Tag: Colorado Buffaloes foootball

Trevor Woods enters transfer portal after redshirting 2024 season

One of the last players of the pre-Coach Prime era has entered the transfer portal

Longtime Colorado football defender Trevor Woods has entered the transfer portal, according to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports. His decision comes after the senior elected to redshirt the remainder of his 2024 season back in September.

Woods was one of the few pre-head coach Deion Sanders players who was on CU’s roster this past season. He began his college career in 2021 as a safety before converting to linebacker midway through the 2023 season. In four years with the Buffs, he recorded 167 total tackles, three interceptions and three forced fumbles.

Woods was responsible for several memorable moments early last season. He snagged interceptions against the TCU Horned Frogs and Colorado State Rams, the latter of which being a game-sealer in double-overtime.

From that point on, however, Woods was often inconsistent, struggling in pass coverage and run defense following his conversion to linebacker.

Woods is now looking for a new home with one year of eligibility remaining.

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Travis Hunter billed as country’s third-best player in ESPN’s midseason top 25

Is Travis Hunter the best player in college football? ESPN thinks otherwise

Colorado wide receiver/cornerback and Heisman hopeful Travis Hunter was listed at No. 3 in ESPN’s midseason top-25 college football player ranking, published Wednesday. Hunter was ranked behind Miami quarterback Cam Ward (No. 2) and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty (No. 1).

Hunter, a projected top pick in the 2025 NFL draft, has 587 receiving yards and six touchdowns thus far this season in addition to stellar play at cornerback. The senior has 16 total tackles, two interceptions, three pass breakups and a forced fumble on defense through six games.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders also made the list, taking the No. 16 spot.

While appearing on the “Outta Pocket with RGIII” podcast, Hunter sounded off on his chances to win college football’s most prestigious award, the Heisman.

“I know I can win it,” Hunter said. “Y’all see Ashton Jeanty, it’s not like we haven’t seen a running back that’s good. We haven’t seen a player that plays both ways, and I’m gonna keep saying that.”

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Coach Prime hints at change in Colorado’s running back room

Coach Prime hinted at a potential change in Colorado’s running back room

As the Colorado Buffaloes look to rebound this Saturday against Arizona, CU head coach Deion Sanders closed his weekly presser on Tuesday with an announcement on who will likely be starting at running back: sophomore Isaiah Augustave.

“(No.) 23 may get the nod this week,” Sanders said, referring to Augustave’s jersey number. “Everyone else has started but him, so he may be that back this week that gets the opportunity to do his thing.”

A transfer this past offseason from Arkansas, Augustave leads the Buffs with 127 rushing yards on 27 carries. He has appeared in every game but the opener against North Dakota State and scored his first touchdown of the season against Kansas State.

Sanders was originally inquired about the status of freshman tailback Micah Welch, who didn’t register a carry against Kansas State.

“You gotta understand he had a hamstring injury now,”  Sanders explained. “He didn’t practice every day last week, so you kind of bring him back slowly.”

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K-State head coach explains unusual string of Wildcat injuries during Colorado game

Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman was asked about the unusual string of injuries his defense suffered against Colorado

Injuries were a story all night long on Saturday as the Colorado Buffaloes fell to the Kansas State Wildcats, 31-28. However, that did not stop a raucous Folsom Field crowd from expressing displeasure with a strange sequence of injured Wildcats midway through the third quarter.

While trailing by two touchdowns, the Buffs were driving in high-tempo fashion when not one, not two, but three significant gains in a row ended in injury timeouts for Kansas State defenders.

Boos then came raining down from the Boulder faithful under the assumption that these injuries were feigned to allow for Wildcat rest and to sedate the black and gold’s momentum. After the game, KSU head coach Chris Klieman came to the defense of his squad.

“It’s our best players, we want them to stay healthy, and they’re not,” Klieman stated. “I get it, that’s human nature to think that guys are faking injuries. It’s our best players, we want them to stay in the game. They were legit. Jacob (Parrish)’s was really legit. (Marquise Sigle’s) was really legit and Keenan Garber, he cramped up.”

The Buffs ultimately scored on that drive via a 7-yard pass from quarterback Shedeur Sanders to wide receiver Will Sheppard to trim the deficit to 21-14.

Whether the injuries from Kansas State were strategic or legit as Klieman proclaimed, it didn’t make a massive difference in the end. The Buffaloes made a 10-point comeback later in the fourth quarter to take the lead, but a quick touchdown strike from the Wildcats shortly after was the deciding factor in Colorado’s first Big 12 loss.

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Shilo Sanders’ rough game garners criticism from Coach Prime: ‘I thought he played horrible’

Coach Prime gave a brutally honest assessment of Shilo’s performance on Saturday night

Following a tight 31-28 loss to the Kansas State Wildcats (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) late Saturday night, Colorado head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders didn’t mince words when discussing the performance of his son Shilo Sanders.

“I thought he played horrible,” Coach Prime said of the safety during his postgame press conference. “I thought he was rusty. I thought he didn’t have his footing.”

Shilo returned to action after missing three games due to a forearm injury suffered in Week 2’s loss to Nebraska. The Buffs went 3-0 in the graduate safety’s absence, raising questions on how the defensive back’s hard-hitting, aggressive playstyle affects CU’s overall defense.

When adjusting for sacks, the black and gold surrendered 221 yards on the ground to the Wildcats, led by tailback DJ Giddens. The junior logged 25 carries for 182 yards and averaged 7.3 yards per carry, including a rush in which he faked Shilo so well that the safety dropped to his knees attempting a tackle.

“He’s (Shilo) coming up trying to make the play, but open field, one-on-one tackle with that kind of back, that ain’t an easy task,” Coach Prime continued. “But he’s going to do better. I know what he has in him.”

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247Sports offers new approach to evaluating the Big 12’s best transfer classes

247Sports offered a new approach to evaluating the Big 12’s best transfer classes

Most transfer portal team rankings are purely focused on the talent coming into each program. However, aiming to “better evaluate teams as we enter the summer,” 247Sports recently offered a new approach to examining how each Power Four program has fared in the portal this offseason.

247Sports’ method takes the average rating of players leaving the team and compares it with the average rating of each incoming transfer, producing a net result.

Despite having 16 departures and only nine additions via the portal, BYU leads all 16 Big 12 teams with a net rating gain of 3.16. Utah — 24 departures and 16 newcomers — then ranks second at +2.57. Down at No. 7 is Colorado, which had a net rating gain of 1.29 with 41 departures and 42 newcomers.

Here’s some of what 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello wrote on the Buffs:

The overhaul at Colorado continued this offseason with a revolving door of stars, but Deion Sanders appears to have once again upgraded the roster through the transfer portal.

The only Big 12 team with a net rating loss is TCU at -0.15. Iowa State and its seven-player incoming transfer class ranks No. 15 with a small net rating gain of 0.02.

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Former Colorado WR Tar’Varish Dawson reportedly transfers to Jacksonville State

Former Colorado wideout Tar’Varish Dawson is reportedly headed to Jacksonville State

Former Colorado Buffaloes football wide receiver Tar’Varish Dawson is transferring to Jacksonville State, per 247Sports reporter Matt Zenitz.

The move marks Dawson’s third school in three years after transferring from the Auburn Tigers to Colorado last offseason. With the Buffs, Dawson played in only four games, all during the first four weeks of the season. He hauled in 14 passes for 124 yards in those contests, including his first career touchdown catch against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Following the end of the season, Dawson was reportedly dismissed from the Buffs due to a personal matter, resulting in his entrance to the transfer portal. The speedy 5-foot-10 receiver quickly racked up offers from Football Championship Subdivision programs before landing with the Gamecocks, who joined the Conference USA last year. Dawson didn’t fail to ruffle some feathers, however, when he visited in-state rival Colorado State in May.

Dawson is now at Jacksonville State, but numerous other former Buffs remain in the transfer portal.

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Deion Sanders gifts walk-on running back Charlie Offerdahl with Colorado scholarship

Charlie Offerdahl is a walk-on no more

The Colorado football program and head coach Deion Sanders rewarded walk-on running back Charlie Offerdahl with a scholarship on Saturday prior to the Buffs’ spring game.

Throughout spring practice, Offerdahl showed great backfield production and made himself a candidate for CU’s top player of the spring. In the locker room before kickoff, Coach Prime informed the three-year walk-on that he’s now on scholarship.

For the Dakota Ridge High School alum and Colorado native, the moment was everything.

“I had a couple FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) offers coming out of high school, but Colorado’s home,” Offerdahl said after the spring game. “I always said, ‘home is where the buffalo roam.’ My family is here in Colorado, so that’s a big part of it, and I had faith in Coach Prime. I had faith in my ability to showcase what I can do for this staff and this campus.”

Offerdahl spent the last three seasons with the Buffs, appearing in 20 games after redshirting his freshman year. This spring, Offerdahl stepped up amid the changes to the running back room.

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Former Colorado WR Xavier Weaver signs with Arizona Cardinals as undrafted free agent

Three Buffs signed undrafted free-agent contracts on Saturday

Former Colorado Buffaloes football wide receiver Xavier Weaver signed with the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent Saturday afternoon.

Weaver inked the deal shortly after the 2024 NFL draft wrapped up, sitting through the entirety of the event without hearing his name called. Nonetheless, Weaver found himself on an NFL roster at the end of the day.

The contract Weaver signed included $255,000 in guaranteed money, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Weaver spent four years at USF before transferring to Colorado and becoming one of quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ favorite targets. As a graduate student in his lone year with the Buffs, he posted 68 receptions for 908 yards, leading the team in both categories. Four of his receptions resulted in touchdowns and two more came on rushes.

Arizona added Weaver to an incoming class that includes two other wideouts. With the fourth overall pick, the Cardinals took Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., the consensus best receiver in the draft. They later took Tehjaun Palmer out of the University of Alabama Birmingham in the sixth round.

Weaver joins defensive lineman Leonard Payne Jr. and edge rusher Derrick McLendon II as the only Buffs players from head coach Deion Sanders’ first year in Boulder to land NFL deals. Payne (Miami Dolphins) and McLendon (Carolina Panthers) signed undrafted free-agent deals.

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Social media reacts to short-lived Colorado commit DJ Lundy returning to Florida State

After signing with the Buffs on Christmas Day, DJ Lundy has decided to return to his former school

Colorado’s search for a transfer portal linebacker became even more important when DJ Lundy announced Wednesday that he’s returning to Florida State. The short-lived Buff had entered the portal on Dec. 13 before signing with Colorado on Christmas Day.

Now, however, Lundy is set to play his fifth college football season in Tallahassee next fall.

Known as a strong run defender, Lundy racked up 54 total tackles and two sacks for the Seminoles this past season. The rising redshirt senior has even been used occasionally at fullback throughout his college career.

Here’s how social media reacted to Lundy announcing his return to Florida State: