Deion Sanders calls out coaches that claim transfer portal is hard to work around

The NCAA Transfer Portal has been open a little more than a week and college football coaches everywhere continue to complain about how it continues to ravage their teams.

Penn State‘s James Franklin became the latest to bemoan the transfer portal after backup quarterback Beau Pribula entered earlier this week, negatively impacting the Nittany Lions QB room.

“The way the portal is, and the timing of it, and the way our team is playing, and when you play the position of quarterback and there’s only one spot and those spots are filling up, he felt like he was put in a no-win situation,” Franklin said this week. “And I agree with him. … I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the student-athlete. I don’t think it’s in the best interest of college football. But I think that’s our challenge right now, right?”

Pribula’s situation notwithstanding, Franklin’s concerns aren’t necessarily shared by all of his coaching peers.

“I don’t think it’s difficult to navigate around the portal. I just think the portal is surprising some of these coaches that didn’t understand what it was,” Colorado head coach Deion Sanders said Tuesday, comparing the roster building challenges of the transfer portal to what he dealt with coaching youth and high school football, where he regularly recruited players off other teams. “I understood what it was Day 1. … That’s the way we approached it, from Day 1. I was willing to look like a fool for a period of time, and I listened to (the media), I watched it. And we understood it.

“Noah looked like a fool too when he kept saying it’s going to rain, right? When he was building the arc? Until that rain came. The rain’s coming now. The rain is coming now for everybody. And we’re good. We’re in the arc now.”

Bibilical allegories aside, Sanders believes some of the portal concerns from his fellow coaches are a bit contrived, especially as it relates to how portal departures impact a postseason roster.

“The transfer portal should be no surprise to you. You know you’re probably going to lose two guys you didn’t expect, and you’re probably going to gain several guys you didn’t expect. But you’ve got to have a board, you’ve got to do your studying, you’ve got to understand this is what’s going to happen,” Sanders added. “And I’m prepared for that, I know this is going to happen. So, I don’t think the portal has ever been a surprise to us, not at all, even (when it comes before) a bowl game. It’s not a surprise.

“Any of our guys that wanted to get into the portal, get into the portal. You’re not going to come here and practice and eat and be merry and have a Merry Christmas with us, and then leave right after the (bowl) game. I call that using somebody,” Sanders continued. “You’re not going to use us. Naw, I’m going to help you by all means, and I’ve helped several players get to other schools already, along with the staff. But you’re not going to participate with us and do all that and then leave. That’s not fair to some of the other teammates that want to play, and deserve to play. That’s not fair to them.”

And Sanders would know. Since the portal opened Dec. 9, Colorado has lost 16 players off its 2024 roster to the portal and gained just five commits, including former Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter, who committed Wednesday. This comes after the Buffaloes lost 45 players from its 2023 roster to the portal amid a second-straight offseason overhaul.

Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.