BUFFSBLOG SPRING GAME NOTES AND TRANSFER UPDATE – AND IS CU NOW THE BIGGEST TEAM IN THE COUNTRY?

We attended the Spring Game on Saturday and will have a full UFR (Upon Further Review) / strategies and tape breakdown of the game later this week. In the meantime, though, we wanted to give you our primary takeaway from the game:

CU IS THE BIGGEST COLLEGE TEAM WE’VE EVER SEEN.

By now, you probably have read about our college band tuba rule — we determine the size (and indirectly the quality) of a college marching band based on the number of tubas in the band. If you have 16+ tubas, you’re good. For more on that, check out:

CU FOOTBALL, THE GOLDEN BUFFALO MARCHING BAND, AND THE MAGIC NUMBER

What I haven’t told you — YET — is that I have another general rule of thumb that I use whenever I look at a college football team’s roster. It’s very, very scientific.

It’s the rule of 16 300+ pounders.

I have a habit of looking at different college team’s roster and counting up the number of 300+ pounders. My rule of thumb, developed over many years, is that most NCAA D-1 teams have about 16 300+ pounders on their roster. If you have < 16 300+ pounders, your team is relatively undersized and that may dictate the team’s style of play. If your team has > 16 300+ pounders, then your team is relatively big and that may dictate the team’s style of play.

Now, I need to make a disclaimer: this is not science. This is a dumb rule of thumb that I’ve used over the years for comparison purposes when I look at rosters for different teams to see how “big” a team might be. This also doesn’t necessarily mean that a small team can’t run the ball — some teams that are “small” can still successfully run the ball via, for example, a zone blocking scheme. So you can’t draw too many conclusions, although I’ve found that more physcial teams usually have larger players. [As an aside, I hate the “we have a lot of 290 pound players even if they’re not 300 pound players” argument because teams with a lot of 300+ pound players also typically have a lot of almost 300 pound players, too.)

Amari McNeill is one of the “smaller” defensive tackles at 6’4″ 300 pounds.

So let’s get to the data. In the 2023 season, CU had 7 300+ pounders. They were grossly undersized all year, struggled playing physical football, and won 4 games as a result thereof.

Last year CU had 13 300+ pounders….getting better according to my metric. Deion Sanders knew that CU needed to get bigger and started to fix the issue, but it probably wasn’t enough. Last year, CU was unable to push guys around enought to run the football effectively. By way of comparison — last year TCU had 16 300+ pounders, CSU had 13 300+ pounders, Nebraska had 16 300+ pounders, and Georiga had 21 300+ pounders.

Colorado’s defensive lineman include 340 pound Anquin Barnes, 325 pound Jahiem Oatis, 310 pound Garviel Lightfoot, 300 pound Tawfiq Thomas, 300 pound Christian Hudson, 300 pound Tavian Coleman, and 300 pound Amari McNeill.

So yesterday, looking at the players competing in the Spring Game (and those not playing in the Spring Game but on the team), I noticed that CU had more BIG football players that I’ve ever seen. So, you can guess what I did……I counted up the number of 300+ pounders on the roster and tried to include known incoming transfers. SO, JOHN, HOW MANY 300+ POUNDERS DOES CU HAS ON ITS ROSTER???

……DRUMROLL PLEASE……

CU will have about 22 300+ pounders on its roster.  THIS WILL BE THE BIGGEST TEAM IN CU FOOTBALL HISTORY, AND IT’S NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Now CU will go into games knowing that, from a size perspective, it will be bigger than all of its opponents. It’s pretty remarkable to compare the 2025 number with the 2023 number to see how different the CU roster makeup has become — 7 vs. 22.

Bottom line: I don’t think CU will get pushed around as much this upcoming season as we’ve seen over the last couple of seasons. And the players that CU has are not barely reaching 300 pounders: CU has 7 players that are 340+ pounds (!) ….. and that’s not counting players like Jordan Seaton (330 pounds), Jaheim Oatis (325 pounds), Tyler Brown (325 pounds), or Zarian McGill (320 pounds). This is a giant roster, with many players tipping the scales at over 340+ pounds! As a long-time CU observer, this will be the biggest team at Colorado in its history.

At times yesterday, CU’s starting offensive line went (left to right) 330, 345, 340, 345, 345!

Based on a quick check of many high profile teams’ football rosters this spring, it looks like CU will have a tie for the “biggest” roster in college football. Here are some comparisons:

Ohio State has 9 300+ pounders on its roster.

Notre Dame has 10 300+ pounders on its roster.

Colorado State has 11 300+ pounders on its roster.

Michigan has 17 300+ pounders on its roster.

BYU has 19 300+ players on its roster.

Georgia has 20 300+ pounders on its roster.

Alabama has 21 300+ players on its roster.

LSU has 22 300+ players on its roster.

So at a minimum, it looks like CU’s size is comparable to one team in the country — the LSU Tigers. Not bad company, and an extreme turnaround from 2 years ago.

Kaidon Salter and JuJu Lewis taking snaps in pre-Spring Game warmups.

Incoming Transfers

After the Spring Game, Deion Sanders mentioned that CU is actively looking to add at least one defensive tackle, one linebacker, one safety, two cornerbacks, two running backs, one tight end, one guard, one tackle, and 2 centers. The portal door is wide open, folks.

Last week, CU received commitments from 2 players. One was Memphis offensive lineman Xavier Hill. The 6’4″ 318-pound Hill was named 1st team All-AAC by Phil Steele (the man, the myth and the legend) and 2nd team All-AAC by the conference’s coaches.  According to most observers, he was the best player on Memphis’ team last season and he projects as a right tackle that can slide to guard if needed.  Hill was a semi-finalist for the Outland Trophy.

Xavier Hill immediately becomes one of Coloardo’s most accomplished players on the roster.

Hill’s Pro Football Focus score last season was an 84. Two points of reference:  (a) Travis Hunter’s PFF score (on offense) was 86 last year; and (b) CU’s highest ranked offensive lineman (Justin Mayers) was 70.4 last year.  Hill is an elite pass blocker and a very good run blocker.  Quite simply, Hill gives CU an All Big 12-level offensive lineman. 

The other addition last week was 6’5” Campbell Fighting Camel WR transfer Sincere Brown.  Brown committed to CU over offers from Texas A&M, Michigan, and North Carolina.  His highlight tape shows his speed and explosiveness, particulalry for his height. Brown runs a 4.30 second 40-yard dash and his per catch average of 16.9 yards would have ranked 1st in the Big 12 last season. Brown is a big play waiting to happen and adds more talent to a loaded WR room and I’ve already called my shot with Brown – I think he’ll be playing in the NFL next year.

Sincere Brown’s PFF score last season was 77.2, nearly 10 points higher than any other Campbell football player that played meaningful snaps for the team.

This weekend Auburn safety Terrance Love committed to Colorado. Love was a 4-star player coming out of high school and was ranked among the top 300 players in the country. He committed to Auburn over offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame and more. Love spent 2 seasons at Auburn but didn’t crack the lineup outside of special teams, and only had 8 tackles in his career.

Auburn transfer Terrance Love will bolster CU’s depth at the safety position.

While Love is ranked the #1 safety in the transfer portal, it’s hard to project him into a meaningful role this upcoming season given his lack of previous playing time at safety. However, he is a great athlete and has tremendous size for the position. In fact, Love is as big as most of Colorado’s linebackers at 6’2″ 220 pounds. It wouldn’t surprise if he finds the field as a hybrid safety/linebacker in nickle and dime sets.

Love will join a safety competition that also includes Carter Stoutmire, Tawfiq Byard (who looked fantastic in the Spring Game) and TJ Branch (who had an interception in the Spring Game). It’s likely that Colorado will add another safety in the coming weeks to add to the competition and bloster the group’s depth.

Cornerback Keon Parks also committed to Colorado this weekend. Parks graded out as Illinois State’s top defender in 2024 according to Pro Football Focus, and the 6’1″ 180-pound Park allowed just 37.8% of the passes thrown his way to be completed (!) over 729 defensive snaps. He led the Missouri Valley Conference with 11 pass breakups.

Keon Parks will fight for playing time with DJ McKinney, Preston Hodges, Colton Hood, and Makari Vickers.

Parks was an all-state track star in high school at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Detroit. He committed to CU over an offer from Mississippi State, and adds much needed depth to the talented (but thin) cornerback room. I think Parks can give CU a 4-headed monster at cornerback with DJ McKinney, Preston Hodges and Colton Hood.

Other transfer prospets that visited this weekend were Virginia tackle Blake Steen (started 11 games last year with PFF score of 63.6, slightly above average), UCF offensive lineman Waltclare Flynn, Jr. (redshirted last year but was ranked #2 center in nation coming out of high school by ESPN), and Florida State WR Hykeem Williams (ranked #4 WR in his high school class but struggled with injuries during his career). I’ve been told that all 3 are “likely” to commit, so stay tuned for news on that front.

Florida State WR Hykeem Williams was in attendance at the Spring Game this weekend.

High school visitors for the Spring Game included included Windsor High School OL Deacon Schmitt, and Domato Peko Jr. and Joseph Peko (the two sons of defensive line coach Domato Peko Sr.). Joseph Peko is a doppleganger of his father, and the 315 pound high school junior has the backside to prove it. He looks like he could suit up and play for Colorado this season.

Last, I want to send a shoutout to the OG of CU websites, NetBuffs. I mentioned some websites last week and forgot to mention the OG, which is still going strong. If you haven’t checked out NetBuffs in a while, check it out — it’s a great community.