Head coach Deion Sanders likes how new-look CU Buffs are coming toge…

Colorado’s unprecedented roster overhaul this offseason has been one of the more polarizing topics in college football.

Under the direction of first-year head coach Deion Sanders, the Buffaloes have moved on from most of the players that were a part of a miserable 1-11 season in 2022. The rebuilding of the roster has included the addition of 50 new transfers.

“Necessary changes,” Sanders told 247Sports in an interview posted on YouTube.

Recently, Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi was critical of Sanders’ roster overhaul, saying, “When you become a head coach you inherit that team and you coach that team. If someone wants to leave, that’s great. You don’t kick them out. I disagree with that whole process. That’s not why I got in the game.”

Narduzzi added, “That’s not the way it’s meant to be,” in reference to the transfer portal.

While a complete roster overhaul may not have been envisioned when the NCAA created the transfer portal and loosed some of the restrictions in recent years, the rules don’t prevent an overhaul for a first-year coach.

“What was his situation when he came into his situation?” Sanders said of Narduzzi. “They were about a .500 team or a little more? They were a bowl team, right? He didn’t have to deal with this situation, so he’s talking about something he never had to deal with.

“He is not mad at me; he is mad at the situation in football now that allowed his best player to leave a year ago.”

Sanders took over a CU team that was not only the worst Power 5 team in the country a year ago, but a program that has had three bowl appearances and two winning seasons in the last 17 years.

Narduzzi, going into his ninth year at Pitt, took over a team that played in seven consecutive bowls before he got there.

Following Pitt’s 11-3 season in 2021, the Panthers’ top player, Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison, transferred to USC. Narduzzi publicly accused USC head coach Lincoln Riley of tampering to get Addison to come to Los Angeles.

Sanders has never been one to let criticism bother him and said he’s pleased with how the Buffs are building for the 2023 season, which opens Sept. 2 with a trip to TCU.

“Want, determination, effort, camaraderie,” he said of what’s seen from the team in the early stages of summer workouts. “It is a collection of young men who want a second chance. Some of them are getting the first chance. Some of them are just trying to get to the next level as quickly as possible. … It’s like a desperate want that they’ve got to go get it. They’ve got to have it now. They’re competing at everything and I like that.”

Asked how he likes his team now as compared to going into the spring, Sanders said, “Apples to Oranges. You can’t compare the two.”

CU began the spring with 80 scholarship players and 45 are no longer with the team. There are 44 scholarship players who have arrived as newcomers this summer.

“You are talking about a situation that we inherited a team that was 1-11,” Sanders said. “And everyone knows there are going to be some changes. I don’t understand how you would think that the coaching staff is the only thing that deserved a change. Now when you rid yourself of the entire coaching staff, so you think you’re going to keep all the kids? That doesn’t make sense to me. … I don’t know how they would think we were supposed to do that when this (previous) staff was responsible for securing those kids. That’s not the way that this game is played with us.”

During the interview, Sanders said that cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter was offered as much as $1.5 million from another program this offseason “to try to lure him and try to buy him.”

The No. 1 recruit in the 2022 class and the No. 1-rated transfer this offseason, Hunter transferred to CU from Jackson State in December.

“Travis ain’t the kind of guy that can be bought,” Sanders said. “He ain’t built like that. Travis is a relational young man that is built on relationships and stability and that’s what he wanted and desired. That is why he decided to ride and stay with us.

“I cannot wait until they see what he is capable of doing in these next couple of years. Because he will be a top-5 or top-3 pick (in the NFL) in my eyes. But the sky’s the limit. He is going to play both ways. He is a vital part of the offense and the defense, and he wants that.”