Keeler: CU Buffs’ Deion Sanders loses 15 guys in 17 days? It’s not them, Coach Prime. It’s you.

BOULDER — For a cat with a private jet, Deion Sanders sure seems to lose a lot of his luggage.

“We’re good. We’re good,” the CU Buffs’ second-year football coach said during a news conference Thursday, roughly a week ahead of the program’s April 27 spring game. “I trust our recruiting team. I trust the coaches. And please have some faith in me.”

More faith than some of his players, at any rate. The transfer portal for FBS players opened Tuesday. According to On3.com, as of early Thursday afternoon, 15 Buffs had jumped into the portal since April 1.

The company line, one Coach Prime doubled down on, is that the losses were strictly cosmetic. Benchwarmers. Nobody who was going to, ya know, actually play.

Only here’s the thing: Some weren’t nobodies. Actually, a handful were very, very much set up to be somebodies. Cormani McClain was the top cornerback recruit in the country, Deion’s first five-star get at CU. He bailed.

Alton McCaskill IV was a four-star transfer tailback from Houston, the 2021 AAC Rookie of the Year — a 6-foot-1 banger, Big 12 fast and Big 12 big, potential thunder to Dylan Edwards’ lightning. He’s gone, too.

2023: We coming!

2024: They going!

Oh, brother. Are they ever going.

“I think this would be (the same with) every school. That’s not just here,” Sanders said when I asked about the quantity of departures. “That’s what every school (deals with). You (media) guys just are compensated to pay attention to us a little more than anybody else.”

Well, yes … and no.

As a point of reference, 15 departures with two weeks until the portal closes is more than any other Big 12 school. Like, a lot more. In fact, the only peer even close to that kind of turnover is Houston, with 11 players reportedly leaving. The other 15 Big 12 football programs have averaged 2.9 portal jumps this month.

Last year, Sanders’ roster makeover was historic, cold and callous. But it was also allowed, and, objectively, understandable given the university’s desire to slash or burn everything associated with a 1-11 dumpster fire in 2022.

But this? This is Prime chucking his own Louis Vuittons from the jet bridge.

The company line, again, is that more mass departures out of CU equals more talent coming in, and fair enough. Although that’s only so far been proven in terms of skill positions and in the secondary.

Deion is a star who recognizes stars, hangs with stars and knows how to chase and woo them. But outside of The Chosen Ones, his own children and Travis Hunter, has he developed many stars as a coach?

The Jackson State Era produced two NFL draft picks. Sanders doesn’t have the patience. Or the time. He’s got a TV show. He’s got a promotional appearance. He’s got a book signing. He’s got a lake that won’t fish itself.

The 247Sports.com database lists 72 players as part of CU’s 2023 recruiting class, 51 of them transfers. As of 2 p.m. local time Thursday, 27 of them had either entered or re-entered the portal. That includes nine of the 21 non-transfers.

It’s not them, Deion.

It’s you, my man.

You can’t help it. It’s the only road you know. The only song in the hymnal. The player standards are high, which is noble. But the strike zone enforcement, some have intimated, is all over the map. If the wrong guy doesn’t fit, move ’em along. The grass is always greener.

Of course, some of those “wrong guys” sure do come in handy after a few of the “right” guys happen to get hurt. Which they inevitably will.

And yes, some of that Louis luggage absolutely did this to themselves. Sanders made it very clear last fall, and early on, that McClain had set up a futon in Prime’s doghouse. That the road out was going to be long and hard, that responsibilities weren’t being met, and it was up to him to shape up or ship out.

The kid shipped.

“I want the best for him. I really do,” Coach Prime said of McClain. “I want that kid to soar. I want him to man up. I want him to be the best possible athlete and human being he can be. I want him to fulfill all those dreams that his mother and he desire. I really, really do.”

McCaskill’s situation, though, is more nebulous. He was hurt in 2023, or beat out, depending on when you asked and whom.

The young man’s father muddied the waters more when he posted on social media that the younger McCaskill “was ready last year … he’s 100% this year …unfortunately have to find another home where there’s no favoritism and he is valued, appreciated and has no doubts about RB1 …. he is the best RB in Colorado … but (he’s) not settling! We going!”

A statement which, to be fair, sounds a lot like a dad looking out for his son. A political position Coach Prime understands intimately.

“A lot of people are fighting for backups,” Sanders said. “When a guy is a starter and he transfers, you’ve really gotta think about that. We have some coming in for visits pretty soon, we can attract those type of players, but I don’t think we’re losing those type of players. And if we do, we’re good.”

Yeah, but 16-20 departures every spring? That’s not how you develop a program, Coach. It’s how you develop a rep. It’s how you develop baggage. And not the cheap stuff, either.

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