Going into the new year: Colorado football’s star-studded 2023 recruiting class (thus far)

With the new calendar year only a couple of weeks young, many have heard the usually false, yet very cliché “new year, new me” at least a couple of times… or a couple of hundred times. 

While the phrase is quite overused and rarely ever true, some individuals fully embrace the saying–appearing to have bettered themselves for the upcoming year and hopefully for years to come. The Colorado football program is no different.

After another losing season with only one win, eleven losses, and a vacant head coach position to show for it, Athletic Director Rick George went above and beyond to hire one of the biggest names to ever grace the sport of football: Deion “Prime Time” Sanders.

While many football fans know Sanders–an all-time football great with an all-time personality–as one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history, Sanders has been steadily adding to his football résumé as head coach of the Jackson State University Tigers. 

During his three-year tenure at Jackson State, Sanders led the Tigers to 27 wins and only six losses along with two Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships, two bowl game appearances, and the first undefeated regular season in program history. Along with on-field success, Sanders brought historical attention and revenue to Jackson State as well as HBCU football as a whole.

With Sanders’ success as a head coach, it makes sense for Colorado football fans to be excited about his arrival. However, coaches can only do so much. 

No matter how good a coach is, the program has to put players on the field that can execute the coach’s game plan. Luckily for the Buffaloes, Sanders is well known for recruiting some of the best talents in the nation and is bringing some of his “luggage” from Jackson State to show for it. 

As of now, 247sports ranks Colorado’s 19-man high school recruiting class as the 19th best recruiting class in the nation. Colorado has also reeled in 23 players from the ever-so-popular transfer portal, including seven players from Jackson State. Colorado’s transfer class is ranked as the fourth best transfer class in the nation by 247sports.

Headlining Colorado’s recruiting class are recently committed five-star recruit Cormani McClain and four-star recruits Dylan Edwards, Omarion Miller, and Adam Hopkins. 

Ranked as the best cornerback in the nation, McClain looks to make a huge impact on the defensive end for the Buffaloes. Listed at 6’2”, 170 pounds, McClain is taller and lankier than the average cornerback. 

However, he did not become the nation’s best cornerback just for being tall. The Florida native posted a blazing 4.5 in the 40-yard dash, showcasing his rare combination of height and speed at the cornerback position. 

While some scouts have labeled McClain as raw due to his late transition from offense to defense, his production on the defensive side of the ball is undeniable. He picked off 19 total passes at Lake Gibson High School before transferring to Lakeland High School for his senior year where he racked up 16 tackles, five pass breakups, two interceptions, and a forced fumble in ten games of action.

McClain’s commitment is just another example of the influence that Deion Sanders has as a head coach. After McClain originally committed to the University of Miami, he failed to show up for his signing day in December–leading many to believe that he was headed elsewhere. 

After taking an official visit to Colorado a month later, McClain committed to the Buffs on Jan. 19. While he still needs to sign his National Letter of Intent to make his commitment official, this appears to be the second year in a row that Sanders has flipped the nation’s top cornerback’s commitment. Sanders flipped five-star recruit, Travis Hunter, from Florida State University to Jackson State around the same time last year.

On the offensive side of the ball, Edwards, ranked by ESPN as the eighth best running back in the nation, is widely known for his generational speed and pretty juke moves. The 5’9”, 165 pound speedster racked up 7,944 all-purpose yards and 106 touchdowns in his three years as the starting running back for Derby High School. 

Following a successful senior year campaign, Edwards received an invite to the coveted Under Armour All-American Game–an annual event that hosts the nation’s best high school players. At the event, Edwards ran a camp-best 4.41 40-yard dash to win the camp’s “Fastest Man Competition”. The Kansas product appears to possess a diverse skillset in the backfield, opening up options for the Colorado offense.

At the receiver position, Colorado looked to add to their young talent after a promising year from true freshman Jordyn Tyson. The Buffaloes did just that by inking 247sports’ No. 43 and No. 41 receivers in the nation–Adam Hopkins and Omarion Miller. With both being labeled as great athletes, Colorado is looking to make quite a duo at the receiver position. With a vertical threat in Hopkins and a polished player with few weaknesses in Miller, this just might work out for the Buffs.

While Colorado has made big moves in the recruiting game, their success in the transfer portal has made unprecedented waves in the college football world. 

With Sanders bringing his son, four-star quarterback Shedeur Sanders, and previously mentioned five-star Travis Hunter, among others, from Jackson State, transfer portal success was almost inevitable. The guarantee of a new quarterback and the almost inevitable transfer of the former No. 1 recruit in the nation just added another layer to Sanders’ already great résumé.

Shedeur, who has only bettered his reputation as a quarterback since arriving on the college football scene, is looking to prove a lot of critics wrong. Being the son of a former professional athlete brings a lot of public pressure, especially if your dad is your head coach and is also Deion Sanders. 

However, anybody who has followed Shedeur’s college career knows that he has the capabilities of being a top quarterback in the nation. FOX Sports thinks so, after picking the junior quarterback as a potential Heisman winner for next year. Shedeur has proved himself as a winning quarterback after going 23-3 in his first two years at Jackson State, throwing for almost 7,000 yards and 70 touchdowns with only 14 interceptions. 

While many believe Shedeur may have a hard time transitioning from FCS football to the Power Five, it is hard to believe that such a calm, cool, and collected player will do anything other than find success–especially with the talent surrounding him.

While it was obvious that Shedeur would follow his father wherever he went, there was quite a bit of speculation regarding Jackson State’s other players’ futures–especially the future of a playmaker on both sides of the ball in Travis Hunter. But not even a day after Sanders arrived in Boulder, Hunter made it clear during a Twitch live stream that Colorado would be in his future. 

As the highest-ranked transfer prospect in the 2023 class reacted to Sanders’ first official meeting with his new team, he emphatically said three words that confirmed his future endeavors: “I’m coming, coach.”

After posting 20 tackles, ten pass breakups, and two interceptions as a cornerback and 18 receptions for 188 yards and four touchdowns as a receiver during his freshman year at Jackson State, the anticipation for Hunter’s sophomore season has continued to grow. With the already proven chemistry between himself and the Sanders duo, Colorado fans can only imagine what Hunter will accomplish during his time in Boulder.

While Sanders has been able to bring some of his old talents from Jackson State, he has made it known that anybody is welcome in Boulder, letting players know, “I ain’t hard to find”. 

So far, that has been quite true as Sanders has signed 16 players out of the transfer portal that did not play for Sanders in Mississippi. Some noteworthy players that will be sporting the black and gold next season are former Arkansas State tight end Seydou Traore, former University of South Florida receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., and former Arkansas safety Myles Slusher.

In one of the best moves Sanders has made, he landed the second-highest rated tight end in the transfer portal (247sports) in Traore. Last year at Arkansas State, he earned honorable mention All-American and first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors as a sophomore. 

Traore racked up 655 yards and four touchdowns on 50 receptions on the year. These numbers placed him third in both receiving yards and yards per catch among all FBS tight ends. As a true sophomore, Traore arguably has the brightest future on the squad. 

With another offensive addition, Colorado landed the No. 14 receiver in the transfer portal (247sports) in Jimmy Horn Jr. from USF. Arguably one of the best receivers in the transfer portal despite his ranking, the speedy receiver is another great addition to the already talented receiving corps in Boulder. 

In 23 games at USF, Horn caught 67 balls for 959 yards and four touchdowns. He also made some noise in the run game with 14 rushes for 107 yards and a touchdown. With his speed, Horn also returned kicks for USF–earning First Team All-AAC honors as a kick returner in 2022 for his average of 29.9 yards per kick return and one touchdown on seven runbacks. 

On the opposite side of the ball, Colorado added former Arkansas safety Myles Slusher. Slusher–ranked as a three-star transfer prospect by 247sports–was listed as a four-star recruit coming out of high school. Slusher originally decided on Louisville as his next destination during the early signing period before flipping his commitment to Colorado. 

Injuries and an off-field incident have held Slusher back in his college career, but he has shown up to play when he has gotten on the field. In his sophomore year, Slusher played the best football of his college career, posting 50 tackles, four pass breakups, and two interceptions. Slusher is looking to be a big piece of the talented secondary Colorado has been building.

With all these great additions, it is obvious that Sanders’ hiring was far more than just filling a vacant head coach position. On both sides of the ball, Sanders and the Colorado football program have made plenty of upgrades, and it doesn’t seem like they are done yet. 

Let’s look at all the work Sanders has done thus far:

Signed Letter of Intent (18):

QB

Ryan Staub (3-star)

Kasen Weisman (3-star)

RB

Dylan Edwards (4-star)

WR

Omarion Miller (4-star)

Adam Hopkins (4-star)

Jacob Page (3-star)

Isaiah Hardge (3-star)

Assad Waseem (3-star)

Jordan Onocughe (3-star)

OL

Isaiah Jatta (3-star)

Hank Zilinskas (3-star)

Jack Wilty (3-star)

DL

Taje McCoy (3-star)

LB

Morgan Pearson (3-star)

Victory Johnson (3-star)

Kofi Taylor-Barrocks (3-star)

DB

Carter Stoutmire (3-star)

Jaden Milliner-Jones (3-star)

Hard Commits (1):

DB

Cormani McClain (5-star)

Transfers (23):

QB

Shedeur Sanders (4-star)

RB

Kavosiey Smoke (3-star)

WR

Jimmy Horn Jr. (4-star)

TE

Seydou Traore (4-star)

OL

Yousef Mugharbil (no ranking, 4-star in HS)

Landon Bebee (3-star)

Savion Washington (3-star)

Tyler Brown (no ranking, 2-star in HS)

DL

Shane Cokes (3-star)

Taijh Alston (3-star)

Jordan Domineck (no ranking, 3-star in HS)

Taylor Upshaw (no ranking, 3-star in HS)

Leonard Payne (no ranking, 2-star in HS)

LB

Vonta Bentley (3-star)

Jeremiah Brown (no ranking, 3-star in HS)

DB

Travis Hunter (5-star)

Kyndrich Breedlove (3-star)

Myles Slusher (3-star)

Tayvion Beasley (3-star)

Cam’Ron Silmon (no ranking, 3-star in HS)

K

Jace Feely (no ranking)

• Son of 14-year NFL veteran kicker Jay Feely

Alejandro Mata (no ranking)

P

Matt Vassett (no ranking, 3-star in HS)