OT: Deion and CU rebuilding again

[18IsTheMan]

After building almost an entirely new roster last year, Deion is back at this year: https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...r-losing-61-of-2023-class-to-transfer-portal/

Of note:
-Colorado signed 72 new scholarship players in the 2023 class (high school and transfers), with 61% of them no longer on the roster.
-Thirty-five of the team's 51 transfer additions from the 2023 cycle are no longer on the roster with 21 of them (43.1%) entering the portal either during the winter or this spring.
-Ten members of Colorado's 21-player 2023 high school class (47.6%) have already entered the portal.
-It's worth mentioning again that Colorado is replacing its entire offensive line.

It'll be interesting to see how the strategy pays off long term. Conventional wisdom says it's not a good thing if you lose 61% of players from the previous year's class (portal and high school). However, it looks like his strategy is going to be cutting each year whoever he deems to be bottom performers and replenishing from the portal and high school.

That said, some of CU's portal losses have been players they definitely would have wanted to keep.

Counterpoint to the above would be that it points to deficiencies in talent evaluation if you're having to get rid of that many players every year.

 

[Big JC]

I've read that the CU fans are getting tired of Meion and his revolving door roster management. Ex players are starting to talk about how his roster theory leads to a lot of locker room issues and the obvious lack of team chemistry due to all the new faces.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I've read that the CU fans are getting tired of Meion and his revolving door roster management. Ex players are starting to talk about how his roster theory leads to a lot of locker room issues and the obvious lack of team chemistry due to all the new faces.

Deion counters all the talk from former players by just saying they weren't up to CU standards.

 

[Big JC]

Deion counters all the talk from former players by just saying they weren't up to CU standards.

Yeah, they weren't up to that 4 wins per season standard. Deion is all about Deion and his kids. When his kids are done with college I think Deion will be too.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

I can't speak to if this will be his permanent strategy on a year to year basis or not, and only time will tell what that will be.
I can say that I can understand why he went into the portal to get as many players as possible for the 2023 campaign, the 2022 CU team was absolutely dreadful and very little talent, so Dieon picked up as many bodies as possible. Now for the 2024 season, he is most probably "advising" most of those players they may be better suited elsewhere, and now looking for a better fit for his vision of his team.
We shall see in 2 more years if his strategy pays off or not.

 

[Prestonyte]

If last season is any indication of this philosophy/strategy, it doesn't wear well for the entire season.

 

[KingWard]

Yeah, they weren't up to that 4 wins per season standard. Deion is all about Deion and his kids. When his kids are done with college I think Deion will be too.

I could see that outcome as trending toward probable.

 

[Beanerball]

I don’t see this “Prime Time” way of doing it working going forward. Maybe, but I don’t see him getting the balance of good recruits plus portal guys to work. He’s not going to get good level recruits, or so it seems. At a higher level program he might could make it work, but at Colorado it just looks like smoke and mirrors

 

[18IsTheMan]

Getting a little bad press over some recent comments on players who left the program:

Coach Prime, son belittle CU transfer, FCS player

Colorado coach Deion Sanders and QB Shedeur Sanders, his son, clapped back to a former player, another FCS player and other critics on social media.

www.espn.com

Deion Sanders wasting time bullying kids on the internet is exactly why everyone is bailing on his Colorado experiment

Nobody likes a bully, Deion. Especially not one as old as you.

ftw.usatoday.com

 

[Prestonyte]

Getting a little bad press over some recent comments on players who left the program:

Coach Prime, son belittle CU transfer, FCS player

Colorado coach Deion Sanders and QB Shedeur Sanders, his son, clapped back to a former player, another FCS player and other critics on social media.

www.espn.com

Deion Sanders wasting time bullying kids on the internet is exactly why everyone is bailing on his Colorado experiment

Nobody likes a bully, Deion. Especially not one as old as you.

ftw.usatoday.com

Deserved. Deion is all about Deion.

 

[KingWard]

He was doing good work at that school down in Louisiana. He's making a mess now.

 

[18IsTheMan]

He was doing good work at that school down in Louisiana. He's making a mess now.

He was very fortunate that his son is a good QB. At that level, 3 or 4 DI-level recruits was enough to tip the scales.

 

[KingWard]

He was very fortunate that his son is a good QB. At that level, 3 or 4 DI-level recruits was enough to tip the scales.

Until the postseason. Still, he had a good thing going.

 

[Big JC]

He was very fortunate that his son is a good QB. At that level, 3 or 4 DI-level recruits was enough to tip the scales.

With his son as qb and having a pocketful of cash for NIL to buy some D1 talent that the teams he faced didn't have, Deion was the classic big fish in a small pond. Deion is 56 years old, his last season in the NFL was 2004-2005, before today's freshmen were born. His recruiting pitch is all about money now, he isn't attracting any kids based on his fame as a player. The kids he is getting seem to be "Me" types based on their behavior on the field in warmups showing other team's players their watches and talking about their cars.

 

[18IsTheMan]

With his son as qb and having a pocketful of cash for NIL to buy some D1 talent that the teams he faced didn't have, Deion was the classic big fish in a small pond. Deion is 56 years old, his last season in the NFL was 2004-2005, before today's freshmen were born. His recruiting pitch is all about money now, he isn't attracting any kids based on his fame as a player. The kids he is getting seem to be "Me" types based on their behavior on the field in warmups showing other team's players their watches and talking about their cars.

Mostly agree. It was comparatively easy to do what he did in FCS. He lucked into his own son being a good QB and then pulled a small handful of other players based on his reputation. That was enough to rise to the top in the FCS. He didn't need to build a good overall team.

I do think his name still carries some weight, not with the kids so much, but with some of their parents, who still remember Neon Deion, Prime Time and all that. Particularly in the African American community. It's why he keeps up the "Prime" stuff. I think there is a perception that, being an NFL HOFer, he has the inside track to getting kids to the pros.

 

[Prestonyte]

The dichotomy of Deion’s tactics

For better or worse, the Deion Sanders era at Colorado has stirred more conversation than has any other college program. The upside has been that people have paid attention to Colorado football. The downside: Sanders’ bravado about his still-unproven strategies has people hoping a 4-8 team gets worse.



On Monday, The Athletic’s Max Olson published a really interesting story on the dozens of players sent packing during Sanders’ initial offseason a year ago, and the Pulse featured the story multiple times because, simply, it’s a good story. Yesterday, it turned into something bigger:

To backtrack briefly: the way Sanders handles the media is a fascinating use case. His family creates tons of its own production, with cameras following him and his sons around the facility, practice fields, etc. It makes for great content. But, if anyone outside the in-house media operation — like The Athletic, ESPN’s Ed Werder or anyone else — dares question a tactic, they’re deemed a dissident.

So, as Max’s story matriculated through social media this week, both Sanders and his son, Shedeur, fired back. Shedeur, the starting quarterback, tweeted a diss at one of his former teammates mentioned in the story, saying he didn’t “even remember” the player, who must’ve been “very mid at best,” according to the QB.

Deion went on an extended tirade, with vague platitudes about negativity and a diss at a separate former Colorado player featured in the story. He also defended Shedeur in a reply to someone, saying his son would be a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. For context, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler has Shedeur going 22nd in his early 2025 mock, while Nate Tice has him as prospect No. 30 — and that’s before wondering how many NFL GMs will simply not want to be part of this spectacle.
Let’s be clear: This is great theater for the fall. There is an annoying, villainous energy here, where — let me repeat — a team that went 4-8 is trashing players who felt wronged by the coach who booted them. We have two realities ahead:

The Sanders empire backs up its talk and wins a few big games next season. There are plenty of winnable games on this schedule.

Or … we get another sub-.500 season and the entire operation gets clowned all year. Remember when the far superior Oregon caught Colorado players talking trash before last year’s game and then ran the Buffs off the field? That made for good theater, too.

 

[18IsTheMan]

The dichotomy of Deion’s tactics

For better or worse, the Deion Sanders era at Colorado has stirred more conversation than has any other college program. The upside has been that people have paid attention to Colorado football. The downside: Sanders’ bravado about his still-unproven strategies has people hoping a 4-8 team gets worse.



On Monday, The Athletic’s Max Olson published a really interesting story on the dozens of players sent packing during Sanders’ initial offseason a year ago, and the Pulse featured the story multiple times because, simply, it’s a good story. Yesterday, it turned into something bigger:

To backtrack briefly: the way Sanders handles the media is a fascinating use case. His family creates tons of its own production, with cameras following him and his sons around the facility, practice fields, etc. It makes for great content. But, if anyone outside the in-house media operation — like The Athletic, ESPN’s Ed Werder or anyone else — dares question a tactic, they’re deemed a dissident.

So, as Max’s story matriculated through social media this week, both Sanders and his son, Shedeur, fired back. Shedeur, the starting quarterback, tweeted a diss at one of his former teammates mentioned in the story, saying he didn’t “even remember” the player, who must’ve been “very mid at best,” according to the QB.

Deion went on an extended tirade, with vague platitudes about negativity and a diss at a separate former Colorado player featured in the story. He also defended Shedeur in a reply to someone, saying his son would be a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. For context, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler has Shedeur going 22nd in his early 2025 mock, while Nate Tice has him as prospect No. 30 — and that’s before wondering how many NFL GMs will simply not want to be part of this spectacle.
Let’s be clear: This is great theater for the fall. There is an annoying, villainous energy here, where — let me repeat — a team that went 4-8 is trashing players who felt wronged by the coach who booted them. We have two realities ahead:

The Sanders empire backs up its talk and wins a few big games next season. There are plenty of winnable games on this schedule.

Or … we get another sub-.500 season and the entire operation gets clowned all year. Remember when the far superior Oregon caught Colorado players talking trash before last year’s game and then ran the Buffs off the field? That made for good theater, too.

It definitely helps that they have a very weak schedule. They were hyped last season like no team I can recall in recent memory. They obviously won't get that this year to start the season, at least.

It'll be most curious to see about their OL, which was even worse than ours last year. It will be an entirely new OL, with several freshman, but that's a darn hard position to come in as a freshman and execute.

 

[Prestonyte]

It definitely helps that they have a very weak schedule. They were hyped last season like no team I can recall in recent memory. They obviously won't get that this year to start the season, at least.

It'll be most curious to see about their OL, which was even worse than ours last year. It will be an entirely new OL, with several freshman, but that's a darn hard position to come in as a freshman and execute.

Worse than us is a bad OL but they have excuses we don't have.
Remember, we are counting on some freshmen this year ourselves.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Worse than us is a bad OL but they have excuses we don't have.
Remember, we are counting on some freshmen this year ourselves.

Oh, for sure. Not drawing any comparisons to us here. We've got our own issue haha

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

It definitely helps that they have a very weak schedule. They were hyped last season like no team I can recall in recent memory. They obviously won't get that this year to start the season, at least.

It'll be most curious to see about their OL, which was even worse than ours last year. It will be an entirely new OL, with several freshman, but that's a darn hard position to come in as a freshman and execute.

Per College Football News, they have the 13th most difficult schedule for 2024.

 

[hillna2]

Per College Football News, they have the 13th most difficult schedule for 2024.

I'm not entirely sure I trust that source. It has our schedule ranked at 30 when 247 and SI have us in the top 5 and ESPN's SP+ has us at 11. Not saying it's not difficult, but their metrics seem a little off compared to the big sites. And Colorado is nowhere to be found on those lists.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

I'm not entirely sure I trust that source. It has our schedule ranked at 30 when 247 and SI have us in the top 5 and ESPN's SP+ has us at 11. Not saying it's not difficult, but their metrics seem a little off compared to the big sites. And Colorado is nowhere to be found on those lists.

Just putting it out there.
If anyone has questions about their metrics, take it up with them.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Per College Football News, they have the 13th most difficult schedule for 2024.

Their ratings are total trash. They have Colorado at 13 and us at 30? Off the bat, we play 4 teams that finished ranked in the top 10. Then throw in LSU, OU and Clemson who were all ranked in the top 20. They rate CU's hardest game as Utah, who didn't even finish ranked last year.