Details emerge of Deion Sanders’ cold Colorado Buffaloes roster makeover

The wide receiver from East Carolina, you ask? Yes, that Chase Sowell used to be part of the Colorado football program before getting booted by Deion Sanders. He was one of the many players in the 2022 squad that was sent off to multiple parts of the country so that the Buffaloes could accommodate more players coming out of the transfer portal. The former Colorado weapon unveiled his feelings on it, via Max Olson of The Athletic.

“We knew it was going to happen, but we didn’t know it was going to happen that soon. He didn’t sugarcoat it,” Sowell said. “He was telling me, ‘You’re coming off injury. I don’t think you will be one of the guys we need to start this year. We need guys that are going to be ready to play now,” Chase Sowell said.

Deion Sanders did exactly that. He had some players from the 2022 Colorado squad who wanted to stay and fight it out against those who were promised a slot due to the transfer portal. The best Sowell could describe it was being on a certain media platform.

“It kinda felt like a reality TV show. We felt like it was us vs. them instead of all of us together. That’s the best way I can put it. The new guys were going against the players that had already been there. It wasn’t a good environment to be in. It wasn’t a team environment,” the former Colorado weapon declared.

There were a lot of raised eyebrows when Colorado made this move. But, it looks like the maneuver worked to give them more viewership, support, sponsorships, and might even net them more wins.

What happened to the other players out of Colorado?

A whopping 53 players, a whole roster, were told to pack and shipped off to other paths. For the fortunate ones, they got to continue playing college football outside of the Buffaloes system. 15 headed to other Power 5 schools, 22 wound up in the Group of 5, 11 were split into NCAA Division II or the FCS, and two others attended JuCo. The remaining either had to protest against Charlie Baker’s office for their right to play or just accepted their fate and stopped their career altogether.

What was the point of all this? Well, it may have been a power play to prove to the Colorado squad that no one should be complacent about their spot on the team. But, he did outline that some of those former players did not want to show their willingness to stay at all.

“Let me tell you this because this is something you may not know. Maybe 20 kids we may have sat down with and said, ‘We may head in a different direction. I don’t know if this is gonna work out.’ Everybody else quit. They quit. You can’t hold me responsible,” he aired out.