Deion Sanders and Colorado's O-Line Overhaul Is Underway

After a late-season collapse, Sanders has set to work rebuilding the Buffaloes’ roster in his own style.

Colorado’s offensive line revamp is well underway for Deion Sanders after a promising 3–0 start collapsed into a 4–8 season. The Buffaloes have added five transfer linemen to replace losses to the roster, including departing starters Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan and Van Wells.

The crown jewel of the 2024 recruiting also came in last week, but from the high school ranks: consensus five-star tackle Jordan Seaton. And it’s what Seaton said on FS1’s Undisputed that offers a window into one of the reasons he picked Colorado.

“You claim you’re a dog, [then] why [are] you not coming to Colorado? Why [are] you not helping somebody who looks like you?” Seaton said.

Sanders is many things to many people, but the most noteworthy thing he represents is a Black man who continues to do things his way. Detractors say it’s all style and no substance, while fans point to the uniqueness and tell you just wait and see. Sanders is unapologetic in his approach, and he’s executing that approach at Colorado, of all places. CU is one of the least diverse major universities for Black people (2.7% of the school’s fall 2023 enrollment identified as Black/African American.) Sanders is also doing a job with shockingly little diversity: Only 14 out of 132 FBS head coaching jobs are filled by Black men, despite the sport being played by roughly 50% Black men in any given season.

Sanders has been outspoken about Colorado’s need to improve its offensive line next season :: Christopher Creveling/USA TODAY Sports

What Seaton is illuminating is something spoken about openly among Black people, but seldom in front of white people. A Black man carving out his own path in a traditionally white space is a beacon. It can be hard to understand if you’ve never felt othered to a significant degree. Will Colorado win a national title because Sanders is Black? No. But his Blackness and the freedom he gives for his players to express theirs is clearly part of Colorado’s value proposition to Black athletes.

Each of the seven offensive linemen Colorado has committed in the 2024 class are Black, and they’ll play for new offensive line coach Phil Loadholt, a Black former NFL and Oklahoma offensive tackle. The group of newcomers from the transfer portal include: Matthew Bedford and Kahlil Benson from Indiana, Justin Mayers from UTEP, Tyler Johnson from Houston, junior college transfer Issiah Walker Jr., and Yakiri Walker from UConn. It’s likely Colorado will continue to add, but there’s a significant “for us, by us” aspect to what the Buffaloes are building up front. Should Colorado start an all-Black offensive line next fall, it will have similar poignancy to when the Raiders did it a few years ago in the NFL.

Sanders has not shied away from the obvious fact that the offensive line needed to be retooled.

“When you watched us play, what did you say?” Sanders said in an interview with 247Sports the day the transfer portal officially opened. “‘Oh boy, if they just had some protection for Shedeur [Sanders] or if they could just get after that passer, oh, they would be …’ We’re going to address that. We got to address that in the portal and from the high school rankings. You got to understand, high school to me is like draft choices in the NFL, the portal is free agency. And we’re in free agency right now. And I’m thankful that we have and we will have the wherewithal to go get what we need.”

It is a great challenge to retool an offensive line through the transfer portal, as even programs like Alabama have missed while trying to do so. But Sanders is going about roster-building in his own style, and, for a certain type of athlete, that will always have significant appeal.