Players Keep Leaving the Colorado Football Team; Is That a Problem?
Aaron Maddox wanted to redshirt, Mel Tucker couldn't promise him that, so he left. Darrion Jones wasn't getting enough time, so he left. With Jacob Callier, it "just wasn't working out," according to Mel Tucker, so he's gone too.
Those three players left the Colorado football team within the last week, but there's been a steady exodus ever since Mel Tucker took over last winter.
By Tucker's estimate, 13 or 14 players have left the program since he arrived on Dec. 5, several of them starters.
So exactly how much of a concern is this?
In some cases, you can chalk it up to playing time, but not all of them. In at least one case (Hassan Hypolite) you can chalk it up to the team running off the player. And then, of course, you have the fact that there was an entire regime change in the program, and that invariably means a handful of players are going to take off.
“First, they’re all my guys,” Tucker said. “They’re all our guys. I told them that from day one, whether I recruited you or not, we’re gonna love you up. I’m going to run through a wall for you and that’s the way it’s going to be. So I don’t think we’ve had that type of issue with new guys versus guys who were here before. We’re all in the same boat.”
That's a nice thing to say, but obviously not every player bought it totally. The players who ducked out when Tucker first got to Boulder are understandable, for the most part. It's this latest rash of departures that's a bigger concern.
Because of the new transfer rules, it's difficult to say what's "normal" yet. Maybe a couple years down the line we'll all have a better handle on just how many mid-season departures an average college football team can expect to suffer.
As it is, it seems like CU has too many. But I wouldn't start to panic unless another starter bails.
