Colorado has lost some momentum on the recruiting trail with the early signing period quickly approaching, but head coach Deion Sanders remains confident players want to be Buffs.

Currently, CU has nine high school players and one junior college recruit verbally committed for the 2026 class. The early signing period runs Dec. 3-5 and CU’s class ranks 98th nationally, per 247Sports.com.

CU’s ranking was much higher three weeks ago, but four-star defensive lineman Emanuel Ruffin, four-star tight end Gavin Mueller and three-star D’Montae Tims have all decommitted since Nov. 4. All three left CU to pledge to top-ranked programs such as No. 1 Ohio State (Ruffin), No. 2 Indiana (Tims) and No. 13 Miami (Mueller).

At 3-8 (1-7 Big 12), CU isn’t nearly as attractive as those programs, but Sanders believes there are quality players – some of which were on hand Saturday for CU’s 42-17 loss to Arizona State – who will see opportunity with the Buffs.

“They know what time it is, man, they know what time is,” Sanders said. “Guys want to play. They want to come and play. So if they see opportunity, like I said before, dawgs see opportunity, they want to play.”

While CU has lost some quality recruits, four-star linebacker Carson Crawford and four-star safety Preston Ashley lead a solid class of 10.

Part of CU’s low ranking (which includes being 15th in the 16-team Big 12) is its low number of commits. In the Big 12, West Virginia has 31 commits, while 12 others have at least 16 commits. Only Oklahoma State has fewer commits than CU, with eight.

The Buffs’ average recruit rating (87.71), however, is tied with Arizona State for sixth-best in the conference.

Last weekend, CU hosted several official visitors, including four-star linebacker Terry Wiggins (Coatesville, Pennsylvania) and three-star cornerback Amauri Polydor (Baltimore), who are both committed to Penn State.

Four-star receiver Devin Carter (committed to Florida State) and three-star quarterback Femi Babalola (committed to Boston College) also visited. Several of CU’s own commits were in town, too.

In addition to trying to land more high school recruits, Sanders and his staff will soon be figuring out which players on the current roster will jump into the transfer portal after the season.

“You hate to use the word assume; you got to kind of predict that you may lose 10 to 12 percent,” he said. “You got to predict that at certain positions you know what you could lose.”

As is always the case, some players will choose to leave, while some will jump into the portal because they are encouraged to move on.

“We’re prepared for everything,” Sanders said. “It’s not like if this happens, that was a surprise. No, it’s not. That was a decision that we knew you would make because that’s who you are. Also, it’s decisions that we’re going to make because that’s who we are.”

The transfer portal will be open from Jan. 2-16, and it’s a key offseason for the Buffs.

“You’ve got to do what’s best for your roster,” Sanders said. “You got to do what’s best for your team, what’s best for the players that are very impactful. You got to put something around them to make sure they could blossom and you got to make sure these coaches have what they need to work with. And we’re going to do that, I promise you that.”