We hoofed it uphill to the unmistakable, creaking aria of an open gate, hinges hee-hawing like a cartoon burro in the breeze.
The lock was rusted and busted. In the field where we expected to see Colorado’s best prep football talent grazing, we instead found a half-dozen Nebraska Cornhuskers stickers, a few copies of Bill Snyder’s autobiography and about four thick home-run chains with a giant Iowa State logo dangling at the end.
Which explains, at least in part, how the heck Jackson Cowgill got out in the first place.
“I did talk with (Karl) Dorrell’s staff and (also) when (Mike) Sanford was interim coach,” Cowgill, a 6-foot-5 defensive lineman out of Erie and three-star commit bound for Washington State, told me recently. “(CU) invited me to several events and they were kind of looking at me for a while.”
Then the gate swung wide open. Again.
“I (was told the Buffs) actually told one of my trainers, told them I was not ‘athletic enough’ to play at the next level. (The Buffs) had doubts about me playing defensive end at the next level. So I think (them) saying that made me really mad, made me want to actually move away from CU.”
Wazzu swooped in, and that was that. We’ve heard this tale before, no?
“It also motivated me to keep working,” Cowgill continued. “And now I’m going to be a defensive tackle at Wazzu. It’s a position change but I’m really looking forward to it.”
According to the 247Sports.com recruiting database, the 250-pound Cowgill is one of 16 3-star Colorado prospects leading the Class of 2024 — a group that’s deep with linemen but low on pizazz. But that doesn’t mean they can’t play; As of Wednesday afternoon, 10 had committed to Power 5 programs in other states. Only one, Ralston Valley’s Jack Moran, had pledged to stay home, committing to CSU this past April.
Now we know what you’re saying. The Buffs had a lame-duck coach in Dorrell last summer, then blew the whole thing up in December by turning the football program — and, to some degree, the CU brand itself — over to Deion Sanders, for better or for worse. Coach Prime doesn’t do “3-stars,” baby.
And we get it — the transfer portal changed, well, everything. Why sign a bunch of pups that you’ve got to develop, teach and build yourself when you can effectively sign a dozen third-year or fourth-year upperclassmen who’ve already been house-trained?
Sanders and Rams coach Jay Norvell have at least one thing in common: Their talk about hanging on to in-state kids is beating the walk by four touchdowns.
Per the 247Sports.com, the Buffs made 10 offers to Coloradans for the Class of ’24 while the Rams extended 12. Those 22 combined are the lowest for in-state talent in one cycle since 2018, when 19 offers went out. It’s five fewer than were presented to the Class of ’23 (27). Over the previous five recruiting cycles, the Buffs and Rams combined to dole out an average of 27.6 offers to in-state players.
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Again, Sanders has made no illusions about his methods. Nor his intent. The Prime model is 40-40-20 — 40% undergrad transfers, 40% grad transfers and 20% prep recruits. If you want Louis Vuitton talent in black and gold, especially on the boundaries, the cream of those pipelines flows in from Texas, Florida, Georgia and all points in between.
But while you’d think that would open up the field locally for the Rams to clean up, CSU, according to several sources, has yet to truly embrace the concept. Which is interesting — the Buffs aren’t expected to start more than a couple native sons during their Week 1 trip to TCU, the Rams should be rolling out four or five among their starting units. The most notable, of course, being all-Mountain West candidate Jack Howell at safety, a CSU legacy whose prep tenure began at Valor Christian.
“I definitely think that (our coaches) know that there’s Colorado talent here and just getting those big guys to stay in state is huge,” Howell told me. “We’ve got a lot of talented players (in Colorado), but a lot of times they will go out of state — and I get that, you want to go to big programs, and no knock to them whatsoever.
“But here at CSU, we want to establish that if you are a dominant player here in Colorado, we want you at CSU, so we can build something.”
The Rams averaged 17.4 in-state offers from 2019-23. The 247 tracker says that while CSU already has 85 offers out for the Class of ’25, none of those, to date, has been extended to a Colorado player.
“I think, honestly, Colorado is very overlooked in terms of football recruiting in this country,” Cowgill continued. “Especially Northern Colorado, where I live.
“You hear schools like Valor Christian and Cherry Creek, they get looked at a lot. And I think that’s really good for the state, because we’re certainly getting looked at more. But I would like it if the rest of the state, some of the ‘lesser-known’ schools, would get looked at more.”
Those gates won’t lock themselves. And the next time a Buffs or Rams football coach tells you that they’ve got a bolt to stick on those swinging hinges at the top of the hill, make darn sure you ask to see the receipt.
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