Colorado’s Deion Sanders has new coordinators, new league, new one-liners — and more drama

A tumultuous first season under Deion Sanders — and the subsequent fallout — left Colorado on uneven footing entering 2024.

Sanders made an early splash, famously telling his first spring roster that he planned to bring in his own players before major upheaval resulted in a team headlined by his son Shedeur and two-way star Travis Hunter.

And for a moment, it worked. The Buffaloes topped 2022 College Football Playoff runner-up TCU before blowing out Nebraska in the first game of the Sanders era at Folsom Field. They beat Colorado State the next week.

CU would win one game the rest of the season.

Now the Buffs enter Year 2 in a similar situation to Year 1. There has been another exodus and an influx of transfers. Two new coordinators have arrived in Boulder, and CU is once again a subject of attention and source of controversy with a Week 2 matchup at Nebraska growing ever-so-slightly nearer.

Former defensive coordinator Charles Kelly left for the same position at Auburn and offensive coordinator Sean Lewis, demoted partway through last season, is now the head coach of San Diego State. Their respective replacements are Robert Livingston and Pat Shurmur. Livingston was hired after 12 years as the Cincinnati Bengals’ secondary coach, and Shurmur was an analyst at CU after a lengthy career in the NFL.

“You have 127 years of NFL experience up under this roof,” Deion Sanders told reporters after Colorado’s spring game. “It’s on you. We are a tremendous navigation system to the game that you want to play. We know what we’re doing. We know how to get there because we’ve been there, especially as a collective group.

“Now, what separates me from everyone else is I’ve sat in three seats. I gave you a dramatic pause so you can follow me. I’m the parent, right? A couple kids in college football. I’ve been the kid, right? A straight dog. And now I’m the coach.”

They’ll be tasked with improving a team that’s still rebuilding after the shine of last September faded. Colorado’s hot start and Sanders’ bravado briefly masked the glaring holes remaining in a roster that went 1-11 in 2022. Even with new personnel, the Buffaloes’ defense allowed 6.3 yards per play and almost 35 points per game last season.

Meanwhile, a shoddy offensive line struggled to keep Shedeur Sanders upright and healthy. He was sacked 52 times and missed the final game of the season with a fracture in his back. Former NFL veteran tackle and Oklahoma grad Phil Loadholt — who played against Nebraska in 2008 — is now the position coach in the trenches.

For as much change as the coaching staff has undergone, the roster turnover is more dramatic. Forty-one players have left CU through the transfer portal since the end of last season, according to 247 Sports, and 42 have arrived.

Among the notable departures is Dylan Edwards, a quick, shifty running back who accounted for 620 total yards as a freshman, and Cormani McClain, once a five-star cornerback prospect. He’ll spend next season at Florida.

Ethan Boyd is in the fold on the offensive line, the redshirt junior from Michigan State bringing some much-needed stability and Power Five experience to a paper-thin unit. Wyatt Hummel was solid at Villanova. He’ll make the jump to the FBS level. Others, like Payton Kirkland and Zack Owens, were highly recruited out of high school but haven’t gotten significant playing time in college.

They’re additions to a roster that’s gotten a makeover for the second straight offseason, representing a program still seeking the right combination.

“Whatever 11 players is out there, we’re gonna make the most of it, so if they gotta do what’s best for them, that’s what’s best for them,” Shedeur Sanders said during the spring. “And the guys that’s coming in, they already know, I tell them straight-up what the mentality is. It’s no jealousy, it’s no anything in the locker room.”

After 13 seasons in the Pac-12, CU is back in the Big 12, with home games against Baylor, Kansas State, Cincinnati, Utah and Oklahoma State, and road games at UCF, Arizona, Texas Tech and Kansas.