Coach Prime purged his roster to prevent locker room "poison" following a blowout loss, continuing a ruthless cultural overhaul.
Deion Sanders made the executive decision to remove three Colorado Buffaloes football players from the team on Tuesday.
This came after a 41-7 blowout loss at Northwestern on Saturday. While Coach Prime initially said he cut ties with the players for laughing following the defeat, he clarified his position a bit.
During Sanders' weekly coaches show, he was asked by host Mark Johnson about switching up personnel after three games. “Don’t think it was the team," Sanders said, "It was a few knuckleheads I didn’t want to poison the team."
Sanders announced the roster changes during his weekly press conference. He reiterated this wasn't solely related to the loss over the weekend. But also stressed it was the right thing to do considering how the team has functioned as of late.
This is the fourth consecutive year the program has cut players mid-season. One of Sanders' biggest cuts was receiver Tar'Varish Dawson back in 2024. He experienced travel delays coming back from a trip to Florida for his daughter's first birthday. When he returned to Boulder, Sanders told Dawson he was no longer a starter.
"Coach Prime started talking about how I let down the program, especially Shedeur (Sanders), by coming back late, Dawson told SI in 2024. (Deion) told me he was going to take away my playing time and was upset."
"I spoke up for myself. Coach Prime told us to be responsible and take care of our family. That's what I was doing. I told him it was nonsense that I was being punished for being present for my daughter, but Shilo and Shedeur could miss a week for a fashion show. Prime lost it and started cussing me out and told me to pack my stuff in front of my teammates."
Sanders and his staff have tried to overhaul the Buffs roster four separate times during the course of his tenure at Colorado. He famously told the players he was bringing his "Louis Luggage" to Boulder shortly after his introductory press conference in 2022. Since then, 173 players have moved on from the Buffs. The most in Power Four with an average of 43.25 per year.
Colorado ended the 2025 season at 3-9, right after going 9-4 in 2024. The constant roller-coaster under Sanders has been a struggle for the Buffs fans. While many want the hype of the first two seasons to return, those days are now a distant memory. The team added 44 new players from the transfer portal in the offseason, but have struggled to find consistency this season.
Sanders has felt the woes from this year as well. Colorado opened the season with Georgia Tech at his old stomping grounds in Atlanta. The game nobody excepted the Buffs to win turned out to be a great start to the season.
Colorado returned home to face FCS opponent Weber State in Week 2. Sanders was upset with his team due to a lack of effort in the second half, coasting to a 31-point win. The Northwestern blowout loss is just another low to end non-conference play.
Colorado opens Big 12 play against Baylor on Saturday (Noon ET, ESPN2).
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