10 years ago today: Sheriron Jones announces transfer to Colorado

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On January 7, 2016, the Colorado Buffaloes got the news they’d been waiting on.

It would give life to the Mike MacIntyre era and turn around a CU football program that was locked in the Pac-12 basement. It might even make CU relevant again, a destination for top-end talent after the Buffs had won 14 total games in the previous five years.

Former four-star quarterback Sheriron Jones announced he was leaving Tennessee for the University of Colorado. The Buffs had recruited him out of high school before he rocketed up the Class of 2015 rankings and ultimately joined Butch Jones’s top-5 recruiting class.

Jones never made it to Boulder. He had some personal issues in Knoxville and had to stay there for another two years. He never threw a pass for the Vols before he transferring to New Mexico, where he threw 15 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in 17 appearances.

Jones wasn’t the only QB who spurned Colorado that offseason. Texas Tech QB Davis Webb committed to CU three weeks later, only to openly flirt with other schools and eventually flip his commitment to Cal.

Webb went on to throw 37 touchdown passes for the Bears and was drafted in third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He’s now a rising star in the coaching world, currently the QB coach for the Denver Broncos and likely to get offered an offensive coordinator role in the next year or two.

Despite the rejections, things worked out for the Buffs.

Sefo Liufau was expected to miss 2016 recovering from Lisfranc surgery — hence recruiting a grad transfer in Webb — but he returned in time for ‘The Rise’. Colorado would go 10-4 that season, a miraculous, senior-driven run to the Rose Bowl Alamo Bowl that remains the most exciting and successful season since 2001.

Liufau’s successor was also sorted out. The previous year the Buffs had found a needle in the West Texas haystack by the name of Steven Montez. While he could’ve been more — he had the talent to be the best QB in the Pac-12 — the Buffs were in better hands than they could have possibly imagined ten years ago.

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