The Colorado football team is once again going to look much different than a year ago when they hit the field for the 2024 season. Continuing their trend that head coach Deion Sanders started last year, the Buffaloes were attackers and victims of the college football transfer portal in both the winter and spring windows.
The Buffaloes football team will be bringing in a total of 42 transfers this season. Meanwhile, they waved goodbye to 41 players. Some of those were quite notable, too.
One of those was last year's prized recruit, former consensus five-star cornerback Cormani McClain, who is now headed to the Florida Gators. Another was last year's Colorado football leading rusher, Dylan Edwards. The Buffaloes also lost 6-foot-8 starting right tackle Savion Washington, who started 10 games last season and was arguably their best blocker.
Those three alone are a lot to make up for if you're Sanders and the Buffaloes. So, how will this year's roster overhaul be better than last year's crop?
One thing that Colorado had to do was find better production from both their offensive and defensive lines. They could neither help their own quarterback nor get to their opponents. To fix that, they went out and grabbed nine offensive line transfers and 11 defensive line transfers, hoping to alleviate these distinct problems from last season.
It remains to be seen exactly how that will play out, but if we had to pick one of those transfers that could make an immediate impact for the Colorado football team in 2024, it would most likely be defensive lineman Dayon Hayes from Pitt.
Dayon Hayes will make the biggest impact for the Colorado football team in 2024
Colorado football produced one of the FBS's worst defensive units in the country in 2023. They ranked 127th in total defense, 121st in scoring defense, tied for 81st in tackles for a loss (averaging 5.4 per game), and 53rd in team sacks (27).
Honestly, it couldn't have gotten much worse for Sanders' defensive unit, which was then under defensive coordinator Charles Kelly. Kelly decided to return to his alma mater, Auburn, for the upcoming season, and taking his place will be Robert Livingston, who was the secondaries coach for the Cincinnati Bengals for the last eight years.
Dayon Hayes joins the Buffaloes' defense under Livingston coming in as a transfer from the spring window of the portal. He's a former four-star prospect but was a three-star transfer and the No. 30 defensive lineman in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports. He'll be one of many replacements for the Buffaloes from last year. That includes defensive end Jordan Domineck, who was one of the better defensive linemen for the Buffaloes last year. He posted 12 tackles for a loss last season and is now attempting to make an NFL team.
Hayes turned in an impressive resume coming from Pitt, where he spent the last four years. In 33 games, he totaled 81 tackles, 26.5 for a loss, and 13 sacks, adding five pass deflections and three forced fumbles. Particularly last season, he became a force for Pitt's defensive front, putting up career-high numbers with 45 tackles, 10.5 for a loss, and four sacks.
Hayes probably would have had more playing time than that if not for a knee injury that caused him to miss four games during the 2022 season.
Out of all the many transfers incoming for the Buffaloes football team this season—and there are plenty—Hayes tends to stick out for his experience coupled with his production from last season, where he played the best of his career.
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