Here’s the thing: Grant Page didn’t jump into the transfer portal when it opened. He says he was pushed.
“I couldn’t have stayed (at CU),” Page, the former Buffs and Fairview wide receiver told me Monday. “I really wanted to. They said it was just best for me to leave.”
They?
“It was my position coach,” Page replied.
Paradise sometimes comes with a cold, callous underbelly, growling beneath the profit and glory. Hiring Deion Sanders means owning the front page. It means having ESPN at your beck and call. It means documentary cameras at every turn.
It means seeing Folsom Field filled to capacity for a glorified scrimmage in April. It means full houses for as far as the eye can see. It means pride and fun and wearing Buffs black and gold with caviar dreams and a spring in your step.
It also means conversations such as the one Page said he had with new CU wide receivers coach Brett Bartolone this past Sunday. The one in which it was suggested he pack up his luggage (not Louie) and move on.
“They told everybody to go,” Page continued.
Everybody?
“Whoever entered the portal, that’s who they told to go.”
As of 4:45-ish Monday afternoon, including Page, that count was up to 17 Buffs. Sorry. Former Buffs. Per 247Sports.com’s tracker, 31 ex-CU players have hit the portal since it opened again April 15.
And yes, it happens everywhere. And yes, Coach Prime told us two weeks ago exactly what was coming. What he’s doing with the Buffs roster, one that limped to a 1-11 record last fall, isn’t remotely evil. But after roughly 35 departures in less than two weeks, some of which allegedly happened against the will of the departees, it’s still fair to ask: Is it necessary?
“We don’t weed anyone out,” Sanders said earlier this month. “They weed themselves out. We don’t make them quit. They quit or they — I don’t want to say quit. They jump in the transfer portal. You call it what you want, OK? (You leave the program) before a national televised game, before a sellout crowd? So you call it what you want.”
John Tyson would call it something, all right. But it’s not something we can print.
“My thoughts on Deion wouldn’t be good, so I’m not going to say anything,” the elder Tyson, father of former freshman Buffs wideout Jordyn Tyson, another Monday portal entry, told me by phone.
“It’s a bad situation for us as a family, I will say that. And it’s unfortunate, but it’s the nature of the system.”
Look, college football coaches, apex predators on the control-freak food chain, have been running guys off for a century. The difference in 2023 is the ruthless speed and efficiency at which said guys can be shuttled in and out. USC and new coach Lincoln Riley pretty much wrote the book on roster quick-fixes last year, riding transfers — including ex-CU starters Brenden Rice and Mehki Blackmon — to an 11-3 record, an improvement of seven wins from 2021.
If that’s the game plan for Coach Prime, so be it. But if you’re going to treat your kids like NFL waiver claims, and if you’re committed to running your program like it’s a season of “Hard Knocks,” then the end product had better be worth the human collateral.
“Again, that’s what (Sanders) said he was going to do,” the elder Tyson continued.
“I pray for those kids that they’re bringing in and the kids that decided to stay at Colorado. I pray to God they turn it around for them. This business of college football at the Power 5 level, it isn’t an easy game. If it was, all the Power 5 coaches would be successful — there wouldn’t be 1-11 or 2-10 (teams).
“Some great people (at CU) got fired last year. And some kids got some really (hard) life lessons shown to them last year.”
Roster turnover is inevitable during a regime change, but when Tyson’s part of that turnover, eyebrows go up. The freshman receiver was still viewed as something of a project, sure. But he was a project who also averaged 21.4 yards per catch and 52 yards from scrimmage per game and accounted for four of CU’s 10 passing touchdowns last fall. In his final three appearances for the Buffs, he notched 13 receptions for 344 yards and two scores, including 137 against Oregon on just five catches.
“I think he’s going to do great things wherever he lands,” Tyson’s father said. “I always thought (CU) was a beautiful place and he loved it there and we’ll leave that taste in our mouths.”
For Page, though, that flavor is tinged with understandable bitterness. He’s a local kid who was wronged by ex-Nebraska coach Scott Frost two years ago, only to come home and find himself right back where he started. In the margins.
“Just know,” the elder Tyson stressed, “that it was an ugly situation.”
John wouldn’t say whether the portal was Jordyn’s idea, or the coaching staff’s. You can read between the lines on that one.
As Tyson said, it’s the cost of doing business. But when you sell your soul, you don’t get to keep the receipt.
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