First-year Colorado coach Deion Sanders doesn’t seem too concerned about losing 49 players to the transfer portal.

“You should be able to tell by the white cowboy hat I wore in the spring game that this isn’t my first rodeo,” Sanders told 247Sports on Wednesday. “We coming.”

The stampede of Buffaloes out of Boulder has reportedly left Sanders’ program with fewer than 20 scholarship players as of Wednesday morning.

In Sanders’ first “rodeo” at Jackson State, the Pro Football Hall of Famer inherited a program that went 4-8 in 2019, the season before his arrival. He quickly turned around the Tigers with 11-2 and 12-1 seasons from 2021-22 before landing the Colorado job.

During his first meeting with Colorado players after being hired in December, Sanders told them to “go ahead and jump in that portal.”

Reinforcements are on the way, as 247Sports ranked Colorado’s incoming transfer class No. 1 and its 2023 recruiting class No. 30 nationally.

The Buffs are coming off a 1-11 season under Karl Dorrell (fired after an 0-5 start) and interim coach Mike Sanford.

The spring transfer portal window closes on Sunday.

–Field Level Media