How Deion Sanders built (and stripped) his roster at Colorado, by the numbers

Deion Sanders has done something nobody else has done before in major college football.

In the span of about six months, Colorado’s new head football coach stripped down the roster he inherited from the possibly the worst team in America. At the same time, he also built it back up with the nation’s No. 1-ranked class of incoming transfer players.

The unprecedented overhaul largely was enabled by an NCAA rule change in 2021 that allowed undergraduate players to transfer to other teams without first sitting out a year of competition. But it also took some swagger and gall from Sanders – who got rid of the players he didn’t want while enticing new ones to join a program that has had only two winning seasons in the past 17 years.

It’s a story about numbers – and the people behind them. It’s also arguably the biggest college football storyline of the offseason.

To better grasp this remarkable turnover, USA TODAY Sports quantified its various dimensions below through research, player social media accounts and a team roster that is limited by rule to 85 scholarship players per year.

No quarterback controversy in Boulder

At every level of football, a quarterback can have an outsized impact on a team’s success. The Buffs had four starters in 2022, when the team finished 1-11. Here’s the current situation.

What happened to the rest of the 2022 Colorado team?

Just like the quarterback room, other members of the 2022 team transferred or otherwise dropped off the team since the end of the 2022 season. Shortly after his hiring in December, Sanders warned his inherited players he would try to make them quit and replace them with better players.

There were still 51 returning scholarship players from last year’s team who were listed on Sanders’ spring roster in March. But Colorado confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that only 10 are still with the program after the others transferred or left the team since April.

How Sanders rebuilt the 2023 Colorado team

While many players were on the way out, Sanders and his staff have simultaneously worked to bring in 68 new scholarship players since his hiring at Colorado in early December, a number confirmed by the school June 30.

Not every player who has arrived in Boulder via the transfer portal has stayed.

Four transfer players Sanders brought into Colorado for the spring turned around and left Colorado before the summer. Defensive lineman Taylor Upshaw came to Colorado from Michigan as a graduate transfer but now is at Arizona. Cornerback Tayvion Beasley also came with Sanders from Jackson State but since has moved on to San Diego State.