While most college football programs are currently trying to outbid each other for the services of highly touted “Power Four” transfer portal free agents, Deion Sanders and Colorado appear to be going back to a formula Sanders used successfully during his first off season as the head coach of the Buffaloes. Time will tell if he’s successful.
Recent history tells us that even though the first batch of new signees come from schools like Appalachian State, Monmouth and Albany, it doesn’t mean they won’t be successful as Buffaloes.
After losing 30 of the players off his 2025 CU roster to the portal – including almost all of his defense and a couple key skill players on offense, Sanders is turning back to the Group of Six and FCS ranks for players who may be less heralded, but are potentially just as talented and productive as their Power Four counterparts. He has success in this area to fall back on.
Sanders first collegiate head coaching job was at FCS/HBCU Jackson State back in the fall of 2020. After battling through the COVID pandemic and subsequent abbreviated spring season, things took an upturn in 2022, when the Tigers won a school record 11 games and the Southwestern Athletic Conference title.
Deion shook up the college football recruiting scene in the winter of that year when he signed the highest ranked high school recruit, Travis Hunter, to join him. Hunter became the first five-star recruit to sign with an FCS program. At the time, JSC already had the coach’s son and conference Offensive Player of the Year Shedeur Sanders at quarterback, and the tandem combined to lead the Tigers to the Celebration Bowl.
When Deion Sanders accepted the Colorado job in December of 2022, he was able to bring not only the Shedeur and Hunter with him, but he also successfully recruited pass catchers like Jimmy Horn Jr from South Florida and LaJohntay Wester from Florida Atlantic out of the portal. The result was a dynamic offense that led Colorado to a 9-4 record and an Alamo Bowl birth in Sanders second season in Boulder in 2024.
Now, after scuffling to a 3-9 mark in 2025, Sanders has returned to the FCS ranks for this new Offensive Coordinator, Brennan Marion, who was formerly the head coach at Sacramento State. This January, the first player to commit to the Buffs out of the portal is former Sac State running back Damian Henderson II (who began his college career at nearby Colorado State in 2024.) Of the first seven new players Sanders has brought in thus far, three are from a “Group of Six” school and four from FCS programs.
So not only is Sanders hoping to once again find diamonds in the rough, so to speak, but he’s getting experienced players (two of whom played for Marion at Sacramento State and know his system) and who weren’t involved in the kind of bidding wars that Colorado isn’t likely to win.
With the Athletic Department projected to have a $27 million shortfall next fiscal year, Colorado isn’t in a position to throw huge NIL and revenue sharing money at the higher profile transfers.
That won’t matter if the new guys are as talented and hungry as the players Deion successfully recruited back in 2022 and 2023.
Deion Going Back to What Worked with his Portal Recruiting Strategy