Colorado football: 3 second-year players who’ll become stars in 2023

Karl Dorrell didn’t leave Colorado football in the best place for Deion Sanders.

The former Colorado head coach wasn’t the best recruiter and his final season in Boulder was short-lived and his team went 1-11. His tenure in Boulder was so quick that if you blinked, you probably missed most of it.

Now, Sanders takes over and he’s already bringing in the No. 20 recruiting class for 2023 and he has the No. 4 transfer class as well.

But he’ll have to rely on some guys left over from the previous regime. Which second-year players could help with the turnaround?

Not exactly the highest-rated recruit in Colorado’s 2022 class, Jason Oliver still managed to see the field plenty as a freshman.

In fact, he finished with 11 total tackles in 12 games played and he’s projected to fight for one of the starting cornerback spots for the Buffaloes in 2023. While I think a newcomer is a lock to secure one of the other cornerbacks spots, Oliver showed enough promise last season to at least be in the discussion.

Deion Sanders knows defensive backs well and learning from the new head coach is going to benefit the second-year defensive back.

I think we’ll see him enter the regular rotation at cornerback, at the very least, and he may even be the starter opposite the No. 1 transfer in the country (we’ll get to him later).