Deion Sanders still doesn't hit the way in recruitment, but has Colorado Coach changed the approach?

Deion Sanders signed the future Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter – the recruits of the nation of the nation of the nation – for Jackson State without ever entering his high school campus.

Nobody visited in his employees either. It was unprecedented, an unthinkable recruitment victory that established Sanders as strength in sport.

In his sixth season as a college trainer and the third season in Colorado, Sanders competes with a recruitment approach that has become more traditional when his program has matured. No, Sanders still do not make a home or school visits, a much discussed choice that is assumed that he has made it the only one of 136 FBS coaches who have never brought in with recruits. Even the new coach of North Carolina, Bill Belichick, is circulating.

But in two seasons, Sanders passed from most transfers of a team in college soccer history into a class that reflects the norms of the squad building in a rapidly changing sport in 2025. Colorado did not respond to interview requests for this story, but the adaptation illustrated a lack of needs for quick solutions in a program that was extended from the 1-1111-colorado eggs, which was noted from the 1-11 colorado stealing grinder.

The 2025 class of the Buffaloes is 45 percent of the high school outlook (14) and 55 percent transfers (17) with 31 new faces, a bit of a change compared to the massive, unusual turnover, which he carried out in his first two seasons.

In 2023, Sanders brought 73 new players, with 21 (28 percent) being the high school outlook. In 2024, the high school rows with 43 transfers and 12 high school gool (21.8 percent of the class) fell even more.

“The (high school outlook) that we take want to play immediately,” said Sanders in November. “We want you to produce.”

Sanders emphasized the 2025 class in Colorado by turning the nation back on quarterback Julian Lewis, the nation's number 6 quarters back, after he was hired for Lincoln Riley and the Trojan for more than a year. Weeks before the early signing phase in December when USC came to the buffs class in a disappointing 7-6 season when Colorado remained in a late dispute over the Big 12 title game.

With the former quarterback Colorado Quarterback Shedur Sanders, Deon's son NFL-Bound, Lewis will compete The athlete'S No. 7 Transfer Quarterback.

Colorado opens the spring exercises on March 11 and will organize a spring game on April 19.

The class of Buffaloes took second place in national BIG 12 and 27 nationwide, according to 247sports. The two best views behind Lewis are offensive linemen. Card Smith from Mobile, Ala., With four stars Chauncey Gours from Nashville, Tennessee, committed to the buffalo on the same day.

The Buffaloes class offers six four-star high school prospects, more than any other Big 12 team, but Texas Tech, which contains the highest class of the conference. This comes from four high school recruits four stars or better in the two previous classes of the CU. Class 2025 contained prospects from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Michigan.

How about Colorado when he takes a 9-4 season?

While Sanders did not change his attitude to visit – “I don't go to school or nobody. I don't do that. I am too old to go to a person's school, someone house, ”said the 57 -year -old Sanders in December about Talk show presenter Tamron Hall -this strategy does not extend to his employees.

In his contract for private air travel for recruitment purposes per USA, Sanders now had a 200,000 dollar allowance of $ 200,000 in the amount of $ 200,000 The athleteWhat Colorado is in the same baseball stadium as what is reported by many of his colleagues.

The former offensive coach of Colorado, Phil Loadholt, who left Mississippi after last season last season, visited Smith's high school trainer Antonio Coleman personally, according to Smith's high school trainer.

“(Loadholt) was always in constant contact with Card and they built a relationship in which he felt at home,” said Coleman. “If (Sanders) appeared on campus, he would probably get a rush rush. Security is also a big deal in it. Nick Saban came on campus, but he was always well protected and well condemned. “

Sanders started his second season in Colorado with new coordinators. This year, both the offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and the defensive coordinator Robert Livingston are back. They were on the street when recruiting, said high school coach.

Many coaching teams in sport assign co -trainers to build relationships in certain geographical areas and later to put the position of the program into contact with the program's position trainers. Colorado mainly leaves position trainers to recruit their position wherever the players may be.

And although Sanders does not travel for recruitment, he often makes Facetime prospects, usually from his office in Boulder. Players – and especially in some cases, the parents of the players are familiar with Sanders' persona and game days who can make Sanders possible to influence the families of potential customers long before contacting.

“Nowadays they are dealing with many more people and children where Nil is the biggest thing, and it is the greatest topic of conversation,” said Jamie Graham, who trained Goden at the Lipscomb Academy. “Colorado has not forgotten zero, but the relationship part of it and what Colorado will make something special and will stand out to someone like Chauncey.”

Coleman said Smith and his mother kept privately that Smith Smith had been promised by Colorado, but it was less than what USC had offered.

Willie Gaston, who trained the four-star Quanell X Farrakhan Jr. in Galena North Shore in Texas, said Farrakhan, who signed Colorado in December and enrolled last month, did not accept the highest offer to other schools.

“I know that for a fact. It was a pretty big gap. But he went to a place where he felt comfortable, ”said Gaston. “All of these children want to play at the next level, and the greatest for him was who could develop it on Sunday. That was the greatest for him. “

Every year Sanders has leaned into this topic of conversation in his program. It finds in players who see the NFL registration information from Sanders and his employees and shop in the idea that they improve their pro perspectives.

Shurmur and Livingston spent almost their entire career in the NFL. Sanders continued to build up his employees with former NFL players who lack coaching without experience, but has noble fides in the field.

The Hall of Famer Warren Sapp was promoted to pass the Rush coordinator after he had come to the employees last season as a senior analyst for a salary of $ 150,000. He was also unofficially on the program in 2023. Sanders stopped Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk as Running Backs trainer last month, although Faulk had never trained at the high school, college or the professional level. Faulk and Sanders worked together in the NFL network. And the former Colorado star Andre Gurode is expected to train the offensive line after an all-pro-career and spent two seasons as a coach in the XFL.

“We, like in Deion, me, Warren (Sapp) and many people who have just played this trainer … the game gave us so much. Trainers gave us so much in us. We have to return these young children who come in football to teach them how they can get to the next level, but make sure that they go to the next level in the right way, ”said Faulk, who will earn $ 400,000 last month. “Everything made sense.”

Jerrime Bell, who trained the defensive lineman Christian Hudson in Daytona Beach, Florida, said, said several Big Ten schools offered Bot more money than Colorado.

“They don't land like with the bigger schools. But they did a good job to concentrate on him and let him know that he is her type, ”said Bell. “Georgia, Florida, Miami, when they recruit a child, fly in and they launched the full press. Colorado was in a different way, and it was more about relationships. “

Hudson committed himself to the UCF last summer, but drove to Colorado two weeks after visiting the campus in October. He also took official visits to Iowa, Maryland and Iowa State, but Colorado was the only visit he made as the beginning of his senior high school.

“It wasn't about the money for him. It was about coming to the field and the relationships he had, ”said Bell. “And at some point: 'I will earn the money in the back when I play plays to play College Football.”

Whether Colorado maximizes his recruitment potential under Sanders, if he is only available in Boulder, discusses an additional incentive for recruits to visit a campus where you may only have a minimal exposure and an area of ​​the country that rarely produces elite talents.

“It is Deion Sanders. If you are in America and know sports, you know Deion Sanders, ”said Bell. “You know what you get.”

Smith had never been to Boulder before visiting the campus. As soon as he visited, his mind was decided, said Coleman.

“He went to Colorado, the biggest reason was why they could rethink him,” said Coleman. “And he saw Jordan Seaton (No. 1 offensive Tackle Prospect in class 2024) and the success he had, and he wanted to bet on himself. That's why he decided from Colorado. “

As for Sanders' IronClad NO-Visit policy, even for potential views that were rated as Hunter, who made his status as a recruit as the nation as a second Heisman Trophy winner of the nation?

Graham said with as much exposure and access as Colorado offers on YouTube, he can get a feeling for how life is there for his former player. He suspects that recruits can get a feeling for Sanders and the program in the same way.

“Of course I follow Colorado,” said Graham. “He is not on the way, I don't see that it is a big deal. He has so many good people around him that he can speak out on the street and speak for him. “

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The athlete; Ric Tapia / Getty Images)