Joel Klatt not worried about Deion Sanders’ drastic roster turnover
Deion Sanders had to clean house and pull off some drastic roster turnover at Colorado and Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt isn’t worried.
Klatt, a former Colorado quarterback himself, said this needed to be done ahead of Sanders’ first year as head coach. While there was plenty of criticism directed at Sanders regarding his moves in the transfer portal, he himself wasn’t fazed.
Based on what was seen on the field last year, Colorado football needed a major facelift from Sanders.
“Colorado was 1-11 last year and lost by an average of 29 points. 29,” Klatt said on The Herd. “Like they were the worst team in the Power Five by a wide margin. Northwestern was the closest to them in terms of really bad teams. Northwestern was a one win team, they lost by an average of 14. 29 to 14. He had to clean house.
“It’s absolutely within the rules as a first year head coach at a location you can go in and you can bring in as many first time scholarships as you want. And he had to clean house. This is going to be a substantially better team.”
Can Sanders win right away at Colorado? That remains to be seen.
“You go from 85 scholarships, even if he only has 60 guys on scholarship, those 60 guys are going to be substantially better than what they had a year ago,” Klatt said. “This team is going to look nothing like it did and that’s a good thing. And this is what he intended to do right from the get go. I was involved to a certain extent in knowing what his plan was.
“And this was always the plan. He let the players know right away what the standard was and then allowed it to play out. If you weren’t good enough or you didn’t want to be accountable to the standard that he was setting, then you’re no longer there.”
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There’s no doubt that Sanders will field a competitive team. It’s just not in his nature to field a team like what Colorado fans saw in 2022.
It’s a question of if the transfers will all mesh right away, take an entire year or perhaps midway through the season.
The ever brash Sanders talks the talk and walks the walk. He went 27-6 at Jackson State, winning back-to-back conference titles over the last two seasons.