Deion Sanders "Coach Prime" Now At Colorado

[DFW Horn 6123]

32 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

This is fan hagiography at its finest. If you think Deion’s plan was to render 62 guys off of the roster and add 85 to it in a single cycle, it’s time to forcefully remove your head from the inside of his asshole. 

St. Prime?

Triple word score for "hagiography" and, yes, I think CU is in deep shit too. At least short-term. Their first 5 games are brutal. 

[BERT 4358]

41 minutes ago, Richard Kimball said:

Yeah, Carolina. Once you get east of Texas, all those states look the same to me. 

You fucking geographist

[Plorant 799]

1 hour ago, Gene Parmesan said:

That, and his team in Charlotte kept wondering where he was all the time.  

[Not a cat 5652]

I was in Boulder touring the campus with my son last summer.  We went by Folsom field and happened to see a few football players walking around and my initial thought was "these are D1 athletes?".

I'm no ctj on the talent scouting front but these guys looked like really small lineman or really fat linebackers.  Let's just say I'm not stunned at the roster needing some fine tuning.

[crash_davis 23107]

4 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

I was in Boulder touring the campus with my son last summer.  We went by Folsom field and happened to see a few football players walking around and my initial thought was "these are D1 athletes?".

I'm no ctj on the talent scouting front but these guys looked like really small lineman or really fat linebackers.  Let's just say I'm not stunned at the roster needing some fine tuning.

I don't think anyone is arguing that Colorado needs different players. We are saying that kicking off the majority of the team and hoping to replace them with better portal players between now and Fall Camp is going to be next to impossible. The time to entice portal players was before Spring ball. Now it's basically rejects. Aggy is learning this lesson filling up with yeast trying to get to 85. Those dudes aren't even bread. Colorado is prob even more desperate than aggy.

[markstanco 12574]

1 hour ago, Hank_Hill said:

Who needs spring practice? Average to below average portal players are plug and play

Im starting to think 3 wins may be a reach now. 

[Herpa Derpa 6125]

1 hour ago, 'stache said:

this hype train is really obnoxious and tiring.

Said no 17 year old recruit ever.

 

2022 Colorado would have been a bad FCS team. Not an impossible task to fully overhaul the roster with aspiring G5s and disgruntled P5s that would result in a significantly better team. But he's going to have to poach harder than Riley to get there.

[Not a cat 5652]

8 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

I don't think anyone is arguing that Colorado needs different players. We are saying that kicking off the majority of the team and hoping to replace them with better portal players between now and Fall Camp is going to be next to impossible. The time to entice portal players was before Spring ball. Now it's basically rejects. Aggy is learning this lesson filling up with yeast trying to get to 85. Those dudes aren't even bread. Colorado is prob even more desperate than aggy.

Not disagreeing with you, just pointing out how truly mammoth an undertaking this will be, even in the brave new world of the portal.  And anyone that doesn't trust ctj or is otherwise hesitant to take his bet, I'll happily offer the same terms.  They'll be pretty bad.

[Helobious 9448]

1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

This is fan hagiography at its finest. If you think Deion’s plan was to render 62 guys off of the roster and add 85 to it in a single cycle, it’s time to forcefully remove your head from the inside of his asshole. 

I made the offer earlier on this thread and only a few took me up on it. Name your price regarding CU making a bowl game and I will take the opposite position. You’ve mentioned here how bullish you are on such a matter, so don’t miss your chance. 

The dude has lost 46 guys and added 28. Maybe my math is a little off, but if the other 16 guys out of the original 62 all come back, that’s 42 guys on the roster as the portal nears closing. Add in 19 signees and that gets you to 61 players. Word is that another 5-10 will depart. The portal isn’t currently full of guys that are going to matter even if Sanders closes this cycle well. Anyone thinking a complete and total roster thrashing causing a team to enter a season with 60 or so players who have mostly never played together before is a good thing is living in fucking fantasyland. 

Pretty perfect example of “estas viendo y no ves” here. You’re looking but you don’t really see. Deion said the roster needed a massive overhaul. He has massively overhauled it, just like he said he would. He’s not building a team that will be incredible for 2023, he’s building a roster that can contend in the years beyond that. I think they’ll win 4-6 games next year, pull in a monster recruiting class and be a force in 2024. He’s got the vision and the right attitude and pieces around him to bring it to life. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Helobious

[crash_davis 23107]

14 minutes ago, Helobious said:

He’s not building a team that will be incredible for 2023, he’s building a roster that can contend in the years beyond that. I think they’ll win 4-6 games next year

Doesn't sound like he's building shit. They only have 20 scholarship players remaining. Assuming their Freshmen class is 25, between now and fall ball, how the hell is he going to find 40 rejects who are upgrades from the players who left? 

Edited April 25, 2023 by crash_davis

[closetojumping 62604]

1 hour ago, closetohumping said:

Pay me 50 and I'll let you out of our bet

You couldn't pay me half now to let you out of our bet.

1 hour ago, Chewbacca said:

That was 100 percent his plan.  If you listen to the man talk, you'll hear him tell you exactly what he's going to do.  His plan was always to turn over almost the entire roster.  He even said how he was going to do it - he called it his 40-40-20 plan.  40% grad transfers, 40% undergrad transfers and 20% HS recruits.  That is just on the front end to turn over the roster.  He has said he'll focus more on HS kids after the roster is turned over.

I'm not going to bet on a CU bowl game.  They were the worst team in the P5 last year.  But they will be much improved.  I do know that.  

I know what he's saying, but there was zero intent to see all 62 players leave. Not even Deion is arrogant enough to believe that he could find 62 players above replacement value for the roster. Half of it? Sure. Sarkisian said the same shit offline. Lots of coaches do that. 2/3s? Maybe. You said the whole roster though. Fan fiction. And, wait for it ... even if that was the plan, he's wrong about it and won't accomplish it. 

11 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

I was in Boulder touring the campus with my son last summer.  We went by Folsom field and happened to see a few football players walking around and my initial thought was "these are D1 athletes?".

I'm no ctj on the talent scouting front but these guys looked like really small lineman or really fat linebackers.  Let's just say I'm not stunned at the roster needing some fine tuning.

The biggest issue for CU is in the trenches, as you allude to here. Quality OL and DL in the portal are subject to heated competition for their services. Even a well-oiled and well-funded NIL machine isn't going to be able to win 50% of these battles. If 15 decent OLs come out and 15 decent DLs come out, someone that wins 7 OLs and 8 DLs has gotten half of their spots filled on the roster for these positions with decent players. That right there is damned near impossible and, oh by the way, not what CU has done in this cycle.

Beyond that, the rest of those trench roles, critical for depth and development, are still either true freshmen or dogshit or both. Just go look at CU has on its roster right now on the OL and at DT, NT, DE, and OLB (to cover all bases of anyone who could be putting a hand down on defense). How many of those players would you trade for anyone on the UT roster at those positions? Probably a few guys for Merrill or Goram Welch and that's it. Try the same exercise for various other schools. 

CU has 16 OLs. One was a standout at Missouri State and finished last year with 1st team all-conference honors. One was a standout at Jackson State in the same manner. Both of those guys are going to have to go up a level and kick maximum ass because there is nothing else around them. Of the 16 OLs, 8 are under 300 pounds. They barely have enough guys to fill a two deep in terms of scholarship players and they're averaging more than 20 pounds underweight to P5 average.

CU has 7 DL/Edge and 3 OLBs. One of those players is over 300 pounds. That depth is thin even by Ethiopian standards, to say nothing of their actual laughable statures as well. They're not going to hold up against that schedule. It's pretty unbelievable, honestly. 

Regarding the CU schedule, everyone is running over CSU as a sure win. CSU was absolute hammered doo doo last year, no doubt. But Norvell took a hapless Nevada and started their turn in year 2 with no expectations. He's returning a bunch of guys who have been playing together for a year and a spring. Maybe CU runs them over, but that's expecting either 1) CU to just out-talent them and run them off the field or 2) CU to come together quickly as a team and win a decently played game. Headscratchers happen every week in CFB. Writing CSU off as a gimme assumes a lot with CU. Without the Deion halo effect, I don't see what's happening leading to anyone being declarative about CU walking over CSU.

[crash_davis 23107]

Fuck me.

https://theathletic.com/4447590/2023/04/24/deion-sanders-colorado-footall-transfer-portal/

 

They have 

1 QB

1 RB

3 TE

0 WR

1 DL

6 5 OL (1 just left)

6 LB

1 CB

1 S

0 K/P

 

[Not a cat 5652]

26 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Fuck me.

https://theathletic.com/4447590/2023/04/24/deion-sanders-colorado-footall-transfer-portal/

 

They have 

1 QB

1 RB

3 TE

0 WR

1 DL

6 5 OL (1 just left)

6 LB

1 CB

1 S

0 K/P

 

Greg Davis nods approvingly at this ratio.

0 kickers?  Didn't his kicker portal to Boulder with him?

[Chewbacca 7773]

21 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

Greg Davis nods approvingly at this ratio.

0 kickers?  Didn't his kicker portal to Boulder with him?

He's got 2 kickers on the team right now.  His kicker from JSU and Jay Feeley's nephew, Jace (transfer from ASU).  That list is wildly inaccurate.  Shedeur is not the only QB on the roster.

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

What Deion is doing is such a head scratcher, because even with a portal, NIL and whatnot you just can't completely rebuild a roster in this fashion.  It's going to take a long time for them to put together something that can get to .500

Reminds me of the mess Kansas was in from Charlie Weis.  The Athletic had an article on it (from 2018), and yeah, there are some advantages now for roster building that didn't exist then, but it's a similar situation:

https://theathletic.com/438107/2018/07/20/kansas-jayhawks-football-coach-david-beaty-scholarships-debt/

 

Spoiler

David Beaty was hired to fix Kansas football. Three years later, so was Jeff Long.

In Long’s first few months on the job, the Jayhawks’ new athletic director must diagnose why this program has become so uncompetitive in the Big 12 over the past decade. And he must decide whether Beaty, his fourth-year head coach, is the man with the plan to fix it.

“It’s time to break the cycle,” Long said at his introductory news conference last week. “It’s not gonna be easy.”

Before he makes any decisions, Long must fully understand the scholarship crisis that Beaty inherited when he took over the program in 2015. Because calling it disastrous might be an understatement.

Kansas’ scholarship problem, created by former head coach Charlie Weis, his botched blueprint and a long list of complicating factors, has made this by far the hardest coaching job at the Power 5 level. There are few other head coaches in FBS dealing with the kind of roster problems that Beaty has spent more than three years fighting.

“We’ve had to be very creative since we’ve got here. I daresay this just may be the most creative staff in the history of the game,” Beaty told The Athletic, chuckling as he said it. “I’ve gotta laugh, because if I don’t, I’ll cry.”

The Jayhawks are hoping to have 70 true scholarship players on the roster this fall, which puts them 15 players under the 85-man limit. That 70 includes many players who arrived as walk-ons whom Beaty and his staff have developed.

Why is it that Beaty remains 15 scholarships short entering his fourth year on the job? Because a program needs a ton of good fortune to overcome that debt. It needs recruiting classes that pay off big. It needs to avoid injuries. It needs a high level of retention. It needs a plan, sure, but it also needs so many things to go right. A lot has gone right at Kansas during Beaty’s tenure. But his 3-33 record does not reflect much progress, and it has him sitting on college football’s hottest hot seat.

Beaty has long avoided talking openly about Kansas’ scholarship crisis. He does not want to make any excuses or make it about himself. But the man needs more time. As he enters his decisive fourth season, working with a new AD and feeling the win-now pressure, he understands he can’t wait any longer. He’s ready to start explaining — before it’s too late.

The number that stands out most is 38. That’s how many returning scholarship players Beaty inherited when he started at Kansas in 2015.

During that first offseason, 10 scholarship players left the program. Several players took medical retirements. Running back Corey Avery and receiver Rodriguez Coleman were dismissed. Receiver Nigel King went pro, and safety Isaiah Johnson went to South Carolina as a graduate transfer. Beaty’s first Kansas team ended up having as many newcomers as returning players.

“It was a surprise,” Beaty said. “We were told that it was a little bit different than that.”

Weis had tried to fix the Jayhawks quickly with too many junior college transfers, and his plan imploded. He took over in 2012, dismissed more than 20 players from the program for a variety of reasons and replaced them primarily with transfers. This was reckless, short-term thinking.

In the recruiting classes of 2012 and 2013, Weis and his staff brought in a combined 27 junior college transfers. Only two were academic qualifiers coming out of high school. Fourteen did not graduate, and 10 — including touted signees Marquel Combs, Chris Martin and Kevin Short — never saw the field. And then, by the end of 2014, they were all gone. So was Weis. Going into 2015, only 12 of Weis’ first 56 signees were still on the roster.

Former Kansas defensive end Ben Goodman played through the entire Weis era. He could tell when all those two-year players were failing to pan out that the program was about to be in trouble.

“I guess he was trying to go the Bill Snyder way, which was understandable,” Goodman said, referring to the longtime Kansas State coach. “Bill was always winning. But Charlie didn’t have the formula. He had bits and pieces of the formula of what he thought was going to work. And also, honestly, junior college players are not always ready like you think they are. Charlie wanted to win now and prove himself and prove he could win in college football. But it just didn’t work out like that at all.”

And this was the result: When Beaty began his first season at Kansas, after furiously recruiting to fill as many spots as possible, he had just 68 true scholarship players. He got that number up to 77 in 2016, but it dropped to 72 scholarship players last fall. And it’s important to put those numbers into perspective.

When USC was penalized with scholarship reductions by the NCAA as a result of the Reggie Bush case, the Trojans were capped at 75 scholarships from 2012 to 2014. Penn State was initially going to be restricted to 65 scholarships for a four-year period as part of the NCAA’s unprecedented 2012 punishment for the Jerry Sandusky scandal, but that penalty was later reduced. The Nittany Lions got back to 85 scholarships by 2016.

The scholarship crisis at Kansas is not the result of any harsh NCAA sanctions. Shortsighted recruiting and indefensible roster mismanagement during the Weis era put the program deeply in debt from a talent perspective.

“It was basically like getting the death penalty,” Goodman said.

The difference? Kansas’ suffering was entirely self-inflicted.

No first-time head coach would be sufficiently prepared to take on that problem, but Beaty was hired to be a roster builder. As wide receivers coach at Texas A&M, he was one of the nation’s best at recruiting the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. With his three years of previous experience coaching in Lawrence, he knew how to recruit to KU.

And though his time under Mark Mangino proved to him that winning at Kansas was not impossible, Beaty understood it would take a long time to rebuild the roster the right way.

“We knew our plan was to build this thing around high school players and the development of high school players,” he said. “But we realized very quickly that there’s no way it could be simply high school football players and that’s it. It was impossible. So we had to retool our plan.

“We can do one of two things. We can bitch, moan and complain about it. Or we can work hard to fix it.”

The rule is simple: You can’t sign more than 25 scholarship players a year. And to get from 38 to 85, you need a lot more than 25 a year to begin closing the gap. So Beaty and his Kansas staff have had to get creative.

The tactic that’s yielded the most success thus far: blueshirts. This is a strange practice, one introduced years ago by New Mexico State’s football and compliance staffs. Blueshirt players pay for their tuition and housing in the summer and are put on scholarship on the first day of school. By not signing a national letter of intent before beginning classes, they’re counted toward the following year’s recruiting class. But unlike a grayshirt player, they get to enroll and play right away.

To qualify for a blueshirt, though, they technically cannot be recruited by Kansas. How exactly do you add a player without triggering his recruitment? The prospect can’t make an official visit. The coaches can’t have any in-person, off-campus visits with that prospect. They can’t send him a written scholarship offer or a National Letter of Intent, either. Instead, it takes unofficial campus visits, calls and texts to secure these prospects.

All in all, it’s a bizarre workaround. But at least five of Kansas’ starters last season — Hakeem Adeniji, Andru Tovi, Larry Hughes, Mike Lee and Cole Moos — joined the program as blueshirt players. Graduate transfers Corey King, Marcquis Roberts and Denzell Evans came in that way, too. The staff has taken around eight blueshirt players each year. They need all the extra help they can get.

Another method to help catch up: persuading players to walk on for two years and putting them on full scholarship for the final three. This helps because after two years, that scholarship does not count toward the 25-player annual limit. For walk-ons paying in-state tuition (roughly $10,000 a year), three years of cost-of-attendance stipend money can help offset those costs. Kansas has found a handful of players who were looking at FCS and Division II offers and willing to accept that deal.

“We looked at those guys and said: Is this guy better than the dude we have here?” Beaty said. “If he is, it’s probably less expensive for him to come here than it is for him to go to a Division II school if we think he might be able to develop.”

They’ve also tried to find graduate transfers who are willing to pay their way for the first semester and then be put on post-graduate aid to get their master’s degree. The Jayhawks lucked out last year in finding one in Nebraska transfer Zach Hannon, who logged six starts on the offensive line.

No other Big 12 team needs these kinds of ploys to reload its roster.

All of it can be challenging to track, too. Throughout his tenure, Beaty has preferred not to publicly identify how many of his players are true scholarship players and which ones are actually walk-ons. Even his Kansas players admit they don’t totally know who’s who.

“Some guys I think are scholarship guys and I don’t even realize they’re walk-ons,” receiver Steven Sims said. “Our walk-ons get treated exactly the same.”

Beaty has had to take junior college transfers to address needs, but the Kansas coaching staff knows it must be smarter about that than Weis was. They seek players with three-plus years of eligibility, and 13 of the first 24 JUCO transfers Beaty signed were academic qualifiers.

Kansas can’t get back to being competitive in the Big 12, though, on shortcuts alone. The development of high school players must be the foundation. Beaty and his coaches have managed to find some good ones. Three-star defensive end Dorance Armstrong came in at 6 feet 4 and 212 pounds and grew into an All-Big 12 selection and NFL fourth-round pick. Sims and running back Khalil Herbert were under-the-radar steals. Freshmen Corione Harris and Pooka Williams are two of the highest-rated signees in school history. The Jayhawks have a pipeline to Louisiana thanks to assistant Tony Hull and still do a strong job digging up gems in Texas.

But how can anyone recruit well and keep kids on board in the midst of all that losing? How do you get Big 12-caliber guys to side with Kansas over any other Power 5 offers? In an ideal world, this roster would be loaded up with high-potential high schoolers. In reality, this rebuild requires a lot of ingenuity. Beaty and his coaches have been chasing every possible answer to getting one man closer to 85.

“When you’re in a hole like that,” Kansas linebacker Joe Dineen said, “you’ve got to do everything you can to get out of it.”

Kansas needs to get as many true scholarship players as possible onto the roster. And then it needs to persuade all of them to stay, because the key to actually fixing the Jayhawks is retention. The scholarship crisis cannot improve if as many players are leaving the program as are joining each year.

In college roster-building parlance, the 25 players in their first year on scholarship are called “initial counters.” If Kansas loses one of those players, Beaty points out, the problem compounds. The Jayhawks lose a much-needed body as well as the initial counter.

“I had to make sure we didn’t lose kids,” Beaty said. “We couldn’t lose kids to quitting. We couldn’t lose kids to grades. We darn sure could not lose them to trouble. We had to protect those golden initials. We had to get the most out of them.”

Beaty tailored the Jayhawks’ internal culture around that objective: Keep players out of trouble by turning them into better people. He says his book on player development and education is “a mile thick” now at nearly 80 pages. They cover consent, harassment, crime, drugs, alcohol, anything and everything that can get them kicked out.

“He teaches us how to be better men before we even talk about football,” Sims said. “He teaches us a lot of life lessons. I appreciate him for that.”

The Jayhawks have turned around the program’s Academic Progress Rate, which had slipped to a dangerous score of 936 because of issues in Weis’ final year. Teams need to stay above 930 to avoid penalties, and Kansas football’s average semester APR is 960 since Beaty showed up. They graduated 38 of the 41 players they inherited from Weis. And Kansas players are staying out of the police blotter. As one Big 12 coach remarked with admiration: “You never hear one issue about his players. The culture is right.”

They haven’t kept everyone. The dismissal of Avery, Kansas’ leading rusher as a freshman in 2014, over a stolen laptop sent a message about their culture in progress. Avery transferred to Sam Houston State and became a three-time all-conference selection, rushing for 3,300 yards and 39 scores. As badly as the Jayhawks needed him, Beaty can’t make exceptions out of desperation.

He gathered his seniors in that first year and promised if they helped him establish that culture, he’d never forget them. Goodman, one of his 2015 captains, skipped Beaty’s first team meeting and wasn’t going to winter workouts. He was planning to grad transfer to Texas or Oklahoma State. Beaty set up a meeting and made his plea.

“He called me into his office and said he needed me, he wanted to lean on me, he wanted me to be the leader of the team,” Goodman said. “He really wanted that for me. I could see how sincere he was. I can read BS from people. He was very sincere. He was a man of his word. He really embraced the players and leaned on the players.”

The difference, Goodman admits, was stark. When asked about Weis, he says flatly: “We weren’t for the previous coach.” Beaty held Tuesday meetings with the team leaders to let them pick the weekly uniform combinations and present their ideas and issues. He fought for them to get Kansas’ outdated facilities renovated, from a brand-new locker room to a dedicated indoor practice facility. A $300 million renovation of Memorial Stadium comes next. He invested in the player-coach bond and backed up all his talk.

Goodman is back home in Beaumont, Texas, working for an energy company but made the trip for KU’s spring game this year. Goodman said Beaty showed him as much love as all their NFL players, even sending him a handwritten personal note thanking him for visiting.

“It shows his true character,” Goodman said. “He really cares. He really cares about the program and the players.”

It’s that warmness that helps explain why guys like Dineen and defensive tackle Daniel Wise, the Jayhawks’ preseason All-Big 12 selections, have stuck around. They could easily walk away from all the losing and transfer. Beaty says they’re talented enough to play for anybody. They say they stayed put out of loyalty to their head coach, their teammates and their belief that the turnaround is coming.

“I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t a little bit of a roller coaster,” Dineen said of his first four years. “But roller coasters are kinda fun sometimes.”

Ask Kansas players about the scholarship debt, and, like their coach, they deflect. No excuses. But over and over again, they’ve had to confront the frustrating side effects. Not enough players means more reps which means more injuries. True freshmen have had to play significant roles before their bodies were physically prepared for the beating. More injuries mean a greater likelihood of players needing to take medical retirements.

Kansas’ rate of attrition under Beaty hasn’t been awful — more than 60 percent of his signees from the 2015-2017 classes have earned starts — but when there’s no room for misses, every single player who departs makes this rebuild more difficult.

“Regardless of what our numbers are,” Wise said, “we’re gonna fight the long fight. We’re gonna deal with what we have and make the best of it.”

But there are lots of not-so-subtle reminders of the daily roster struggle. When the depth chart is that thin, Kansas’ starters end up practicing against walk-ons all week while the rest of their Big 12 foes are preparing against more talented backups.

“So we’re not getting that good look that we need before we face Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, all those teams,” Goodman said. “We’re not getting that look we need. It’s easy to win against those guys in practice. It’s not as easy to win on Saturdays. It’s really fool’s gold.”

They simply do not have enough.

How much more time does Beaty need to pull off his plan?

He likes to say the results are closer than they appear. He hopes he’s right about that but knows realistically the process is not close to complete.

“We need to get to 85 and then cycle through for it to be able to be like a normal program,” Beaty said. “It’s coming. We just need time. Because the truth is, to get it back to 85, it’s gonna be another three years now. It’s gonna take a while.

“You’ve just got to stay the course because, even if it hurts a little bit more this year and next, it’s better to do that than the alternative.”

Based on what he witnessed playing through the disastrous Weis era and Beaty’s debut season, Goodman offers the following argument: Give Beaty five years, because the first two weren’t his fault.

“Last year should’ve qualified as his first year, honestly,” Goodman said. “I understand an AD has to do what he has to do, but you have to give somebody a shot. You can’t fire three coaches in eight years.”

Consider all the components of the job Beaty took on that have little to do with scheme or coaching. The recruiting and roster building and culture management required to start making up the scholarship deficit is a time-consuming and intense challenge. Beaty and his staff have to do so many things right before they even hit the field to coach their players. And then they have to go play in a conference that sent eight teams to bowl games in 2017.

Texas coach Tom Herman is one of Beaty’s closest friends in the profession, so he’s not exactly unbiased on this topic. But he believes wholeheartedly that the Jayhawks are better off staying the course than starting over and potentially getting worse.

“I can’t fathom a better coach to take on that challenge than David Beaty,” Herman told The Athletic. “With what he inherited — the limited number of scholarships he inherited, the facilities he inherited, the apathy he inherited — he has stayed positive the entire time. You’re not gonna find a nicer man in the profession. He would give you the shirt off his back. He deserves all the time in the world to right that ship. Because it’s gonna take a while, especially given what he inherited. I think he’s earned it, I think he deserves it and I hope he gets it.”

Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self echoed those sentiments after Long’s introductory news conference, reminding reporters that KU football is not an overnight fix and that “sometimes you’re making progress a lot more than fans see.”

Has Beaty handled the job perfectly? Of course not. His teams have been blown out too many times (21 losses by 20-plus points) and been too sloppy. The Jayhawks’ minus-38 turnover margin since Beaty took over is second worst in FBS. He’s brought in touted transfers who’ve busted. He’s struggled to find a difference-maker at quarterback. There’s going to be trial and error when you’re a first-time head coach. The problem is, in this particular job, every little error threatens to make this process substantially harder.

Beaty did not take this job for the money. According to the USA TODAY coaches salary database, his $1.7 million salary makes him the second-lowest-paid head coach at the Power 5 level, ahead of only Cal’s Justin Wilcox. Beaty didn’t take this job out of some naive belief that it wouldn’t be that tough. He took the job because he genuinely believes this is a special place to coach.

“I love this program. I love it. I love it with all my heart,” Beaty said. “I love these people in this state, and I love this university. I’m not motivated by money or position. I’m motivated by these people deserving better. They deserve better. And it never should’ve gotten to this point. My biggest disappointment is I haven’t been able to do it sooner. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that, man, there’s some things that you can’t fix in a fast way. You just can’t. There’s a process that forces you to be patient.”

We’re about to find out just how much patience the leadership at Kansas can maintain through all the losing. It’s up to Long to evaluate all of the challenges involved and figure out whether another coach can execute a better, faster solution. And he must determine whether that coach is actually willing to take the Kansas job and stay there. How many wins does Beaty need to win over his new boss? It’s hard to say. To make a case for granting Beaty one more year, the Jayhawks will need to show undeniable progress.

“Our conversations have been terrific,” Beaty said. “Now he’s got to do what’s best for this university, and I get that. I totally get that. We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to put this place in the best position possible, regardless, to make sure it doesn’t take a step back. We’re gonna plan on being a part of it and continuing the rise.”

If Kansas pulls the plug on the Beaty era this fall, more players will leave and the next coach will inevitably need more time. But, eventually, this roster will be in far better shape. Eventually, Kansas will close in on having 85 true scholarship players. And whether they’ve fired him or not, they will have Beaty to thank.

 

[bad_teammate 13194]

Saying Colorado was 1-11 last year is bad, but it doesn't really put it into perspective.

Air Force beat them 41-10.
Minnesota rowed the boat over them 49-7.

Unbelievable garbage fire of a team.

Their one win was OT against a dogshit Cal team, 20-13.

Bowl game in 2023?

The Sanders experiment might blow up in their faces, but basing that off whether or not he keeps around players from that team means nothing.

[Helobious 9448]

2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Fuck me.

https://theathletic.com/4447590/2023/04/24/deion-sanders-colorado-footall-transfer-portal/

 

They have 

1 QB

1 RB

3 TE

0 WR

1 DL

6 5 OL (1 just left)

6 LB

1 CB

1 S

0 K/P

 

Even for you this is bad. Horrendously false list.

[Vic Mackey 47019]

.

[JMFP 1120]

On 12/28/2022 at 12:22 PM, LTtxfan said:

This found by @utexas8 

 

Ya'll need to relax, he's just making room for these dudes we were told about in December. Don't even need NIL money.

[The Dog 44020]

 

[Dennis Taylor 18812]

Deion Sanders is an all time hall of fame narcissist and garbage human being. He couldn't even start or run high school programs without both ending in scandal and failure. It might take 6 months or it might take 3 years but this will experiment will go up in flames sooner or later. 

 

And really classy not giving kids he forced to transfer access to their film

 

[NorLa Horns 1458]

Yall just dont understand. He is Deion Fucking Sanders!  He

dont need another coaches trash. 

All the best players in the country are coming to CU to play for him, simply because hes Deion Fucking Sanders!  

 Hes the best baseball player,  best football player. And now the best coach this world has ever seen

And you best keep that Deion out yo mouth. Its Coach Sanders!! 

[bad_teammate 13194]

Do schools actually just hand over practice film to players who are transferring to other schools? Did Brenan Thompson just give hours of practice film to Venables?

[MrBig 5396]

How many transfers were at CU before Deion? How many transfers that came from JSU with Deion are now in the portal? How many transfers who just enrolled in January are in the portal?

If a lot of transfers are the ones who came from JSU and just enrolled, the team is in deep shit.

[Dennis Taylor 18812]

5 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Do schools actually just hand over practice film to players who are transferring to other schools? Did Brenan Thompson just give hours of practice film to Venables?

They make a 2 minute cutup of their highlights, it's not like they're sharing launch codes. 

Plus Thompson's high school film and track times are enough for him

Edited April 26, 2023 by Dennis Taylor

[Dennis Taylor 18812]

5 hours ago, Helobious said:

Pretty perfect example of “estas viendo y no ves” here. You’re looking but you don’t really see. Deion said the roster needed a massive overhaul. He has massively overhauled it, just like he said he would. He’s not building a team that will be incredible for 2023, he’s building a roster that can contend in the years beyond that. I think they’ll win 4-6 games next year, pull in a monster recruiting class and be a force in 2024. He’s got the vision and the right attitude and pieces around him to bring it to life. 

Well now even Prime knows he's fucked

[crash_davis 23107]

3 hours ago, Helobious said:

Even for you this is bad. Horrendously false list.

So where's the link to the correct list?

[Big Frog II 511]

If he runs any more players off the team, he may have to suit up when Colorado plays us Sept. 2nd.

[Zhorn96 1773]

6 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Fuck me.

https://theathletic.com/4447590/2023/04/24/deion-sanders-colorado-footall-transfer-portal/

 

They have 

1 QB

1 RB

3 TE

0 WR

1 DL

6 5 OL (1 just left)

6 LB

1 CB

1 S

0 K/P

 

It’s what I fantasized TAMUs roster would look like when their exodus started

[Helobious 9448]

32 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

So where's the link to the correct list?

Their online roster? I’m not sure how you could think a college football program would ever have 19 total players on the team. 

[Chewbacca 7773]

Deion Sanders is an all time hall of fame narcissist and garbage human being. He couldn't even start or run high school programs without both ending in scandal and failure. It might take 6 months or it might take 3 years but this will experiment will go up in flames sooner or later. 
 
And really classy not giving kids he forced to transfer access to their film
 

Yes, let the hate flow.

So where's the link to the correct list?

Cubuffs.com

[DigglerontheHoof 21186]

Does the NCAA have a 6 man football division? 

[PilotsError 2287]

This entire thread has a pathetic “leave Britney alone!” vibe. 

[Uncle Nate 2097]

1 hour ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Does the NCAA have a 6 man football division? 

How much fun would that be?  I’d buy tickets. 

[Sawbonz 27546]

39 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

This entire thread has a pathetic “leave Britney alone!” vibe. 

You actually post? I thought all you did was go around handing out negs 

[bad_teammate 13194]

38 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

This entire thread has a pathetic “leave Britney alone!” vibe. 

I just want to watch the show. That's what Deion is for, the show.

The fake "THERE ARE ONLY 19 FOOTBALL PLAYERS LEFT ON THE TEAM!" or "OH MY GOD HE IS GETTING SUED FOR PRAYING! HE'S IN BIG TROUBLE!" type of fake shit gets in the way of the show.

Let the drama build, people, no need to invent things or blow things out of proportion.

[TexasPride10 576]

2 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

You actually post? I thought all you did was go around handing out negs 

LEAVE PILOTSERROR ALONE! 

 

[closetojumping 62604]

1 minute ago, bad_teammate said:

I just want to watch the show. That's what Deion is for, the show.

The fake "THERE ARE ONLY 19 FOOTBALL PLAYERS LEFT ON THE TEAM!" or "OH MY GOD HE IS GETTING SUED FOR PRAYING! HE'S IN BIG TROUBLE!" type of fake shit gets in the way of the show.

Let the drama build, people, no need to invent things or blow things out of proportion.

I find it all entertaining. That he’s polarizing only adds to my interest because, and I hope not naively, it feels very sportsfan-based in terms of why people are cheering for or against Deion’s efforts. He is one of my all-time favorite college and NFL players and personalities.

My issue with him at Colorado is I think what he’s done is strategically idiotic. And it’s not about 19 players on the roster. This is, however, about 55-60 players on the roster, with like 1/3 of them being RBs and WRs. It’s an easy call. This team is going to get its head beat in to the surprise of a whole lot of people cheering for Deion because they love Deion and think promotional brilliance translates to Pied Pipering a completely blown out roster into success. That’s fun as fans, right up until the guillotine drops. 

[crash_davis 23107]

9 hours ago, Helobious said:

Their online roster? I’m not sure how you could think a college football program would ever have 19 total players on the team. 

So you have no evidence other than gut feeling. Did you read the article? I don't know if the article is right or wrong but at least they spell out their logic. You may be right, but right now you are just as full of shit as they are.

[Helobious 9448]

7 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

So you have no evidence other than gut feeling. Did you read the article? I don't know if the article is right or wrong but at least they spell out their logic. You may be right, but right now you are just as full of shit as they are.

I have no Athletic subscription. I can tell you the article is already wrong just by the fact that his Jackson St kicker is still clearly on the team by his social media posts. And the fact that you’d have to be a full retard to think a college team could function at any time with only 19 players, which you are. Their official roster lists about 60 players, which is already insanely low for a college football team. 

[Plorant 799]

10 hours ago, Big Frog II said:

If he runs any more players off the team, he may have to suit up when Colorado plays us Sept. 2nd.

That may have been what he had in mind all along.

[Sawbonz 27546]

47 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I find it all entertaining. That he’s polarizing only adds to my interest because, and I hope not naively, it feels very sportsfan-based in terms of why people are cheering for or against Deion’s efforts. He is one of my all-time favorite college and NFL players and personalities.

My issue with him at Colorado is I think what he’s done is strategically idiotic. And it’s not about 19 players on the roster. This is, however, about 55-60 players on the roster, with like 1/3 of them being RBs and WRs. It’s an easy call. This team is going to get its head beat in to the surprise of a whole lot of people cheering for Deion because they love Deion and think promotional brilliance translates to Pied Pipering a completely blown out roster into success. That’s fun as fans, right up until the guillotine drops. 

To be worse than last year he has to go winless. Is that what you’re predicting?

[Josef Pwag 1738]

4 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

To be worse than last year he has to go winless. Is that what you’re predicting?

If they don't beat Colorado State......

[closetojumping 62604]

1 minute ago, Sawbonz said:

To be worse than last year he has to go winless. Is that what you’re predicting?

No. And you know that, so keep the silly rhetorical tactics that work on imbeciles somewhere else out of the dialogue. 

“Are you predicting a playoff run?” could follow any number of your fanboi posts on this thread but it would be tedious. 

I’m predicting he won’t come close to where you guys think the 2023 season is headed and I’ve put my money where my mouth is. And they will get their heads beat in along the way, for the reasons I’ve cited on this thread from the jump. 

[Pam Cummings 9640]

4 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

To be worse than last year he has to go winless. Is that what you’re predicting?

It could easily happen. The article about Charlie Weis ruining Kansas by doing this exact thing was pretty eye-opening.

[TreatyOak 16313]

People saying Deion is making a bad mistake by getting rid of really bad players reminds me of Woody Allen's old joke:

"The food here is terrible." "Yes, and the portions are so small." 

 

 At least he is entertaining. And LOL to people complaining about his coaching acumen. Need I remind you of the standard?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Atticus 3973]

He won't do well his first year, but he can clearly sell playing time now. He won't get the top guys, he doesn't need them, but there's a decent number of quality kids that he can assemble to eventually get to bowl eligibility in the next two years. 

[DFW Horn 6123]

1 hour ago, TreatyOak said:

People saying Deion is making a bad mistake by getting rid of really bad players reminds me of Woody Allen's old joke:

"The food here is terrible." "Yes, and the portions are so small." 

 

 At least he is entertaining. And LOL to people complaining about his coaching acumen. Need I remind you of the standard?

 

 

 

Mensa > 7-win Sark > Jumbo > CFS ?

[Pam Cummings 9640]

1 hour ago, TreatyOak said:

People saying Deion is making a bad mistake by getting rid of really bad players reminds me of Woody Allen's old joke:

"The food here is terrible." "Yes, and the portions are so small." 

 

 At least he is entertaining. And LOL to people complaining about his coaching acumen. Need I remind you of the standard?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting rid of bad players and replacing them with different bad players or no players at all is not a very good strategy, cotton. It doesn't matter if the player is bad, the good players need bodies to practice against.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Pam Cummings

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

https://theathletic.com/4451509/2023/04/26/deion-sanders-colorado-transfer-portal/

 

Quote

Travis Gray thought he had Sunday off. The day after Colorado football’s nationally televised, snowy spring game showcase, the offensive lineman was eating lunch at Olive Garden. He had a meeting with coach Deion Sanders scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday — until his phone buzzed with a text message from offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle.

That meeting had been moved up. It started in 30 minutes. An apologetic O’Boyle was waiting in the lobby of the team facility. As they made their way toward Sanders’ office, O’Boyle told him what was happening.

 

Quote

“He’s walking with me and said, ‘Hey buddy, you’re going to get cut today. I’m sorry to tell you this. I didn’t want you to hear it from Coach Prime. I wanted you to hear it from my mouth. I didn’t want to cut you, but we had to cut five offensive linemen, and you were the last one,’” Gray told The Athletic on Tuesday evening.

When Gray walked into Sanders’ office, his head was down. Then he looked up.

 

 

Quote

“I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ I saw the mean mug in his face,” Gray said. “He told me, ‘You’re 6-foot-8, 320 pounds. I know in my heart of hearts a school is going to pick you up in the portal when you enter. Make your weaknesses your strengths and keep progressing. I hope you have a great future, it just won’t be here at the University of Colorado.’”

Gray was disappointed. The Aurora, Colo. native’s father, Lamarr Gray, was an outside linebacker on Colorado’s 1990 national championship team. His dream of following in his father’s footsteps was over after just a year on campus.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Most of the 23 Colorado players who entered the transfer portal or announced plans to on Monday and Tuesday were told to do so, players say.

Defensive coordinator Charles Kelly called safety Jeremy Mack Jr., who made 48 tackles last year and worked with the first-team defense for much of the spring, into a meeting with Sanders, too.

“Coach Prime just told me up front, ‘We have plans to go another way. You competed. You did everything we wanted you to this spring, and you fought,’” Mack told The Athletic on Monday. “That was my first meeting with Coach Prime since I’ve been here.”

Since arriving at Colorado in December from Jackson State to much fanfare and intrigue, Sanders warned roster turnover was coming for a program that went 1-11 last season.

“I’m bringing my luggage with me, and it’s Louis,” the Pro Football Hall of Famer famously told his team in their first meeting, referencing the luxury brand Louis Vuitton as a way of announcing better players would be joining the program. “I want y’all to get ready to go ahead and jump in that portal. … The more you jump in, the more room you make.”

In the transfer portal era, pushing players out has never been easier or more common, but no one has done it in terms of sheer volume like Sanders. A total of 51 Buffaloes have entered or said they plan to since the portal first opened in December – 46 since Sanders took over Dec. 2. No other program has lost more than 29 players.

As in any coaching change, there’s no single reason why players depart. Some do it of their own volition, some less so.

Montana Lemonious-Craig starred in Saturday’s spring game, but he entered the portal Monday. He’s “one of the few kids who wasn’t pushed out” of the program, said Malik James, a private coach of Lemonious-Craig, who didn’t explain the receiver’s decision to enter the portal. “He loves Coach Prime and the program.”

Over the weekend, Sanders reiterated that Colorado would be making room for incoming transfers who Sanders has been chasing.

“You all know that we’re gonna move on from some of the team members, and we’re gonna reload and get some kids that we really identify with,” Sanders said after Saturday’s spring game. “So this process is gonna be quick, it’s gonna be fast, but we’re gonna get it done.”

“We’ve got to make some decisions,” Sanders continued. “That’s gonna be on me now.”

The Athletic reached out to dozens of Colorado’s transfers and spoke with five players who departed the program — three who left before Saturday and two who were cut on Sunday — to get a clearer picture of how the roster turnover has played out inside the Buffaloes program.

Mack may have been caught off guard, but for other players, it was clear where Sanders and his staff were investing their efforts. A line emerged, players said, between the returning players and newcomers.

“None of the new coaches would talk to the old players and treat us the same as the people they brought in,” said tight end Zach Courtney, who entered the transfer portal April 19. “The new guys wouldn’t be picked on as much in film. Coaches would tell them to just do better, but if it was an old player, they’d keep going off on what you did wrong and keep yelling about it.”

Eight Jackson State transfers were on Colorado’s spring roster. One is Sanders’ son, Shedeur Sanders, who Sanders introduced as the starting quarterback at his introductory news conference. Another is Travis Hunter, the nation’s top-ranked recruit in the Class of 2022.

That duo helped Sanders, in his first college coaching job, rack up a 27-6 record in three seasons at the Historically Black College and University, highlighted by a 23-3 record in his final two seasons. Sanders’ on-field success and recruiting prowess reeling in prospects like Hunter and a host of Power 5 transfers turned him into a desirable candidate on the coaching carousel.

So far, the Buffaloes have accepted 29 incoming transfers, some of whom practiced this spring, and more are expected to arrive this summer. College football recently eliminated the cap on 25 signees in a single class, allowing new coaches to flip a roster faster than ever.

Players have until April 30 to enter the transfer portal, but teams can continue to add players to their roster after the deadline.

The five players The Athletic spoke with relayed one consistent reality for players Sanders inherited: He spent little to no time coaching or speaking with them.

“I felt like he was more of a motivational speaker. He gives good advice, but he didn’t really talk to me once,” Courtney said. “I never really got to experience his coaching.”

“No relationship with him at all. I said what’s up to him a few times,” said Gray, who practiced with the second team before an injury during a scrimmage forced him to miss two days of spring practice. “I’m not sure he knew the names of half the kids he got rid of. He was worried about who he brought in. If you were on the 1-11 team, it seemed like he didn’t really care about us at all. He already said he was going to get rid of 25-30 of us, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Defensive back Simeon Harris, who entered the transfer portal April 17 after making 21 tackles as a true freshman in 2022, said he accepted how it was to play for the new coach.

“It was fun. He wants what he wants. He’s old-school and down to earth, and he’s going to be honest with you,” Harris said. “I didn’t really talk to him much, but you say what’s up in the elevator, say good morning, things like that.”

Two players said they experienced what they viewed as favoritism toward the newcomers and noted that while many of the new players who transferred in meshed well with the team, most who arrived from Jackson State kept to themselves.

Sanders elected to make players earn their jersey numbers in spring practice, with newcomer Jimmy Horn Jr., a transfer receiver from USF, being the first player to be given his.

“Everything you do around here will be earned. We ain’t giving you nothing,” Sanders told the team, according to a video posted to YouTube this spring. “So you gotta go get it, and you gotta take it.”

Cameras are common in the facility at practice, documenting the program for an upcoming reality show and a variety of YouTube channels that cover the program and players within it.

Added one player who is transferring and asked not to be identified so that he wouldn’t have trouble finding a new school: “Wherever the camera’s at, that’s where Deion is.”

Harris and Mack both noted they loved playing for Kelly, Sanders’ defensive coordinator who came to Colorado after four seasons working under Nick Saban at Alabama.

For his part, Sanders continued to speak publicly about the expected overhaul of the roster during spring practice this month.

“What you see is not what you’re gonna see,” he said April 15 of the spring game.

He also noted: “We’re not upset that anybody jumped in the portal and left. And we’re elated about the young men that we have coming in because they’re difference-makers. They’re truly difference-makers.”

Did players like Mack have the option to stay and not transfer?

“I guess not,” Mack said. “At the end of the day, I knew I did everything I could in my control to play ball. I just took it how I have to take it. It was out of my control.”

A recent NCAA rule change allows first-year coaches to cut players from the roster as long as they also honor their scholarships even though they’re no longer part of the football program. Asked about the rule, a Colorado spokesman said the university plans to honor all NCAA rules and bylaws.

Gray said he was offered a chance to keep his scholarship and not play football and hadn’t heard from any teammates who had not been given that offer.

“All the players who entered the transfer portal, we want to play football,” Gray said.

Last year, USC coach Lincoln Riley used the rule to drop 10 scholarship players from the roster as he attempted a quick remake of the program.

The 46 transfers since Sanders’ arrival are a mix of players who contributed at varying levels. Some played little or none at all in their time in Boulder.

Others like running back Deion Smith and receiver Jordyn Tyson, both of whom entered the portal on Monday, led the team in rushing and receiving in 2022, respectively.

Lemonious-Craig caught a 98-yard touchdown in the spring game and led the team with 23 receptions last year, totaling 359 yards and three scores. Nikko Reed, the team’s best cornerback a season ago, left the team and entered the portal last week.

Casey Roddick, one of the team’s leaders last season and its best offensive lineman, landed at Florida State and joined the Seminoles before spring after starting 30 games and playing in 42 for the Buffaloes. Cornerback Kaylin Moorestarted 14 games and committed to Cal after entering the transfer portal.

Other Buffaloes have landed at Boise State (WR Chase Perry), Charlotte (OL Austin Johnson) and Southern Illinois (OL Noah Fenske). A trio of quarterbacks — J.T. Shrout, Owen McCown and Maddox Kopp — ended up signing with Arkansas State, UTSA and Miami (Ohio), respectively.

But the majority of those who have left Colorado have yet to find new homes. Some could be searching for a while. Others, like Lemonious-Craig, had offers from major schools like Auburn, Penn State and Arkansas pour in almost immediately.

The transfer portal has given players more freedom of movement than ever, and the players who left Colorado will have immediate eligibility.

“He was a businessman,” Mack said of Sanders.

And the rule changes that benefit first-year coaches mean the cold reality that college football is a business hits home for more players more swiftly than ever before.

“For the new players, this spring was pretty electrifying,” Courtney said. “But for older guys, people really didn’t feel like we were wanted there. It was droopy. Sad.”

Said Gray: “We believed in him and his methods, and even though he told us he was bringing his Louis with him and suggested we all transfer, we all still stuck with him until we all got cut on Sunday. He’s trying to do his own thing and make his own team. It’ll be a whole new team, and I hope he has what he’s looking for.”