US LBM Coaches Poll: Indiana tops as No. 1 team
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- Colorado coach Deion Sanders addressed recent comments from former players who transferred from his program.
- He noted that some players “play the victim” and that the program made “tremendous mistakes” at certain positions last season.
- After a 3-9 season, Colorado lost over 35 players to transfers but also gained 59 newcomers this spring.
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders gave his second news conference of the spring practice season Tuesday, April 7, and used it to address recent comments from former Colorado players who made comparisons between Sanders’ program and the new teams they joined.
The list includes star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton, who transferred from Colorado to LSU, and quarterback Ryan Staub, who transferred from Colorado to Tennessee.
∎ “My decision to come here was just based off of it just means more (at LSU),” Seaton said from LSU said March 26.
∎ “In my three years of college football, I haven’t had as much coaching as I’ve had in the first month that I’ve been here,” Staub also said in March.
They didn’t directly disparage Colorado and might have been just trying to say something positive about their new school without realizing it might reflect negatively on their previous school. But Sanders brought up the issue Tuesday without being asked about it.
“Some of our past players have been commenting on us, which is cool with me,” Sanders said. “We’re not gonna be provoked or coming back or say anything ignorantly back. I wish those guys the best.”
Deion Sanders says ‘some young men play the victim’
Sanders noted some of these players made their names at Colorado before moving on. He said he was proud departed players were able to “earn more than they earned here” with payments for their names, images and likenesses (NIL).
“We still in good relationships with quite a few, but you got to understand, some young men play the victim, and that’s not the case,” Sanders said. “We try to treat everybody here with utmost respect and professionalism.”
Former Colorado defensive lineman London Merritt left for Clemson and explained his decision similarly. Players generally don’t leave unless they think they can do better somewhere else, but saying publicly can sting their former team.
“It was just a lot better than where I was,” Merritt said. “Facility-wise, coaching-wise, feel like it was just a better option for me.”
Sanders lost more than 35 players who decided to transfer after last season, when the Buffaloes finished 3-9. But he also gained 59 newcomers this spring, including transfers from other schools.
Those newcomers “may have seen that the grass is greener from some other school that they left,” Sanders said.
Deion Sanders: ‘We made some tremendous mistakes’
Colorado closes the spring practice season April 11 with an annual intrasquad scrimmage at Folsom Field. It will be the first spring game that is not televised on cable television since Sanders was hired in December 2022.
“I think we’ve gotten better everywhere, starting with me, and understanding what to go get, what we have, how to mature it, how to develop it, as well as the staff that we have,” Sanders said.
Looking back at last season, he mentioned failures at certain positions without naming names or positions. One glaring setback came at quarterback, where the Buffaloes suffered after Sanders’ son Shedeur left for the NFL last year. This year, redshirt freshman Julian Lewis is expected to take over, with competition from Utah transfer Isaac Wilson and freshman Kaneal Sweetwyne.
“We made some tremendous mistakes in certain positions that derailed us a year ago,” Sanders said. “The first couple years, we had stability at those positions that highlighted us. So, we learn quite a bit of not just talent, but understanding mentality. And mentality is something that we targeted, is something that we sit down and interviewed, and made sure not only the young men, but the parents, had that type of mentality, because the parents play a tremendous role in these young men’s lives.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]
