First-year head coach Deion Sanders has already made Colorado one of the most active teams in the country in the transfer portal this offseason.

The Buffaloes have a lot more work to do, however.

On national signing day, Feb. 1, Sanders said, “We’re not done” and called that day just “a comma” in the building of the 2023 roster.

On Monday, Thee Pregame Show posted an interview on YouTube with Sanders and he once again said the Buffs will be active after the spring. Players around the country will have the opportunity to put their names in the transfer portal from May 1-15.

“We ain’t no joke in this portal,” Sanders said in the interview. “I think we’re No. 1 and we haven’t got started in the portal yet. We’re about to really get started, as soon as we’re allowed to.”

CU has the No. 1-rated transfer class in the country, according to 247Sports.com. The Buffs have already added 25 transfers, second only to Arizona State (27). No other team in the country has added more than 19.

As of now, CU is projected for 95 scholarship players in the fall, which is 10 more than the NCAA maximum of 85. With the Buffs planning to add more players through the portal, there could be 20 or more current players not on the team by August.

CU finished the first week of spring football on Friday, and Sanders and his staff are using these practices, in part, to figure out which players will still be Buffs in the fall.

“We win together in this building and we lose together in this building and we plan on winning,” he said. “So, the mindsets of those individuals got to change or they’ve got to go.”

For now, Sanders and the staff are focusing their efforts on getting every player better by the end of spring.“Everybody has to develop,” Sanders said. “I don’t care if it’s the last kid on the totem pole; we have to put forth the effort to develop him, to make sure he’s better at the conclusion of the spring than when he came for the first day of the spring. Whether that kid is here or not, we’ve got to make sure that kid is better. That’s our objective. We’ve got to enhance him.”

On April 22, CU will wrap up practices with the annual spring game, which will be televised by ESPN. It is the only spring game in the nation to be televised by ESPN’s main network, and Sanders said that could be an opportunity similar to an NFL preseason game where players could be auditioning not only for roles with the Buffs, but possibly for other teams.

“It’s vital (to have the game on ESPN), because all these kids today, they want attention, they want affection, they want appreciation,” Sanders said. “They want to be seen, heard, known, recognized. That’s what they want. That particular game gives them that ability. Not only that; say, for instance, a guy isn’t what we want, he may be what somebody else wants and they’re able to see him. So, that’s a huge game for a multitude of reasons.”

Not so welcome break

CU opened spring practices on March 19 and got four practices in before taking this week off for spring break. The Buffs will return to the field on April 4 and will have 11 practices in a 19-day stretch before wrapping up the spring.

Sanders is not a fan of taking this week off.

“It’s not a positive,” he said last week. “I don’t like it in betwixt because these are young men at different maturation levels. So some people you tell don’t go out there and do ABC and D and they do it anyway because you told them not to. They’ve got to still touch the oven and see if it’s hot.

“Some guys are gonna work their butts off and stay in shape and lift (during the break) and make sure they come back prepared because they know there’s a lot at stake for the spring for them personally. I would never fall in love with having a break in betwixt spring practices.”

Notable

As of Monday, CU had distributed roughly 40,300 tickets for the spring game, with about 8,000 of those going to students. For the first time since the 1980s, CU is selling spring game tickets, at a cost of $10 for general admission. Student tickets are free. About 700 tickets remain for the general public, as well as some student tickets still available. … In talking on Thee Pregame Show about development being the key to the spring, Sanders included himself. “I’ve got to get better as a coach, as a man, as a father, as a leader,” he said. “In all those aspects, I’ve got to get better. I’ve got to be able to touch everything in this building and make them better as well.”