JD PicKell identifies what's behind Colorado's roster exodus

Since the spring transfer portal window opened, there has been a mass exodus of players from the Colorado Buffaloes program — 18 to be exact. And on a recent episode of The Hard Count, On3’s JD PicKell did his best to crack the case and explain just what is going on in Boulder.

“Here’s the deal; 18 players, as of yesterday, hit the portal. And I think there’s a couple of layers to this,” said PicKell. “63 of the 83 scholarship guys you had from 2022 are no longer on this roster. Translation: this entire team has been flipped.

“Originally, I thought Deion Sanders was gonna come in and redo some things in the house. No, Deion Sanders just took a Wrecking Ball to the entire operation and said 1-11? That ain’t my house; rebuild this thing.”

To say Colorado did not have a good 2022 season would be a gross understatement. The Buffaloes went 1-11, and we’re completely outclassed in nearly every game they played. Only one game last year was decided by single digits. And that was their overtime victory against Cal in their sixth game of the season.

“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. 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.”

But not everyone leaving the program is getting cut, or at least that is what PicKell suspects. Mixed in with Colorado’s departure of 18 players was the team’s second-leading receiver last season in Montana Lemonious-Craig. And despite having a not-so-stellar season, thanks to Colorado’s struggles on offense Lemonious-Craig is still garnering a ton of national attention in the transfer portal, helping to highlight PicKell’s point even further.

“Now for the other side of things; again, I don’t believe that all of these guys are cut. Montana Lemonious-Craig, I believe he is making a business decision to leave. And to be honest here, more power to him. He clearly can play ball. He’s already got people lining up outside of his door: Auburn, Mississippi State, (and) BYU. It’s not a matter of ability for Montana Lemonious-Craig; that’s what the portal is for. If you think you have a chance to be in a better situation, to better yourself academically and athletically, that’s why the portal exists. Good for him.”

From the beginning, Sanders emphasized precisely what his plan was for the incumbent players — to get them to quit or fully buy into his process. And for whatever reason, it appears that there are 18 more players that the Buffaloes’ headman was able to clear out in order to make room for players ‘that have that dog in them.’