Tag: colorado buffaloes football recruiting

Four-star WR Zycarl Lewis commits to Colorado following visit

Four-star WR Zycarl Lewis became Colorado’s seventh 2024 commit

Not long after Brandon Davis-Swain announced his commitment to Colorado, head coach Deion Sanders managed to secure another 2024 blue-chipper for his 2024 class as four-star wide receiver Zycarl Lewis pulled the trigger on Sunday.

Coach Prime raided the Sunshine State again to pick up the commitment of Lewis, who comes to the Buffs from Carrollwood Day School in Tampa, Florida. Colorado beat out an impressive group of schools for the services of Lewis, including Florida, Florida State, Miami, Auburn and LSU, to name a few.

His commitment to CU came following a successful weekend visit to Boulder.

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound Lewis is a jack-of-all-trades who has experience at running back, wide receiver and returner. What he may lack in size, he makes up for in top-end speed, as noted by Andrew Ivins of 247Sports:

A pint-sized playmaker that has given defenses plenty of issues for three-straight years down in the fertile recruiting grounds of Florida. Believed to be hovering right around 5-foot-10, 160 pounds. Measurements – obviously – aren’t ideal, but makes up for the subpar frame with his burst and top-end speed (anchored a 4×100 team that qualified for states as a sophomore). Smooth operator in the slot that can work all different numbers of the route tree and find holes in different coverages. Likes to attack the football and get aggressive at the catch point, which is encouraging given the smaller dimensions.

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Tony’s Take: The Buffs’ Florida pipeline is open and flowing

The Buffaloes have planted a flag in the Sunshine State

In the popular EA Sports video game NCAA Football 14, you needed to snag three players from a state in order to consider that state a pipeline. This allowed you to recruit those players at a reduced cost and was absolutely necessary for the hotbed states such as California, Texas and Florida.

Those states have long been considered the best to recruit high school talent to join the college football ranks. The CU Buffs have historically done well in California and Texas, but they’ve had little to no footprint in Florida.

Head coach Deion Sanders, however, has changed this in a major way, finally opening Colorado’s pipeline to the Sunshine State.

Let’s bring in some numbers to back this up. According to 247Sports, Florida produced an average of six five-star recruits and 42 four-stars annually from 2020-2024. Before this year’s recruiting cycle, CU hadn’t signed more than two Florida prospects in a class since 2017 when Mike MacIntyre picked up Dante Sparaco, Shamar Hamilton and Carson Wells.

This year’s cycle includes a whopping four high school commits, including five-star Cormani McClain, Asaad Waseem, Isaiah Hardge and Kareem Harden, and nine transfers who played in Florida.

For the Buffs, what was once a trickle has turned into a waterfall of talent coming in from the recruiting hotbed of Florida.

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Colorado makes 2024 four-star OL Jordan Seaton’s top list of schools

Top-ranked class of 2024 IOL Jordan Seaton included Colorado in his top list of schools

After Colorado made a splash by hiring Deion Sanders this offseason, the program’s recruiting has improved markedly.

Colorado’s 2023 recruiting class sits at No. 21 overall in the country, and the Buffs have the top transfer class in the nation (247Sports).

As for 2024, the Buffs remain in the chase for four-star Jordan Seaton, an interior offensive from St. John’s College High School in Washington D.C. who included CU in his top 14.

Seaton has a long way to go in his recruiting process, but if the Buffs were to get his commitment, they would be getting a versatile lineman who excels in both pass and run protection. The 6-foot-5, 287-pound recruit is ranked as the top IOL and the No. 41 overall prospect in the 2024 class, according to the 247Sports Composite.

As of this writing, Seaton would become the Buffs’ highest-ranked commit in their 2024 class.

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Colorado football recruiting: Three-star LB Victory Johnson commits to Buffaloes

Victory is coming to Boulder

The Colorado Buffaloes picked up a Victory on the recruiting front.

Victory Johnson, a three-star linebacker from Cathedral Catholic High School (San Diego, California), chose the Buffaloes over nine other schools on Saturday, including Washington and USC.

Johnson is Colorado’s 18th commitment in the 2023 recruiting class and the second linebacker, joining fellow three-star CJ Turner.

At 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, Johnson provides good size to go along with the speed and versatility to play both outside and middle linebacker. Notably, Johnson excels at stopping the run, a trait that should of course help the Buffaloes and their run defense.

Getting Johnson’s pledge would be a significant development no matter the circumstances, but it’s especially welcoming news given that Colorado still has uncertainty on the coaching staff with interim head coach Mike Sanford running the show in Boulder.

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Buffs extend offer to fast-rising Colorado State commit Damian Henderson

The Buffs are looking to steal a commit from their rivals to the north

It’s late October and the Colorado Buffaloes remain hard at work on the recruiting trail, giving a scholarship offer to a running back that’s been having a great second half of his senior season — and possibly shaking up his college decision in the process.

Damian Henderson, a 2023 three-star running back at Los Alamitos High School (CA) received an offer from Colorado on Thursday night.

Henderson committed to Colorado State back in August, but his great stretch lately has elevated his recruiting interests.

Henderson, who rushed for roughly 800 yards and 11 touchdowns in a three-game stretch against three of the better teams in the talent-rich Southern California area, told 247 Sports national recruiting analyst Greg Biggins that multiple other programs have also expressed interest, including San Diego State, Oregon and UCLA

Now, the Buffaloes have made their interest official with the scholarship offer to the fast-rising back.

It remains to be seen if the Buffs can pry Henderson away from Colorado State, but with the early signing period being two months away on Dec. 21, CU certainly has time to make an impression on Henderson.

Henderson would provide a much-needed boost to the Buffaloes’ running game, and his versatility makes him an intriguing option. Henderson has good speed and surprising power on inside runs, a welcome trait for the 6-foot-3, 185-pound running back.

While things could certainly improve on the field for the Buffaloes, an addition of a player like Henderson may start to turn the tide as Colorado looks ahead to the post-Karl Dorrell era.

Will he decommit from the Rams? That remains to be seen.

But for now, the Buffs have inserted themselves into an intriguing recruiting battle, one where they’ll try to beat out their rivals from Fort Collins.

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Kamron Randell-Taylor Names CU to his Top 5

Kamron Randell-Taylor has named CU to his top 5 schools.  The 5-foot-10, 170-pound running back out of Fontana, CA  is listed as a 3-star on ESPN, Rivals, and 247sports recruiting rankings.

Kamron Randell-Taylor has named CU to his top 5 schools, a list that also includes Arizona, Liberty, Oregon, and San Diego State.  The 5-foot-10, 170 pound running back out of Fontana, CA  is listed as a 3-star on ESPN, Rivals, and 247sports. While the Buffaloes have just recently gotten onto Randell-Taylor’s radar, having offered him in mid-February, they have made quiet an impression on the speedster.

“Colorado, me and coach (Darian) Hagan have been chatting up for a very long time. That’s my guy right there. I went out there for their spring game and that’s one thing that I enjoyed. Coach Hagan and everybody and the coaching staff up there, they showed a lot of love, too. Coach Hagan has come to my school and chatted me up there — he’ll check up on me and I’ll check up on him, too.” Kamron Randell-Taylor speaking with CU Sportsnation.

Its seems as the former legend and current running backs coach Darian Hagan has formed a strong bond with Randell-Taylor.

“We connected right off the bat,” Randell-Taylor said. “As soon as he called me, he told me that he recruited a lot of guys from my area. I know he’s from this area, too, so I feel like we have that Cali connection that’s going to go out to Colorado that could probably do some damage out there.” Kamron Randell-Taylor speaking with CU Sportsnation.

A quick look at his highlights and the first thing that comes to mind is speed. Randell-Taylor averaged a blazing 9 yards per carry last year, while leading his team with 11 touchdowns on the ground. Adding some speed to our running game would go a long ways toward improving on a ground game that ranked 98th in rushing yards per game last season.