CU Football 2027 Recruiting Class: The Front Seven

Deion Sanders and his staff built the offensive side of this class around the offensive line. On defense, Colorado has focused on players from big-time high school football programs that, while maybe not the marquee player on their team, are highly productive and accustomed to playing other big time high school football programs. It’s a lower risk approach to high school recruiting that I think makes sense.

Previously, we’ve looked at the offensive commits (https://buffsblog.com/colorado-2027-recruiting-class-commits/) and the defensive back commits (https://buffsblog.com/colorado-2027-defensive-back-commits/).

As a quick reminder, CU’s class is currently ranked #32 nationally and #3 in the Big 12 behind Kansas State and Texas Tech.

Let’s jump in.

The Defensive Line

Kenny Fairley — DL, Creekside (Fairburn, GA)

A 2027 Colorado defensive line commit poses during a recruiting visit.

Kenny Fairley is asking the camera man if he bought tickets to the gun show.

The Vitals: 6-1, 270 lbs. Ranked No. 125 DL, No. 128 in Georgia. Committed April 24, 2026.

Fairley was the first front 7 player to commit, and the third commitment of the entire 2027 cycle.

Creekside sits in Fairburn, southwest of Atlanta, in one of the most scouted stretches of high school football in the country. Games there are recruiting events. Every college in the Southeast has somebody at those games. Fairley committed to CU over about 20 offers, including Cincinnati, Purdue, East Carolina, Tulane and most of the MAC.

His junior season at Creekside produced 68 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks. At 6-1 and 270 he is built low to the ground, which is the whole point: leverage is the interior lineman’s entire job, and a 6-1 tackle starts every snap underneath a 6-5 guard. See Dylan Manuel’s performane against Georgia Tech for evidence.

The bloodline is real. Fairley is the younger brother of Toby Johnson, the defensive tackle who played at Georgia and reached the NFL as well as the XFL, the Indoor Football League, the National Arena League AND the USFL. That, my friends, is a football guy.

He chose the Buffs over Cincinnati and Purdue. Reporting out of Boulder credited a “great bond” with Sanders — April is early enough in a cycle that the head coach’s personal attention still stands out.

Drew Sapp — Edge, Lakeland (Lakeland, FL)

The Vitals: 6-3, 245 lbs. 247: No. 1350 overall, No. 102 EDGE, No. 143 in Florida. Committed June 14, 2026.

Start with the production, because it is absurd. Sapp put up 28 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks in 2025 for a powerhouse Lakeland High School team. Lakeland is one of the genuine powers of Florida high school football, which makes those numbers heavier rather than lighter. He was not doing it against overmatched schedules. Lakeland has about 8 national recruits this year, including the edge that plays opposite Sapp — 4-star defensive end Santana Harvey.

The Dreadnaughts (what a killer nickname!) have won state championships in 1986, 1996, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2018, 2022 and 2023, plus national titles in 2005 and 2006.

Colorado’s recruitment ran through running backs coach Johnnie Mack, a Lakeland native himself, who visited twice in the months before the commitment. Sapp chose the Buffs over Mississippi State, Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt.

Then the hard part. Sapp tore his ACL in practice roughly one week before his senior season began, and will not play a down of it. Colorado’s staff told him immediately that his scholarship and his enrollment plans are unchanged — which is the correct answer. Recruits talk to each other. A staff that honors a commitment to a player who just lost his senior year is how you gain loyalty and trust from future recruits.

The football question, which is a real one, is whether a player who has not competed since his junior year arrives ready to contribute. Most do not, and a redshirt year for Sapp should surprise nobody.

Jovon Pulliam — Edge, Hoover (Hoover, AL)

The Vitals: 6-1, 230 lbs. Ranked No. 106 EDGE, No. 49 in Alabama. Committed June 6, 2026.

Pulliam comes out of Hoover, the Birmingham-area program that MTV turned into a national brand with Two-A-Days and which has spent the twenty years continuing to be one of the best high school football programs in America. Players who start there arrive in college having already played in front of crowds and cameras. Famous Hoover alums include American Idol Taylor Hicks, Dallas Cowboys WR George Pickens, and 1995 Ms. America winner Heather Whitestone. (where else can you get that info?!)

His junior line: 91 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, nine sacks and three forced fumbles.

At 6-1, 230 he is undersized for a hand-in-the-dirt end and will likely grow into a stand-up outside linebacker, which is roughly why the services cannot agree how to list him — 247 has him as an Edge, other outlets have called him a linebacker. That ambiguity is a feature at this stage.

The recruitment itself is a small case study in how this staff works. Assistant director of player personnel Devin Ruffin made the first contact, assistant linebackers coach Andre’ Hart built the relationship from there and offered on April 21. Pulliam had already been to Jacksonville State on May 29 and had visits to Appalachian State and Tulane still on the calendar. He committed on June 6 while he was physically in Boulder on his official, and the remaining trips never happened.

For now, we’ll list him as an edge. But don’t be surprised if pretty soon he’s one of…..

The Linebackers

A 2027 Colorado linebacker commit lines up in a three-point stance during his junior high school season.

Ms. Williis was either a Brock Lesnar fan or loved President Obama.

Ba’Roc Willis — LB, Pell City (Pell City, AL)

The Vitals: 6-3, 230 lbs. 247: No. 37 LB, No. 20 in Alabama. Committed May 19, 2026.

I want to hear Paul Heyman announce Ba’Roc Wilis’ name.

Willis is the highest-ranked commit on the defensive side. The one-time Alabama commit has an offer list from college football’s blue bloods: Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Texas, USC, LSU, Miami and many more.

The junior tape backs up the recruiting attention rather than the other way round. In 15 games Willis recorded 125 total tackles, 23 tackles for loss, nine sacks, two fumble recoveries and a pass defended.

By his own account the recruitment ended the moment the official visit did. Colorado, he said, “feels like home,” and he came back from Boulder wanting to shut the process down. Landing a player with an SEC offer sheet that deep, out of Alabama, against Alabama, is the kind of thing that gets a staff noticed — and it happened in May, before the June visit weekends that produced most of this class.

Kaylon Bailey — LB, Glenville (Cleveland, OH)

The Vitals: 6-1, 225 lbs. 247: No. 46 LB, No. 24 in Ohio. Committed June 25, 2026.

Glenville is one of the biggest football schools in the country. Ted Ginn Sr.’s program on Cleveland’s east side has been the most reliable talent pipeline in Ohio for two decades, and the road from Glenville to Columbus is well travelled. Ohio State does not usually lose these. Ohio State lost this one. Boo Ohio State.

The timeline is the story. Colorado did not offer until May 18 — by which point Bailey already had Louisville, West Virginia, Ohio State and South Florida lined up for visits. He took all of them: Louisville on May 29, West Virginia on June 1, Ohio State on June 5, Boulder in mid-June, South Florida on June 19. Then he committed to the school that had entered last.

That is a late push in the truest sense, and it is not the only time in this class a staff arrived after everyone else and left with the player. Bailey became CU’s 17th commitment of the cycle and its fourth linebacker.

Mark Porter of 247 had the following scouting report on Bailey: “True football player who understands how to play at a high level. Brings toughness and physicality on every snap. Consistently finds ways to be around football. His ability to make plays in space is impressive for a player with pass-rushing ability. That is what makes him unique. As an edge presence, he shows advanced polish, including a spin move that mirrors NFL Hall of Famer Dwight Freeney’s go-to move — rare for a player of Bailey’s size. Bit of a jack of all trades; capable of rushing passer, setting edge or dropping into coverage.”

Sign me up.

Jahmiere Daniels-Portis — LB, Springfield (Springfield, OH)

The Vitals: 6-1, 205 lbs. Ranked No. 107 LB, No. 50 in Ohio. Committed June 24, 2026.

Daniels-Portis committed one day before Bailey, giving Colorado two Ohio linebackers inside twenty-four hours out of a state whose best defenders rarely leave the Midwest.

Springfield is a serious program in its own right, and his junior season read 88 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and six forced fumbles. Six. That is the highest forced-fumble figure anywhere in this class and it is not a statistic that happens by accident twice, let alone six times.

Daniels-Portis camped at North Carolina State, and experts there said he was arguably the best player in their camp and immediately rose to the top of their recruiting board. NC State is still recruiting him, so it will be a battle to keep him lined up through signing day.

At 6-1, 205 he is the lightest of the linebacker group and will need a college weight program, but the frame is the sort that carries another twenty pounds without losing anything. Indiana, NC State, Cincinnati and Illinois were all involved. He was commitment No. 16 in the cycle.

Rankings come from 247Sports and Rivals as of publication and move constantly at this stage of a cycle. Where the services disagree on a player’s position — Pulliam and Willis have both been listed as edge and as linebacker — both readings are noted rather than resolved.

How to Watch the Buffs This Week — sponsored by SportsDeck

Saturday’s home opener against Weber State kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Mountain on ESPN+ — and ESPN+ is not the ESPN channel. Turn on plain ESPN at 1:30 and you will NOT get the Buffs’ game.

If you have YouTube TV you are already covered: ESPN+ and YouTube TV link accounts directly now, so ESPN+ games show up in the same app instead of behind a second subscription. A Disney+ or Hulu bundle may include it too. Worth checking before you buy anything.

Other CU games this weekend include the soccer game against Denver this Friday night at 7 pm at Prentup (the game will be aired on ESPN+), and the volleyball team plays a USC-hosted tournament in Los Angeles this weekend — Oregon State on Friday at 5:30 and USC on Saturday at 7:00, both on B1G+. Full details and next week’s game here.

The Buffs this week: Weber State at Colorado Saturday 1:30 PM MT on ESPN+, Colorado vs Oregon State volleyball Friday 5:30 PM MT on B1G+, Colorado at USC volleyball Saturday 7:00 PM MT on B1G+.

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Seriously, check the app out. It’s not some rush job – I’ve spent months and months honing this thing. Your first month of Pro is free. Get the iPhone app or start at mysportsdeck.com.