Colorado's 2024 signing class suggests Deion Sanders is going all-in on next season, but then what?
There’s a famous scene in The Office where Michael Scott doesn’t understand what a budget surplus is and he asks Oscar, one of the accountants at Dunder Mifflin, to “Explain this to me like I’m five.”
I would like Deion Sanders to do the same for me regarding Colorado’s 2024 recruiting class, one so small it could be confused with a Buffs’ basketball recruiting class.
What exactly was the strategy here? Explain the plan to me.
Even a “recruiting casual” knows you’re not supposed to be able to count on one hand the number of high school signees in a class, and yet that’s where the Buffs currently stand as they await the potential final signature of 5-star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton.
Landing Seaton would be massive — figuratively and literally for the Buffs. He’s the top-ranked offensive lineman in the country and plays a position of desperate need at Colorado.
And yet even if Colorado is able to hold off late pushes by Maryland and Tennessee, it doesn’t diminish Sanders’ unserious approach to roster management for both the present and future.
So I ask, “Explain this to me like I’m five. Why you would sign such a small high school class a full year into the job?
Primetime should be commended for the spotlight he’s brought to Colorado’s program. Sanders’ sheer presence was like a B-12 shot for the Buffs’ program, instantly taking over a doormat, and overnight, making Colorado the most popular team in college football. With a roster reckoning, unlike we’ve ever seen, he used the transfer portal to take a 1-11 team to 4-8 in Year 1.
And while Sanders and others in his circle constantly moved the goal posts around expectations, Colorado had a successful season in any reasonable person’s eyes.
In the age of the Early Signing Period, head coaches want (and need) to make real hay with their first full recruiting class. After a whirlwind first cycle, they’ve had the time to establish real relationships with high school coaches and targeted prospects. Their boards are more defined and their evaluations are better.
But it’s not clear that Sanders and his staff have any interest in doing the leg-work it takes to be good at recruiting.
Sanders is an atypical head coach, and that’s great, but five or six high school signees isn’t just atypical, it’s an extreme dereliction of duties if you’re serious about rebuilding a program long-term.
The celebrity of Coach Prime was good for a couple (using his words) “dern good” players — two Top 100 signees Dre’Lon Miller and Kam Mikell — but that’s it.
Where is the Pied Piper who promised to bring “Louis” with him?
Either, Deion Sanders has been vastly overrated as a recruiter, or he simply isn’t interested in doing the work. I’m banking on the latter, which is problematic for Colorado’s long-term future.
Sanders’ supporters will point out that the plan was always for Colorado to sign a small class in 2024. That Sanders was purposefully selective, and that CU has the highest-average player ranking of any team in the Big 12. They’d say that the transfer portal, with 16 commits already and more to come, was how the Buffs were going to add to the roster again this year.
And all that could be (and might be) true. I’d quibble with the “selective” notion considering two of the five signees aren’t even Top 600 players nationally, but regardless, it still suggests an extreme strategy solely focused on the 2024 season with zero concern for the future.
By almost ignoring high school recruiting for a full cycle, Sanders is pushing all his chips into the 2024 season. The why here doesn’t even need asking.
Sanders watched Colorado’s turnstile offensive line — comprised solely of transfers and two leftover pieces — nearly get his son Shedeur Sanders killed, and yet Seaton stands to be Colorado’s lone OL high school signee — if he indeed even ends up in Boulder.
I’ve already written I’m skeptical about Sanders’ long term future at Colorado. His actions (another Band-Aid roster with the sole intention to prop up Shedeur’s draft stock and make a bowl game) continue to paint a picture of someone who doesn’t plan to be around for the grind it takes to rebuild a once-moribund program.
“Do you believe?”
Yeah, that Colorado can perhaps make a bowl game in 2024. Do I believe Deion Sanders will be the team’s head coach in 2025? Less and less so by the day.