Deion Sanders Trolls Pat Narduzzi After Landing Two Transfers From Pittsburgh

Whether you are a fan of his transfer portal method or not, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has made it quite clear that his roster will mostly be built through the portal.

In just two offseasons in Boulder, Sanders has brought in nearly 100 transfer portal players across the 2023 and 2024 classes and is looking to contend in a way that no one has ever done before, or even tried to. Based on 247Sports' blue-chip ratio , history tells us that the teams who win titles are the ones recruiting the most four and five-star players and developing them. However, Sanders has decided that he values the college experience over having full classes of high school recruits.

While the roster he inherited at Colorado was viewed as one of the worst in college football, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi actually called Sanders out last offseason for the way he used the portal. Narduzzi went as far as to say that kicking players off the team to replace them via the portal was "bad" for college football.

"That's not the way it's meant to be," Narduzzi told 247Sports last year. "That's not what the rule intended to be. It was not to overhaul your roster. We'll see how it works out but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country. The reflection is on one guy right now but when you look at it overall — those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life — I don't know how many of those 70 that left really wanted to leave or they were kicked in the butt to get out."

When asked at the time about Narduzzi's comments, Sanders revealed he wasn't sure who that was.

"What was his situation when he came to Pitt? He had a different situation than me," Sanders said . "He is not mad at me, he is mad at the situation in football now that allowed his best player to leave a year ago. He's not mad at me, he's using me to shoot bullets at another coach who he has an issue with. I don't know who he is; if he walked in here right now I wouldn't know him."

On Friday while speaking to the media, it was clear that Sanders remembered the comments made by Narduzzi and poked a little fun at the Pitt head coach.

“I’m seeing pretty much 4-5 guys that can bump, run and cover all day," Sanders said when talking about his new-look defense before trolling Narduzzi. "That front cooperates with the backend. The pass rushers that we have, shoot. I want to thank the head coach from Pittsburgh for preparing those young men for us. Thank you Pittsburgh I appreciate everything, god bless you.”

For context, Colorado brought in 43 transfers this offseason, with two of them being defensive linemen from Pitt. The Buffs landed Samuel Okunlola who had 18 total tackles and five sacks as a freshman, and also nabbed Pittsburgh native and senior Dayon Hayes who had a career-high 45 total tackles and four sacks.

Both Okunlola and Hayes are looking to help bolster a defense that was one of the worst run defenses in the country, and also didn't have the most effective pass rush by any means. Surely if the defense takes a major step and these two are at the forefront, Narduzzi will have something to say.

Related: Deion Sanders Makes Major Personal Announcement Ahead Of CFB Season