Deion Sanders signed future Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter — the nation’s No. 1 general recruit — to Jackson State with out ever stepping foot on his highschool campus.
Nobody on his workers visited, both. It was unprecedented, an unthinkable recruiting victory that established Sanders as a pressure within the sport.
However now coming into his sixth season as a university coach and third season at Colorado, Sanders has a recruiting method that has grown extra conventional as his program has matured. No, Sanders nonetheless isn’t making house or faculty visits, a a lot mentioned selection that’s believed to have made him the one one among 136 FBS coaches to have by no means made off-campus contact with recruits. Even new North Carolina coach Invoice Belichick is making the rounds.
However in two seasons, Sanders went from taking probably the most transfers of any workforce in school soccer historical past to a category that carefully displays the norms of roster constructing in a quickly shifting sport in 2025. Colorado didn’t reply to interview requests for this story, however the adjustment illustrates a scarcity of want for fast fixes at a program that’s markedly improved from the 1-11 Colorado workforce Sanders inherited.
The Buffaloes’ 2025 class is 45 % highschool prospects (14) and 55 % transfers (17), with 31 new faces, fairly a change from the large, uncommon turnover he carried out in his first two seasons.
In 2023, Sanders introduced in 73 new gamers, with 21 (28 %) being highschool prospects. In 2024, the highschool ranks dropped much more, with 43 transfers and 12 highschool prospects (21.8 % of the category).
“The (highschool prospects) that we take, we would like them to play instantly,” Sanders mentioned in November. “We would like them to provide.”
Sanders highlighted Colorado’s 2025 class by flipping quarterback Julian Lewis, the nation’s No. 6 quarterback, from USC after he was dedicated to Lincoln Riley and the Trojans for greater than a 12 months. Weeks earlier than the December early signing interval, with USC mired in a disappointing 7-6 season, he joined the Buffs class as a substitute as Colorado stayed in late rivalry for the Huge 12 title recreation.
Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis arrived at Colorado in December. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Photos)
With former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son, NFL-bound, Lewis will compete to win the beginning job this spring in opposition to Kaidon Salter, a Liberty switch who helped lead the Flames to an undefeated common season and a New Yr’s Six bowl in 2023 and rated as The Athletic’s No. 7 switch quarterback.
Colorado opens spring observe on March 11 and can host a spring recreation on April 19.
The Buffaloes’ general class ranked second within the Huge 12 and twenty seventh nationally, per 247Sports. The highschool class ranked fourth within the Huge 12 and thirty seventh nationally, per the 247Sports Composite. The highest two prospects behind Lewis are offensive linemen. Carde Smith of Cellular, Ala., was dedicated to Auburn after which USC earlier than flipping to Colorado every week earlier than the early signing interval. Fellow four-star Chauncey Gooden, from Nashville, Tenn., dedicated to the Buffaloes on the identical day.
The Buffaloes’ class options six four-star highschool prospects, greater than another Huge 12 workforce however Texas Tech. That’s up from 4 highschool recruits four-stars or higher in every of CU’s earlier two courses. The 2025 class featured prospects from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Michigan.
How is Colorado doing it, past coming off a 9-4 season?
Whereas Sanders hasn’t modified his stance on taking visits — “I don’t go to no person’s faculty or no person’s home. I’m not doing that. I’m too outdated to be going to anyone’s faculty, anyone’s home,” Sanders, 57, advised discuss present host Tamron Corridor in December — that technique doesn’t prolong to his workers.
Sanders left untouched a $200,000 allowance in his contract for personal air journey for recruiting functions, per USA At present, however the Buffaloes spent $943,504 on recruiting within the 2024 fiscal 12 months, in response to Colorado’s NCAA monetary types obtained by The Athletic, which places Colorado in the identical ballpark as what’s reported by a lot of its friends.
Former Colorado offensive line coach Phil Loadholt, who left for Mississippi State after final season, visited Smith in particular person 4 or 5 occasions, in response to Smith’s highschool coach, Antonio Coleman.
“(Loadholt) was at all times in fixed contact with Carde, and so they constructed a relationship that made him really feel like he was at house,” Coleman mentioned. “If (Sanders) confirmed up on campus, he’d in all probability get bum-rushed. Security is a giant deal in that additionally. Nick Saban got here to campus, however he was at all times well-protected and well-surrounded.”
Sanders started his second season at Colorado with new coordinators. This 12 months, each offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and defensive coordinator Robert Livingston are again. They’ve been fixtures on the street in recruiting, highschool coaches mentioned.
Many teaching staffs across the sport assign assistant coaches to construct relationships in particular geographic areas and later put prospects in contact with this system’s place coaches. Colorado largely leaves place coaches to recruit their place, wherever the gamers could also be.
And although Sanders doesn’t journey to recruit, he does steadily FaceTime prospects, often from his workplace in Boulder. Gamers — and extra importantly in some circumstances, gamers’ dad and mom — are accustomed to Sanders’ persona and taking part in days, which might permit Sanders to make an impression on prospects’ households lengthy earlier than he makes contact.
“As of late, you’re coping with much more folks and children the place NIL is the most important factor, and it’s the most important matter of dialog,” mentioned Jamie Graham, who coached Gooden at Lipscomb Academy. “Colorado didn’t overlook about NIL however understood the connection a part of this and what’s going to make Colorado particular and stand out to somebody like Chauncey.”
Coleman mentioned Smith and his mom saved personal the quantity of an NIL supply Smith had been promised by Colorado however mentioned it was lower than what USC had supplied.
Willie Gaston, who coached four-star vast receiver Quanell X Farrakhan Jr. at Galena North Shore in Texas, mentioned Farrakhan — who signed with Colorado in December and enrolled final month — didn’t take the best supply given to him by different colleges.
“I do know that for a truth. It was a reasonably large hole. However he was going someplace he felt snug,” Gaston mentioned. “All these children need to play on the subsequent degree, and the most important factor for him was who may develop him to play on Sundays. That was the most important factor for him.”
Sanders has leaned into that speaking level in his program yearly. It resonates with gamers who see the NFL credentials of Sanders and his workers and purchase into the thought they improve their professional prospects.
Shurmur and Livingston have spent almost their total careers within the NFL. Sanders has continued to inventory his workers with former NFL gamers who lack expertise teaching however have on-field bona fides.
Corridor of Famer Warren Sapp was promoted to move rush coordinator after becoming a member of the workers as a senior analyst final season for a $150,000 wage. He was across the program in an unofficial capability in 2023, too. Sanders employed Corridor of Famer Marshall Faulk as working backs coach final month, regardless of Faulk by no means teaching at the highschool, school or skilled ranges. Faulk and Sanders labored collectively on the NFL Community. And former Colorado star Andre Gurode is predicted to assist coach the offensive line after an All-Professional profession and having spent two seasons as a coach within the XFL.
“We, as in Deion, myself, Warren (Sapp), and a whole lot of guys that performed that coach proper now … the sport has given us a lot. Coaches poured into us a lot. Now we have to present that again to those younger children arising in soccer, to show them learn how to get to the subsequent degree, however guarantee that they go to the subsequent degree the fitting method,” Faulk, who will make $400,000, advised the “Wealthy Eisen Present” final month. “It simply all made sense.”
Jerrime Bell, who coached defensive lineman Christian Hudson in Daytona Seashore, Fla., mentioned a number of Huge Ten colleges supplied Bell extra money than Colorado.
“You don’t get the helicopter touchdown such as you do with the larger colleges. However they did job of zeroing in on him, letting him know he’s their man,” Bell mentioned. “Georgia, Florida, Miami, once they recruit a child, they arrive flying in and so they put the full-court press on. Colorado went about it a special method, and it was extra nearly relationships.”
Hudson dedicated to UCF final summer time however flipped to Colorado two weeks after taking an on-campus go to in October. He additionally took official visits to Iowa, Maryland and Iowa State, however Colorado was the one go to he took as soon as his senior highschool season started.
“It wasn’t in regards to the cash for him. It was about getting on the sphere and the relationships he had,” Bell mentioned. “And finally, ‘I’ll make the cash up on the again finish once I make performs taking part in school soccer.’”
Whether or not Colorado is maximizing its recruiting potential underneath Sanders if he’s out there solely in Boulder is up for debate, but it surely does present an added incentive for recruits to make visits to a campus to which they could have minimal publicity and an space of the nation that occasionally produces elite expertise.
“It’s Deion Sanders. In the event you’re in America and know sports activities, you understand Deion Sanders,” Bell mentioned. “You understand what you’re gonna get.”
Smith had by no means been to Boulder earlier than his campus go to. As soon as he visited, his thoughts was made up, Coleman mentioned.
“Him going as much as Colorado was the most important cause they had been capable of make him rethink,” Coleman mentioned. “And he noticed Jordan Seaton (the No. 1 offensive deal with prospect within the 2024 class) and the success he had and he wished to wager on himself. That’s why he selected Colorado.”
As for Sanders’ ironclad no-visit coverage, even for prospects as extremely rated as Hunter, who made good on his standing because the nation’s No. 1 recruit to turn out to be Colorado’s second Heisman Trophy winner?
Graham mentioned with as a lot publicity and entry as Colorado gives on YouTube, he can get a really feel for what life is like for his former participant there. He suspects recruits can get a really feel for Sanders and this system in the identical method.
“I discover myself naturally following Colorado,” Graham mentioned. “Him not being out on the street, I don’t see it being a giant deal. He has so many good folks round him that may get out on the street and converse for him.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Ric Tapia / Getty Photos)