Colorado Football: 3 signees who’ll have instant impacts in 2020

Despite losing Mel Tucker to Michigan State, Colorado football has some incoming signees who should have an immediate impact.

Mel Tucker is now gone, but Colorado has to move on. While the sting may still be there as the wounds are relatively fresh, the Buffaloes still have an impressive group of incoming freshmen.

Karl Dorrell has taken over as head coach and the program must move forward.

Many fans are still fuming over the drastic coaching change and the fact that the Buffaloes decided to hire someone who hasn’t coached college football in years and who struggled a bit during his time at UCLA over a decade ago, but the hope for a bright future remains.

Which signees have an instant impact for the Buffs in 2020?

Mikial Onu is gone which leaves a vacancy at the safety position heading into the 2020 season. That leaves Derrion Rakestraw as the lone returning starter at safety and there’s a good chance we could see Christian Gonzalez fighting for a spot in the regular rotation right away.

Gonzalez is one of the highest-rated signees in Colorado’s 2020 class, listed as a four-star and the No. 326 overall player in the nation as well as the 31st-best safety, according to 247Sports.

Colorado beat out some big names for Gonzalez who also held offers from the likes of Notre Dame and Alabama, but it likely came down to a two-team race against Purdue and the Buffaloes just had more to offer and likely gave him a better chance to play early on.

The Texas-native has good size at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds and decent speed with a 4.74 40-yard dash, but he has some room to improve. He’s not enrolled early, but I could see him making a splash this summer.