Moments after the Kansas State Wildcats ended Colorado’s 3-9 season last month, CU football coach Deion Sanders said he and his staff already had a pretty good idea of who was going to be leaving the program via the Transfer Portal, and that they were prepared for it. If he did know the names of the first two starters the Buffs would reportedly be losing, he hid that news very well. To Buffs Nation, losing their best receiver and perhaps best returning defensive back isn’t something to simply shrug off.
Then again, this is how it is for almost every team in college football these days. And the way the portal is now set up, with just one “free agency” period that starts on January 2nd, the portal is going to take guys away before it allows for many feel-good additions.
Portal Didn’t Pan Out for CU Buffs last season
Last year, CU brought in quarterback Kaidon Salter via the Transfer Portal, expecting him to pick up where Shedeur Sanders left off. Unfortunately, Salter didn’t have the kind of season the Buffs and their fans were hoping for, and he was eventually replaced by freshman Ju Ju Lewis. So unless something totally shocking happens and Lewis decides to transfer, he will be CU’s QB next fall and the Buffs won’t be combing the portal ranks for a new signal caller.
They will be looking for more highly ranked guys to catch passes from Lewis next season. That’s one area where Sanders and his staff have excelled, landing fleet pass catchers out of the portal. CU already has to replace graduating senior Sincere Brown, who came on strong late in the season. Now comes the news that the fourth leading receiver in the Big 12, standout Omarion Miller, will leave CU via the portal in January.
Sanders and new Offensive Coordinator Brennan Marion will be leaning of the continued growth of Sophomore-to-be Quentin Gibson, a speedster who also returns kicks, and Joseph Williams, a junior next fall, to fill the gap left by Miller and Sincere Brown.
Defense Thrown for a Big Loss in Portal
The Buffs also took a hit in the secondary when Junior-to-be Tawfiq Byard announced that he was also going to find a new school via the Portal. Byard had teamed with Oklahoma State transfer DJ McKinney to help greatly improve CU’s pass defense last season as the season wore on. NFL scouts do have their eyes on McKinney, and it won’t be a shock if he decided to turn pro. Byard will look to land somewhere else and play one more season before he’s eligible for the NFL a year from now.
So that’s at least one key underclassman defensive starter already gone from a unit that was already thin and less than stellar last season. Add in the heavy graduation losses of players like Amari McNeil, Keaton Wade, Jeremiah Brown, Preston Hodge, Ivan Yates and Ben Finneseth and it won’t be a surprise if Defensive Coordinator Robert Livingston will be scouring through the Transfer Portal all for himself.
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