He may not be as dynamic as Travis Hunter, but the Colorado Buffaloes appear to have finally found their next big talent at the DB position. Preston Ashley, a four-star recruit belonging to the class of 2026, is proving to be a blue-chip product who is worth remembering.
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And he now finds himself under the tutelage of one of the greatest secondary defenders of all time: Deion Sanders. Even though Colorado’s recruiting class isn’t large, it appears to be rich in talent. The upcoming season, and what Coach Prime does with the current crop, will set Colorado up well for the future.
Athlon Sports’ Kevin Borba suggested that the future recruits are going to need to see a bit more from Sanders and Co. in 2025 before they can truly feel comfortable about signing up for the Buffaloes.
“Recruits are going to want to see the sort of prove-it-again mode of like, ‘Hey, you did it with Travis Hunter and Shedeur, but now, what do you do without Travis Hunter and Shedeur’? I think that will be a productive twist to things,” said Borba.
As far as attempting to replace the production of Hunter and Shedeur goes, the former Atlanta Falcon insisted that the two of them are irreplaceable. According to Deion himself, their impact on the program extended well beyond the field. Simply put, the pair of recently minted NFL rookies will be sorely missed in Boulder, Colorado.
Nevertheless, Ashley has all the dressing and trimmings that one would expect from the next breakout defender. In the eyes of Borba, the production is there. “As a corner/safety, he’s pretty productive. 68 total tackles with two games of 10+ tackles, [and] three tackles for a loss,” he said.
“He also added one sack, not bad, and then he added one pick and five pass deflections. He played some offense as well. Couple kick returns, couple punt returns… For Colorado, this is a huge addition,” added Borba.
While the potential for immediate playing time gives Colorado a bit of an edge in the recruiting game, that doesn’t seem to have manifested into a wave of recruitment just yet. For now, Deion’s strategy seems to be quality over quantity.
As long as that is the case, Colorado will need to generate a higher return on their investments than the average team. Then again, the Buffaloes have one of the most decorated coaching staffs in all of college football.
Featuring multiple NFL Hall of Famers, such as Warren Sapp and Marshall Faulk, if there’s anyone who could manage to get the most out of a limited recruiting class, it would likely be them.
