Colorado hasn’t landed the biggest fish in the recruiting pond – yet – but the Buffaloes added a whole bunch of talent on Wednesday.
On the first day of the early signing period, CU inked five high school recruits to national letters of intent and announced 16 transfers.
What CU didn’t do was sign Jordan Seaton, the No. 1-rated offensive tackle in the 2024 class out of IMG Academy in Florida.
With more than 30 scholarship offers in hand, including from many of the elite teams in the country, the 6-foot-5, 290-pound Seaton made national TV appearances to announce his verbal commitment to CU on Dec. 7.
A social media post on Tuesday from Seaton indicated he was still debating his final choice. By Wednesday afternoon, 247Sports projected that Seaton would sign with Maryland. He played his first three years of high school football in the Washington, D.C., area before going to IMG.
By Wednesday evening, Seaton had not signed with anyone, meaning CU still has a chance. The early signing period ends Friday and Seaton is expected to sign a national letter of intent by then.
While the recruiting world waits for Seaton’s decision, CU was busy announcing 21 new players, including a small, but talented group of prep recruits.
As of Wednesday, evening, CU had the nation’s No. 1-rated transfer portal class, per 247Sports, just ahead of Mississippi.
The high school class is ranked 98th, and last in the new 16-team Big 12, in large part because of the low numbers. However, the Buffs’ average player rating of 93.13 leads the Big 12 and ranks second nationally to Georgia (93.58).
After overhauling nearly the entire roster in his first offseason as CU’s head coach, Deion Sanders said the approach would be different this time around.
“You had to just fill the kitchen up (last year),” Sanders said in late November. “Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard and there wasn’t nothing there, so we had to fill the kitchen up with everything.
“Now it’s more directed and more accurate on, ‘OK, we need three of those; we need two of those; we need one of those.’ That’s pretty much how we’re going at it. We know what we want and we’re gonna go get it. I promise you that.”
In a more recent interview, on 247Sports.com, Sanders said, “We have two priorities right now: we’re gonna run the football and we’re gonna stop the run. And, we’re gonna protect (junior quarterback Shedeur Sanders).”
To do those things, the Buffs need to get better in the trenches, and that’s been a heavy priority. Of the 21 players announced Wednesday, four are offensive linemen and seven are either defensive linemen or edge defenders.
The Buffs also added weapons in the passing game (five receivers and a tight end), a pair of quarterbacks with college experience, a veteran defensive back and a running back.
Coach Prime has often reiterated that the majority of the class would come through the transfer portal, but Wednesday’s haul of prep signees was smaller than expected. CU had nine high school players committed, including Seaton. Three others were taken off of CU’s commitment list Wednesday, including edge Amontrae Bradford, who signed with Georgia Tech instead.
Of those who did sign, the Buffs got three four-star recruits in Brandon Davis-Swain (West Bloomfield, Mich.), Kamron Mikell (Statesboro, Ga.) and Drelon Miller (Silsbee, Texas), as well as two three-star recruits in Eric Brantley (Valdosta, Ga.) and Micah Welch (Baldwin, Ga.).
In the 247Sports database, which goes back to 2000, Miller is the eighth-highest rated player ever to sign with CU and the highest-rated receiver. Mikell is the second-highest rated receiver ever signed by the Buffs.
A former Texas A&M commit, Miller had three 1,000-yard seasons and also rushed for nearly 800 yards in his prep career. Mikell is an “athlete” who played quarterback, running back and cornerback, but is projected as a receiver with the Buffs.
Davis-Swain is the highest-rated edge player signed by CU since Nick Kasa in 2009. A former Notre Dame commit, he posted 50 career sacks, the second-most in Michigan High School history for any division.
Brantley recorded 34 sacks and 108 tackles for loss in his three seasons of varsity football. Welch ranks as one of the top 60 running backs in the country and in 19 games during his last two seasons of high school, he rushed for 2,268 yards and 24 touchdowns, averaging 6.7 yards per carry.
BuffZone has previously reported on each of the transfer additions, but CU officially announced that all 15 have signed their financial aid agreements. Those agreements are not binding for the player, so they could still be recruited by other schools until they enroll at CU.
The transfer group includes four offensive linemen who were starters at other FBS schools – Kahlil Benson (Indiana), Tyler Johnson (Houston), Justin Mayers (UTEP) and Yakiri Walker (Connecticut) – the leading receiver from Vanderbilt (Will Sheppard) and the top tight end at Cincinnati (Chamon Metayer) on offense.
On defense, the Buffs signed a trio of experienced, productive front seven defenders in Chidozie Nwankwo (Houston), Samuel Okunlola (Pittsburgh) and Keaten Wade (Kentucky) and a defensive starter from undefeated Liberty (Preston Hodge).