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Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is assembling possibly his biggest and best high school recruiting class over the past few months, with 20 recruits currently committed to join the team in the 2027 class with a collective ranking of No. 3 in the Big 12 Conference, according to 247Sports.
This 2027 group includes his quarterback of the future and several top prospects from Mississippi. But how Sanders put this class together so far is quite unlike his peers. It shows Sanders once again is bucking old norms to put together a team in his own way, according to records obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
COSTLY MISTAKE: Colorado paid for a bowl it misread — and Deion Sanders cashed in
Consider:
∎ None of his assistant coaches or staff went on the road to visit recruits during the winter contact period in January, as confirmed by the university. By contrast, Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made 373 off-campus contacts with high school recruits in January, each time accompanied by one or more assistants.
∎ Colorado invested heavily in recruiting the state of Mississippi, which is far from a traditional recruiting hotbed for the Buffaloes. That’s where offensive line coach Gunnar White made 376 recruiting evaluations in January, April and May 2025, according to recruiting logs obtained by USA TODAY Sports. His connections there as a Mississippi native have paid off with three commitments from the state so far.
∎ Colorado’s new offensive and defensive coordinators combined for only one recruiting trip since their hirings in December and February. But it was an important visit. Offensive coordinator Brennan Marion went to Nashville, Tennessee, in April to visit high school quarterback Andre Adams, who committed to Colorado earlier that month.
∎ Sanders again made no off-campus recruiting trips for Colorado this year, as has been previously documented by USA TODAY Sports. This is historically unusual in college football, though he’s not alone. Sanders calls recruits via FaceTime and instead focuses on bringing recruits to campus in Boulder, as many did in May and June.
∎ Now the recruits in this class are doing some recruiting, too. They’re on a group chat together and are pushing for more, particularly Adams.
“There’s not a guy in that class he hasn’t talked to and hasn’t been hands-on in recruiting…” Adams’ father and coach Kenny Adams told USA TODAY Sports. “He has a real relationship with these guys that he’s trying to head his class.”
Each school chooses which staff members it wants to recruit players on the road. The NCAA allows major college teams to designate a maximum 10 staff assistants to recruit off-campus at one time during specific parts of the year, in addition to the head coach.
Usually, these designated recruiters are position coaches and coordinators who work with players closely during the season on the field.
That’s largely true at Colorado, too, but not every position coach or coordinator goes on the road to recruit for the Buffaloes. Last year’s running backs coach, Marshall Faulk, didn’t go on the road recruiting in 2025. Neither did new defensive coordinator Chris Marve in 2026 or his predecessor in 2025, Robert Livingston, according to Colorado recruiting logs.
Faulk, a Pro Football Hall of Famer like Sanders, is now the head coach at Southern and said he did FaceTime calls with recruits instead of road recruiting. It can be a matter of preference, efficiency and skills when choosing which coaches go out on the road to recruit.
“Then when kids were on campus, I recruited the heck out of them,” Faulk told USA TODAY Sports. “I loved them up, let them know the kind of coach I was.”
In their place on the road recruiting was Colorado player personnel director Darrius Darden-Box, a Nashville, Tennesssee, native and former Vanderbilt assistant who made 17 off-campus contacts in the spring contact period in April in May, plus 103 off-campus evaluations in 2025.
He is the one who often extends scholarship offers to recruits, as he did in spring 2024 with Adams, the quarterback recruit in Nashville, according to Adams’ father and coach Kenny Adams. Darden-Box also went with Marion in April to Antioch High School in the city, where they visited with Adams after Adams committed to Colorado over Auburn, Arkansas and other schools.
“That went real well, man,” Adams’ father Kenny told USA TODAY Sports.
His younger son, Aaden, who is a high school freshman defensive back, even got a scholarship offer from Colorado in the process for 2029.
Since then, the older brother, Andre, has been recruiting players to join him in Boulder through that group chat.
Records show new Colorado recruiting director Rashad Rich also made 13 off-campus contacts as a designated off-campus recruiter this past spring, in addition to Colorado position coaches.
White, the Mississippi native, ranks as the No. 1 recruiter in the Big 12, according to 247Sports. He earned it in part by making so many trips on the road, including stops in Colorado, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. He previously served on the staff of Sanders at Jackson State in Mississippi, where his trips to that state have helped land several recruits, including four-star offensive lineman Li’Marcus Jones, who played high school football there before transferring to the Brentwood Academy in Nashville.
Likewise, new Colorado running backs coach Johnnie Mack has mined his home state, too. He’s from Lakeland, Florida, where he helped land Drew Sapp, an edge rusher who committed to Colorado in June. Mack visited Sapp at his home earlier this year.
“I loved it,” Sapp said of the visit to USA TODAY Sports. During the visit, Mack noticed a basketball hoop outside.
“Y’all want to play some basketball,” Mack asked them, according to Drew Sapp.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go,’” Sapp said. “So me, him, and my little brother went outside and played basketball for about an hour.”
While other head coaches recruit on the road and on-campus, Sanders stays in Boulder, where he focuses on hosting recruits who come to him.
Before they come, Sanders reaches out to them.
“I think I got about three FaceTime calls from him before I got up there,” Sapp said. “They were brief, saying how much he was interested in me and how all the guys he’s recruiting are hand-selected.”
Then when they got to Boulder, the recruits take in the scenery, eat good food, get to know each other, try on uniforms, snap photos with Sanders and talk with him one-on-one.
Incomes for their names, images and likenesses (NIL) also are discussed during visits, recruits confirmed. Even though Colorado doesn’t have nearly the NIL resources of other school such as Ohio State or Texas Tech, Sanders’ famous background and the beauty of Boulder help make up for it.
For Adams, it was the “vibe” at Colorado even though he could have gotten more money elsewhere, according to his father Kenny.
“It felt like home,” said Li’Marcus Jones, the four-star offensive tackle. “It was like family to me. They kept their word on everything they said.”
Sapp had a similar experience.
“I was there for two days,” Sapp said. “I loved the experience. All the coaches were very welcoming to me and my family. The campus was beautiful. The field was amazing. The food was great. I loved everything about Colorado.”
As a follow-up, Sapp said the group also is on weekly Zoom calls with Sanders and Darden-Box.
“It’s really cool,” said Sapp, who chose Colorado over Mississippi State and others.
Colorado didn’t respond to a request for comment on its recruiting strategy. But as it stands right now, it will be Sanders’ biggest high school class at Colorado since his hiring in late 2022, up from 18 last year and 17 in 2023. It also is by far his best high school class in the Big 12 after ranking 16th in 2024, 13th in 2025 and 14th in 2026, according to 247Sports.
Sanders recently acknowledged a general strategic change in how Colorado “targeted” recruits.
“We changed the way we went about it,” Sanders told reporters at Big 12 media days in Texas July 7.
In particular, he mentioned aiming for the type of recruit who won’t transfer off the team at the first sign of adversity.
These 2027 recruits are expected to sign with Colorado in December.
"I'm loving what we're doing recruiting-wise right now," Sanders said at Big 12 media days. "We're right where we want to be."
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Deion Sanders is putting together his best high school recruiting class at Colorado
Continue reading...
This 2027 group includes his quarterback of the future and several top prospects from Mississippi. But how Sanders put this class together so far is quite unlike his peers. It shows Sanders once again is bucking old norms to put together a team in his own way, according to records obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
COSTLY MISTAKE: Colorado paid for a bowl it misread — and Deion Sanders cashed in
Consider:
∎ None of his assistant coaches or staff went on the road to visit recruits during the winter contact period in January, as confirmed by the university. By contrast, Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made 373 off-campus contacts with high school recruits in January, each time accompanied by one or more assistants.
∎ Colorado invested heavily in recruiting the state of Mississippi, which is far from a traditional recruiting hotbed for the Buffaloes. That’s where offensive line coach Gunnar White made 376 recruiting evaluations in January, April and May 2025, according to recruiting logs obtained by USA TODAY Sports. His connections there as a Mississippi native have paid off with three commitments from the state so far.
∎ Colorado’s new offensive and defensive coordinators combined for only one recruiting trip since their hirings in December and February. But it was an important visit. Offensive coordinator Brennan Marion went to Nashville, Tennessee, in April to visit high school quarterback Andre Adams, who committed to Colorado earlier that month.
∎ Sanders again made no off-campus recruiting trips for Colorado this year, as has been previously documented by USA TODAY Sports. This is historically unusual in college football, though he’s not alone. Sanders calls recruits via FaceTime and instead focuses on bringing recruits to campus in Boulder, as many did in May and June.
∎ Now the recruits in this class are doing some recruiting, too. They’re on a group chat together and are pushing for more, particularly Adams.
“There’s not a guy in that class he hasn’t talked to and hasn’t been hands-on in recruiting…” Adams’ father and coach Kenny Adams told USA TODAY Sports. “He has a real relationship with these guys that he’s trying to head his class.”
Who does and doesn’t recruit on the road for Deion Sanders
Each school chooses which staff members it wants to recruit players on the road. The NCAA allows major college teams to designate a maximum 10 staff assistants to recruit off-campus at one time during specific parts of the year, in addition to the head coach.
Usually, these designated recruiters are position coaches and coordinators who work with players closely during the season on the field.
That’s largely true at Colorado, too, but not every position coach or coordinator goes on the road to recruit for the Buffaloes. Last year’s running backs coach, Marshall Faulk, didn’t go on the road recruiting in 2025. Neither did new defensive coordinator Chris Marve in 2026 or his predecessor in 2025, Robert Livingston, according to Colorado recruiting logs.
Faulk, a Pro Football Hall of Famer like Sanders, is now the head coach at Southern and said he did FaceTime calls with recruits instead of road recruiting. It can be a matter of preference, efficiency and skills when choosing which coaches go out on the road to recruit.
“Then when kids were on campus, I recruited the heck out of them,” Faulk told USA TODAY Sports. “I loved them up, let them know the kind of coach I was.”
Deion Sanders’ Nashville point guards
In their place on the road recruiting was Colorado player personnel director Darrius Darden-Box, a Nashville, Tennesssee, native and former Vanderbilt assistant who made 17 off-campus contacts in the spring contact period in April in May, plus 103 off-campus evaluations in 2025.
He is the one who often extends scholarship offers to recruits, as he did in spring 2024 with Adams, the quarterback recruit in Nashville, according to Adams’ father and coach Kenny Adams. Darden-Box also went with Marion in April to Antioch High School in the city, where they visited with Adams after Adams committed to Colorado over Auburn, Arkansas and other schools.
“That went real well, man,” Adams’ father Kenny told USA TODAY Sports.
His younger son, Aaden, who is a high school freshman defensive back, even got a scholarship offer from Colorado in the process for 2029.
Since then, the older brother, Andre, has been recruiting players to join him in Boulder through that group chat.
Records show new Colorado recruiting director Rashad Rich also made 13 off-campus contacts as a designated off-campus recruiter this past spring, in addition to Colorado position coaches.
Old-fashioned road recruiting has worked for Colorado, too
White, the Mississippi native, ranks as the No. 1 recruiter in the Big 12, according to 247Sports. He earned it in part by making so many trips on the road, including stops in Colorado, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. He previously served on the staff of Sanders at Jackson State in Mississippi, where his trips to that state have helped land several recruits, including four-star offensive lineman Li’Marcus Jones, who played high school football there before transferring to the Brentwood Academy in Nashville.
Likewise, new Colorado running backs coach Johnnie Mack has mined his home state, too. He’s from Lakeland, Florida, where he helped land Drew Sapp, an edge rusher who committed to Colorado in June. Mack visited Sapp at his home earlier this year.
“I loved it,” Sapp said of the visit to USA TODAY Sports. During the visit, Mack noticed a basketball hoop outside.
“Y’all want to play some basketball,” Mack asked them, according to Drew Sapp.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go,’” Sapp said. “So me, him, and my little brother went outside and played basketball for about an hour.”
Deion Sanders uses visits to Boulder as main event
While other head coaches recruit on the road and on-campus, Sanders stays in Boulder, where he focuses on hosting recruits who come to him.
Before they come, Sanders reaches out to them.
“I think I got about three FaceTime calls from him before I got up there,” Sapp said. “They were brief, saying how much he was interested in me and how all the guys he’s recruiting are hand-selected.”
Then when they got to Boulder, the recruits take in the scenery, eat good food, get to know each other, try on uniforms, snap photos with Sanders and talk with him one-on-one.
Incomes for their names, images and likenesses (NIL) also are discussed during visits, recruits confirmed. Even though Colorado doesn’t have nearly the NIL resources of other school such as Ohio State or Texas Tech, Sanders’ famous background and the beauty of Boulder help make up for it.
For Adams, it was the “vibe” at Colorado even though he could have gotten more money elsewhere, according to his father Kenny.
“It felt like home,” said Li’Marcus Jones, the four-star offensive tackle. “It was like family to me. They kept their word on everything they said.”
Sapp had a similar experience.
“I was there for two days,” Sapp said. “I loved the experience. All the coaches were very welcoming to me and my family. The campus was beautiful. The field was amazing. The food was great. I loved everything about Colorado.”
Zoom calls with Deion Sanders
As a follow-up, Sapp said the group also is on weekly Zoom calls with Sanders and Darden-Box.
“It’s really cool,” said Sapp, who chose Colorado over Mississippi State and others.
Colorado didn’t respond to a request for comment on its recruiting strategy. But as it stands right now, it will be Sanders’ biggest high school class at Colorado since his hiring in late 2022, up from 18 last year and 17 in 2023. It also is by far his best high school class in the Big 12 after ranking 16th in 2024, 13th in 2025 and 14th in 2026, according to 247Sports.
Sanders recently acknowledged a general strategic change in how Colorado “targeted” recruits.
“We changed the way we went about it,” Sanders told reporters at Big 12 media days in Texas July 7.
In particular, he mentioned aiming for the type of recruit who won’t transfer off the team at the first sign of adversity.
These 2027 recruits are expected to sign with Colorado in December.
"I'm loving what we're doing recruiting-wise right now," Sanders said at Big 12 media days. "We're right where we want to be."
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Deion Sanders is putting together his best high school recruiting class at Colorado
Continue reading...
