It is true that both Lincoln Riley and Deion Sanders have used the transfer portal extensively. In that regard, they are the same, but in so many other ways, they are profoundly different.
As of April 27, the USC Trojans and Colorado Buffaloes have the top two transfer portal classes in the country, per 247Sports’ rankings. How they got there, however, creates sharp contrasts.
When Lincoln Riley took over at USC one year ago, he made no secret of his desire to turn over a lot of roster spots. However, most of the changes on the roster occurred before, not after, the spring game. Riley was able to bring players in and get a decent percentage of them acclimated to the program. He had a win-now mentality which was able to turn USC into an 11-win team in his first season.
For Coach Prime and Colorado, it’s different. As Buffaloes Wire has noted, over 20 CU players have transferred out of Boulder after the spring game. USC and Colorado both turned over their rosters on a large scale in the first seasons of their current head coaches — Riley in 2022 at USC, Deion Sanders in 2023 at Colorado — but the timing of the transformations has been different, and that matters for the development of the team.
At the 2022 USC spring game, several big roster pieces were not able to play, but a good percentage of players was still on hand, able to begin to work within the system and develop familiarity with the scheme.
At the 2023 Colorado spring game, a few future Buffs were on the field, but so many of the core performers in that game — players who got touches and accumulated notable statistics — have since transferred out of town. Deion Sanders is not thinking about winning in 2023. He is focused on the long-term arc of the program, which is fine. It’s not a bad thing, but we’re noting how different it is from Riley’s approach.
Point-blank: If Coach Prime wanted to win now, in 2023, he would have orchestrated this massive portal stampede a few months earlier, in January or February. As things currently stand, it will take a lot of time for the 2023 CU roster to learn how to communicate and function as a collective whole. Colorado might be really good in 2024 or 2025, but 2023 is being sacrificed in the process. That’s not a mistake or a failure on Deion’s part, but it is the reality of the situation in Boulder.
Catch up on Buffaloes Wire’s complete coverage of the portal and note the transfers who have flowed out of the program below: