Deion Sanders on Pat Narduzzi’s roster management criticism: ‘I don’t know who he is’ – The Athletic

Colorado coach Deion Sanders doesn’t sound bothered by Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi’s criticism of Sanders’ roster management earlier this spring.

“He’s not mad at me, he’s using me to shoot bullets at another coach who he has an issue with,” Sanders told 247Sports. “I don’t know who he is; if he walked in here right now I wouldn’t know him.”

More than 40 Colorado players left the program following the Buffaloes’ spring game and 51 scholarship players entered the transfer portal since Sanders took over on Dec. 3. Around 70 total players have entered the portal. Sanders and his staff used a recent NCAA rule change for first-year coaches to legally cut the vast majority of the players who entered the portal after the spring.

Former Colorado offensive lineman Travis Gray, who was cut this spring, recounted how the conversation with Buffs offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle went after the spring game.

“‘Hey buddy, you’re going to get cut today. I’m sorry to tell you this. I didn’t want you to hear it from Coach Prime. I wanted you to hear it from my mouth. I didn’t want to cut you, but we had to cut five offensive linemen, and you were the last one,’” Gray recounted O’Boyle saying. Gray, whose father was on Colorado’s 1990 national title team, committed to New Mexico in May.

Players are allowed to keep their scholarship if they elect to stay at Colorado, but cannot participate in football activities. Their scholarship then doesn’t count against the 85-man limit. Colorado athletic director Rick George told ESPN this spring that Colorado is honoring the full scholarships for four players who won’t be participating in any football activities but plan to stay at Colorado.

Narduzzi took exception to the practice in an interview with 247Sports at the ACC’s spring meetings last month.

“That’s not the way it’s meant to be,” Narduzzi said. “That’s not what the rule intended to be. It was not to overhaul your roster. We’ll see how it works out but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country. The reflection is on one guy right now but when you look at it overall — those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life — I don’t know how many of those 70 that left really wanted to leave or they were kicked in the butt to get out.”

Narduzzi was also a loud critic of USC coach Lincoln Riley. Narduzzi accused Riely of tampering with 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison, who transferred to the Trojans last May and caught 59 passes for 875 yards and eight touchdowns before being picked No. 23 overall by the Minnesota Vikings in this year’s NFL Draft.

“What was his situation when he came to Pitt? He had a different situation than me. He is not mad at me, he is mad at the situation in football now that allowed his best player to leave a year ago,” Sanders said.

Are there more Colorado-Pitt fireworks ahead?

Don’t expect this feud — if you can call it that — to come to a head on the recruiting trail or on the field any time soon. Narduzzi and Sanders don’t recruit many, if any, of the same players on opposite sides of the country and the ACC and Pac-12 programs have no plans to face each other on the field any time in the future.

They’d have to meet in a bowl game, and Vegas oddsmakers have set the over/under for Colorado’s win total this season at 3.5. Maybe next year, unless Colorado finds a glass slipper in the Flatirons.

Required reading

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)