him, others

When Deion Sanders first got to Colorado, he made it clear that there was going to be an exodus of players because he would be bringing his own “luggage.” Now, that near-biblical exodus of players is underway and it has seen him show numerous players the door.

One of the players that was shown the door was Travis Gray, a Colorado legacy whose dad was Lamarr Gray, an outside linebacker on the 1990 national championship team. As he explained to David Ubben of The Athletic, offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle was the first to tell him he was going to be cut before Deion Sanders gave him the blunt news.

“I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ I saw the mean mug in his face,” Gray told Ubben. “He [Sanders] told me, ‘You’re 6-foot-8, 320 pounds. I know in my heart of hearts a school is going to pick you up in the portal when you enter. Make your weaknesses your strengths and keep progressing. I hope you have a great future, it just won’t be here at the University of Colorado.’”

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Like that, the Colorado native who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps was no longer a part of the program.

According to tight end Zach Courtney, coaches treated the players who they were running off differently than the players they brought in.

“None of the new coaches would talk to the old players and treat us the same as the people they brought in,” Courtney said to The Athletic. “The new guys wouldn’t be picked on as much in film. Coaches would tell them to just do better, but if it was an old player, they’d keep going off on what you did wrong and keep yelling about it.”

Courtney is the player who brought it up on social media that Colorado isn’t giving players being forced out access to their practice film.

“For the coaches who are trying to recruit me,” Courtney said via Twitter. “I am sorry but I will not be able to get y’all my film from my practices last season since I am not allowed to have it because the head coach at CU won’t allow it. This is very unlucky and if you have any questions just text me!”

He also pointed out that Deion Sanders acted as a motivational speaker, not a coach. He also said that Sanders really didn’t try to build a relationship with him. That’s the same experience that Gray had.

“No relationship with him at all. I said what’s up to him a few times,” said Gray. “I’m not sure he knew the names of half the kids he got rid of. He was worried about who he brought in. If you were on the 1-11 team, it seemed like he didn’t really care about us at all. He already said he was going to get rid of 25-30 of us, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Other players who spoke to The Athletic agreed. The new players were treated favorably compared to the old ones. One anonymous player even said, “Wherever the camera’s at, that’s where Deion is.”

Jim Mora seemingly takes a shot at Deion Sanders

UConn head coach Jim Mora noticed the comments that Zach Courtney made on Twitter about not being given access to his film. Taking issue with that, Mora explained the issue with that.

“Any coach that won’t allow a transfer to access film is operating from a place of complete paranoia. You really believe an opponent can gather info from random clips?” Jim Mora said.

“@Realrclark25. Part of the job of a COLLEGE Coach is to advocate for your student-athletes…current and past!”

The number of players entering the transfer portal from Colorado has caused a ton of chatter from the outside world, but On3’s JD PicKell boiled it down to being a simple business decision for Sanders and the Buffaloes.

“So here’s my guess on what’s happening right now at Colorado. From the outside looking in, I believe everybody involved here is making a business decision,” explained PicKell. “I think he (Sanders) is making a decision that’s best for his football team and saying we were 1-11 last year. The personnel that made that happen is, quite frankly, not good enough for my standards, for our standards, for what we want to get done.

“So I believe a lot of these guys, not all, are being told they no longer have a spot at Colorado; to put it bluntly, I believe a lot of these guys are being cut. It’s just a business decision here for Coach Prime.”