Lost in the hype and discussion surrounding Deion Sanders' first offseason in charge of the Colorado Buffaloes football team is the fact that Sanders and company had to put together a high school signing class as well. Much of the attention, at least from the outside looking in, was focused on the transfer portal, where Colorado put together what is so far a Top 5 transfer class in the country.
However, as mentioned, a high school class was basically built from scratch, with the coaching staff only getting to Colorado after the Early Signing Period began. This meant the potential ceiling for Colorado's high school class was a bit lower than most programs, but that didn't stop the Buffaloes from landing the signatures of some of the country's best prospects. Let's take a look at Colorado's signing class.
The Crown Jewel
No prospect that has signed with the Colorado football program, from either high school or the portal, caused more discussion than that of Lakeland, Florida's five-star Cormani McClain. He is the number one cornerback in the country in his class. Combined with the addition of Travis Hunter through the portal, Colorado will likely line up with the top corner in each of the past two classes on either side of the field.
That's incredibly impressive. If those two meet expectations, Colorado could develop one of the best pass defenses in the country very quickly. That is something that's absolutely necessary in a conference that contains Caleb Williams, Bo Nix and Michael Penix.
4-stars arrive
In addition to McClain, Colorado also attracted the signature of three four-star recruits. They include running back Dylan Edwards from Derby, Kansas. They also landed a pair of receivers in Thomasville, Georgia's Adam Hopkins and Vivian, Louisiana's Omarion Miller.
As a generally defensive-focused coach, it's impressive to see that Sanders holds the same weight with offensive recruits as he does with defensive recruits. Colorado is taking a very balanced approach to recruiting. Both in the portal and in high school, and that can only serve them well moving forward.
This is the group of recruits you can expect to grow exponentially if Deion Sanders' project at Colorado proves fruitful, and he starts winning games and sending players to the next level. There's always going to be room for two and three-stars at any program, but real contenders chase the top dogs in every class and land more of them than they don't.
3-stars
The Colorado football program also snagged 14 three-star recruits. That is an impressive haul considering the time frame the coaching staff had to work with. When Deion Sanders arrived in Boulder, he made it clear that he would be overhauling the roster as quickly as possible. With 43 signings between the high school ranks and the portal, that appears to be well on schedule.
There's plenty of talent that's hit the ground running in recent years as high schools become better at developing players, and Colorado can only dream that they will be the beneficiaries of one of the more productive high school classes in the 2023 cycle. Because if they can find themselves saying that in a year's time, that will mean they have probably won a whole lot of football games and are looking like a legitimate future contender for some serious trophies.