(Joe Tumpkin and Darrin Chiaverini meeting with Johnny Huntley and Anthony Julmisse at South Plantation this morning... Chiaverini's first opportunity to meet both in person)
The long, 32-day recruiting dead period ended on Thursday morning and all of the Buffs' coaches were predictably on the road. The emphasis was on hitting up verbal commitments since it had been more than a month since Colorado's coaches were allowed to have face-to-face contact with them.
Jim Leavitt stopped by to see Craig Watts Jr. this morning and he conducted an in-home visit with KJ Sails Jr. this evening. I'm hearing Colorado still feels optimistic about its chances of signing Watts. The four-star defensive back prospect announced on social media recently that he won't be commenting on his recruitment publicly again until signing day. Colorado, South Florida, North Carolina and Indiana are the hats expected to be on display when he finalizes his recruitment on Feb. 3. Right now it looks like the Buffs and the Bulls have the edge. He will be taking an official visit to South Florida this weekend. Colorado has been battling the draw of staying close to home from day one. Leavitt will have an opportunity to conduct two more in-home visits with Watt, including one with Mike MacIntyre, before signing day.
I talked to the aforementioned KJ Sails Jr., a three-star safety prospect Gibsonton (Fla.) East Bay, during the dead period and his interest in the Buffs seemed very low at that point. He also did not include Colorado among his list of finalists (Cincinnati, Maryland, Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia) but he tweeted out the following tonight:All 11 of the Buffs' verbal commitments sound solid right but Patrick Taylor Jr. continues to keep an open ear to other colleges. Following a stellar senior season, there is some concern from Colorado that he will get late offers from other power conference programs in the days leading up to signing day if some of those other schools miss out on their other targets. Taylor will be in Boulder for his official visit this weekend.
I've been told Darrin Chiaverini's energy and excitement has been infectious even though he was only in the Champions Center for three days before leaving to recruit on Thursday. There is a feeling by other staff members that they have to match his energy, which is a tall task.The Buffaloes expect to host 13 official visitors this weekend, including Davis Webb. No one I talk to knows what Webb's plans are aside from visiting Boulder this weekend, but everyone I've talked to feels the Buffs have a great chance to land him. The Most Valuable Player of the 2013 Holiday Bowl, Webb would be eligible to play his senior season in 2016 because he is a graduate transfer, but he won't be done with classes at Texas Tech until May. Webb will go through the same type of official visit that the prep recruits will experience this weekend.Coinciding with what MacIntyre told Neill Woelk yesterday, the Buffs' 2016 signing class will end up including more than one grayshirt. Hunter Vaughn, of course, has already agreed to delay his enrollment a semester. Don't expect the names of the other grayshirt(s) to be announced anytime soon, though.
I will be posting capsules of all 13 official visitors on Saturday morning. We've already reported the following official visitors: Webb, Taylor Jr., Jarrius Wallace, Trey Udoffia, Ronnie Turner, Akil Jones, Dejon Harris and Ca'Ron Baham. There is another outside linebacker prospect currently verbally committed to another power conference program that will be checking out what Colorado has to offer this weekend.Colorado is still recruiting Tayler Hawkins and JoJo Domann, but depending how things play out in the coming days, if they take too long to make a final decision, the Buffs could be out of spots and might have to turn them away. Hawkins is scheduled to check out Washington State this weekend, then San Diego State next weekend.
On Thursday, the Buffs extended a scholarship offer to Keanu Saleapaga, a three-star defensive end prospect from La Mirada (Calif.) High. He was previously committed to USC. I touched base with La Mirada head coach/former Buffs quarterback Mike Moschetti about Saleapaga on Friday morning: "'Chiv' is coming by school next week and we're going to set the visit up. He will visit Colorado, possibly with two of my other players: Running back Sei-J Lauago and athlete Tevaka Tuioti."
Coffeyville Community College outside linebacker prospect Drew Lewis, who originally signed with Washington out of high school, confirmed he will be visiting Colorado next weekend (Jan. 22). He will be checking out Utah State this weekend and he is scheduled to visit Memphis on Jan. 29. During my interview with him earlier this month, Lewis said, "It could change but I might be favoring Colorado a little bit right now. Coming back to the Pac-12 appeals to me."
Word out of Knoxville on new Colorado quarterback Sheriron Jones is that he would have had a good chance to be Josh Dobbs' back-up as a redshirt freshman in 2016 and had a legit opportunity to be Tennessee's starter down the road. Every person I've talked to about Jones talks about his quick release and his athleticism.
