It’s pretty crazy that college football is now at the point where players are transferring after spring football practices and yet they may still start a a P4 level. Just one of these cases just happened with Colorado transfer Isaiah Jatta.
On Monday the former Colorado lineman who started a game last season and appeared in 11 games announced that he was committing to play for the BYU Cougars. There is a good chance that Jatta will be a starter, particularly if he is able to get the system down quickly during Fall Camp.
BYU Football Loading Up in the Trenches
![Colorado Football Offensive Lineman Announces Transfer Destination Ahead of 2024 Season 1 byu football](https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/connor-pay.webp)
Last year, the biggest issue that BYU Football had was their inability to run the ball. Last season BYU ranked 103rd in rushing yards per attempt, only averaging 3.6 yards per attempt. They also ranked 110th in rushing yards per game averaging only 109 yards per game including only 78.1 yards per game while on the road. For a team that likes to have a balanced attack rushing and passing the ball, this is a recipe for disaster.
There was little doubt that coming into this season the biggest focus in the transfer portal was going to be strengthening the offensive line through recruiting and the transfer portal. The Cougars have now added to offensive linemen through the transfer portal (Isaiah Jatta and Austin Leausa from SUU). BYU also added Ikinasio Tupou in this year’s signing class.
Colorado Continues to Lose Players to the Transfer Portal
![Colorado Football Offensive Lineman Announces Transfer Destination Ahead of 2024 Season 2 Deion Sanders, Bill Belichick, Marlon Humphrey, Colorado Buffaloes](https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/USATSI_21973778_168400517_lowres-scaled-e1711040305224.jpg)
Coach Deion Sanders is certainly running the biggest experiment of roster turnover in college football history. With the departure of Jatta, the Buffaloes have now lost 41 players to the transfer portal from last year’s team. If this was Coach Prime’s first season, this would make a lot of sense, but he literally brought in everyone he wanted to last year, yet half the roster is leaving.
The Buffs have also signed 40 players from all over the country, with seven of the players signing after spring football was already finished. To say that this team will have to come together in Fall Camp is an understatement as there are literally likely five to six players who haven’t even taken snaps with the team yet.
College Football Recruiting Will Be Decided in Large Part by Colorado
Why is this so important? This experiment by Coach Prime goes much deeper than whether or not Colorado will be able to make a bowl game. If Colorado is able to drastically improve in year two under Sanders, don’t be surprised to see more coaches and programs take the same crazy roster turnover strategy that Colorado is going through.
On the flip side, if Colorado really struggles and a team like Clemson rises once again to the top (Clemson doesn’t utilize the portal hardly at all), the opposite may begin to start to happen in college football. Perhaps teams and players will see more value in player retention and building a team from high school with transfers sprinkled in.
Either way, we are going to learn a lot this upcoming season.
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https://x.com/isaiahjatta/status/1792639202389094909