Colorado OT Jay Gardenhire-Crooks enters NCAA transfer portal

Colorado offensive tackle Jay Gardenhire-Crooks has entered the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. He never played a down for the Buffaloes as he was an incoming freshman from the 2025 recruiting class and will have all four years of eligibility remaining.

Gardenhire-Crooks played high school football at West Bloomfield (MI), where he was a three-star prospect. He ranked as the No. 1,983 overall player and No. 135 offensive tackle in the cycle according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Gardenhire-Crooks was one of two offensive tackles that Colorado signed in its 2025 recruiting class. The other, Carde Smith, is a four-star prospect out of Williamson High School (AL) who ranks as the No. 14 offensive tackle in the cycle.

The Buffaloes also signed two offensive tackles from the transfer portal, including former Memphis starter Xavier Hill, who was a first team All-ACC selection this past season. Overall, Colorado had added 21 players and lost 31 this transfer portal cycle to rank No. 34 in On3’s Transfer Portal Team Rankings.

Colorado is coming off of a 9-4 finish this past season in its second year under coach Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes signed the No. 2 recruiting class in the Big 12 according to On3 and will look to continue their upward trajectory even with the loss of Gardenhire-Crooks.

The spring transfer portal opened Wednesday, April 16 and will close 10 days later on Friday, April 25. As of this writing, more than 3,600 FBS scholarship players have entered the transfer portal in the 2024-25 cycle.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

Auburn safety transfer Terrance Love commits to Colorado

Auburn safety transfer Terrance Love has committed to Colorado out of the NCAA transfer portal, per On3’s Hayes Fawcett. He has two years of eligbility remaining.

Love played in 22 games for the Tigers over the past two seasons. He compiled eight tackles and a passbreakup on defense.

While those numbers and that level of production might not jump off the page, Love’s high school film will likely entice at least a few lookers in the transfer portal. He was a high-caliber recruit two years ago.

Prior to enrolling at Auburn, Terrance Love was ranked as a four-star prospect and the No. 244 overall prospect in the nation in the 2023 recruiting class. That was according to the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. In addition, Love was ranked as the No. 26 linebacker in his class. He was also the No. 21 overall player from the state of Georgia, hailing from Fairburn (GA) Langston Hughes.

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.