Deion Sanders has captivated the football world with his starring presence as a coach and dominating debut. There is no doubt that he has done a phenomenal job recruiting the best athletes and staff in his program. But it also led him to ghost one of Buffs’ former TE Tucker Ashcraft who opened up about the time he was left unattended when the team was going through a massive transition.
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Coach Prime, when he took over the Buffs, announced that the team would witness some huge changes going forward since he was going to turn things around and recruitment was one of them. Turns out Tucker Ashcraft who is now playing for Wisconsin was one of the victims of that transformation. In his chat with The Athletic‘s Jesse Temple, Ashcraft detailed how the new Colorado staff under Deion Sanders ghosted him out of the program.
Tucker Ashcraft On Getting Cut From Deion Sanders’ Buffs
Though the 6-feet-5, 245 lbs TE didn’t play for the Buffs last year when Colorado recorded an embarrassing 1-11 season, but he was seen as a good future prospect. He was told by the coaches of the previous program that he was a ‘Prime type of guy’, which wasn’t the case. After the Buffs fired head coach Karl Dorrell in October, Ashcraft saw an opportunity to make the team. However, when Deion took over in December, he found out the truth the hard way.
Deion Sanders and Colorado didn't want Tucker Ashcraft.
Luke Fickell and the #Badgers couldn't be more thrilled to have the true freshman tight end, who flashed in Saturday's win over Buffalo.
"If they don't want me, fine, I'll play hard and do my thing."… pic.twitter.com/VR9RVAVRkS
— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) September 3, 2023
“I talked with the current recruiting staff that was there. They told me they wanted to keep me. Then they were like, ‘You know, this thing is kind of getting out of control. You should go look at other options.’ I was kind of already doing that. And (the new staff) never reached out to me and I was fine with that. They didn’t even tell me. They didn’t want me and I was like, ‘Fine, I’ll leave.’”
Tucker saw this coming and had prepared his next move accordingly. He later went to the Wisconsin Badgers, where he is admittedly happy after winning his debut game. Ashcraft during the game recorded two receptions for 36 yards against the Buffalo Buffs at Camp Randall Stadium.
Colorado’s Roster Purge With Coach Prime
Ashcraft wasn’t the only one who was denied a spot on the Colorado roster by Coach Prime. Along with him, Deion Sanders had decommited to 45 other players which resulted in an unprecedented amount of roster cuts. However, as nearly 75 percent of his players hit the transfer portal, Coach Prime was planning something big.
He devised a way to sign the top recruits based on their personality and self-discipline, to create a group of like-minded people who had only one thing in mind which was to change the game. The NFL legend’s bold move turned out to be a major success after Colorado secured their first win of the season against TCU.
