Colorado center Cash Cleveland put his name into the transfer portal Thursday.

Cleveland was a walk-on with the Buffaloes but finished the 2024 campaign as the starting center and earned On3Sports true freshman All-American honors.

Rivals.com reported Thursday that Cleveland is already drawing interest from multiple Power Four conference schools.

Cleveland played at IMG Academy in Florida with CU star tackle Jordan Seaton, and wound up joining Seaton in the Buffs’ lineup.

During the 2024 season, Cleveland didn’t play in any of the Buffs’ first six games. When starting center Hank Zilinskas had some snap issues in a Week 7 game at Arizona, Cleveland came off the bench for the last 19 snaps. Two games later, snap issues resurfaced for Zilinskas and Cleveland relieved him in the first quarter. Cleveland wound up starting the last four games, while Zilinskas saw just three more snaps in a CU uniform.

Zilinskas transferred to Rutgers in January. With Cleveland now on the move, the Buffs will once again have a new center this season. Also on Thursday, tight end Sam Hart, who left the team earlier this spring, officially went into the transfer portal. He transferred to CU from Ohio State last summer.

Thoughts on new turf

Saturday’s Black & Gold scrimmage will be the first chance for fans to see the new-look Colorado football team. It will also be the last chance for fans to see the Buffaloes play on natural grass at Folsom Field.

BuffZone reported last month that CU will replace the grass surface with artificial turf this summer, and on Thursday head coach Deion Sanders gave his thoughts on the switch.

“We plan on making it to the (College Football Playoff), and we don’t want to play on the frozen tundra,” Sanders said. “The heating system (under the field) that once was available, I don’t know if that was still available, because we do so much in the offseason. This university is a magnet for events, so when you have events and you’re putting a lot of wear and tear on grass, that’s kind of tough to bounce back from.”

Sanders added that the artificial surface could be better for night games.

“When you have evening games, there’s a dew that gets on the field and it gets pretty slippery, and for both teams, not just our team,” he said.