When Deion Sanders took the Colorado head coaching job, there was a lot of talk about him and the school. Many felt that Deion had broken his promise to JSU and HBCUs. Others saw it as the latest in a long line of selfish moves. And while many of his former players understood the situation, it appears that some of his incoming players took him up on his offer to play elsewhere.
Sanders credited athletic director Rick George as the person who is responsible for his leaving Jackson State for Boulder, applauding George’s “honesty, his heart, and passion for this University. He’s about winning.”
According to some of the recruits whose scholarship offers were not retained when Sanders took over as head coach, it appears that their impression of George is a bit different.
Grace Raynor and Manny Navarro of The Athletic spoke with the 13 recruits whose scholarship offers were not honored by Sanders and they tell pretty frank stories about how fast things can change.
“It was hectic,” three-star defensive end Carson Mott said. “It was a huge mess. I actually never got contacted by Deion or any of his new (on-field) staff. I got called. They told me that coach Deion didn’t want to honor my commitment and hung up the phone. I was in a group chat with all the other commits and they were all I guess freaking out, too, because a lot of us had our options closed for months now being committed to Colorado. So we hadn’t reached out to any school. It was a whole big deal.”
Multiple former recruits also added that they were assured by George that their scholarships would be honored no matter what, which didn’t end up happening.
“I was told by Rick George I was going to have a scholarship regardless of who the coach was going to be,” said Tyrone McDuffie, an offensive lineman from El Paso, whose scholarship was pulled. “He called me and my dad and he wanted the 2023 class to stay together. He said I was going to have a chance to be a Colorado Buffalo regardless of who he hired. They even sent former offensive line coach (Kyle) DeVan down to El Paso, Texas, to talk to me and my head coach and tell me stuff is going down, but you’ll still have a chance to be a Colorado Buffalo.”
“When Coach Dorrell was fired, (George) had said we were going to have our scholarship offers honored,” said three-star linebacker CJ Turner. “I was surprised when I got the call. It was so late in the recruiting process. I wish I was told earlier.”
The business of college football remains as murky as ever. Perhaps Sanders will find great success at Colorado with his guys, but there’s always a trade-off where someone else gets screwed.
