Colorado Athlete Gives Up On Deion Sanders Just 5 Months After Joining

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The NCAA ended the spring football transfer portal last year, meaning teams could only build their rosters through the January window. However, there is still a loophole in the system. Deion Sanders’ kicker, Josh McCormick, exploited it to leave Boulder just five months after joining the program.

According to Chris Hummer of 247Sports, Grambling transfer Josh McCormick is back in the portal just months after Colorado brought him in. Since he can’t enter the football portal, McCormick has chosen to utilize his track and field background. That portal opens in late May and closes on June 26.

Two weeks ago, UCLA QB Karson Gordon did the same, explicitly stating that he wants to play football at his next destination. Gordon’s decision came after he didn’t see any chances of playing time at the Bruins. McCormick’s case is somewhat similar.

The Akins High School prospect’s college journey started at Oregon State in 2021, but he saw limited action in his second year after redshirting his freshman season. McCormick moved to an FCS program at William & Mary for regular game time. During the 2024 season, he started every game and set a single-season school record with 34 touchbacks. Last season, McCormick achieved a similar feat at Grambling State before moving to Colorado, his fourth program in five years.

Alongside being a footballer, McCormick is also an elite runner and a highly skilled jumper, specializing in the triple jump and the long jump. McCormick entered Colorado at the right time after the departure of long-time kicker Alejandro Mata. But things didn’t work out as he had hoped since Deion Sanders had already given his nod to Elliot Arnold for the starting gig.

“It’s not a competition,” Sanders said after spring practices. “Elliot is the guy.”

But on a larger basis, Karson Gordon and Josh McCormick have effectively broken college football’s calendar by exploiting a multi-sport transfer portal loophole. Since both players possessed elite backgrounds in track and field, they bypassed the closed football calendar by officially entering the NCAA Transfer Portal as track athletes during the late spring track window, with the explicit intention of playing football at their next destination.

This means that coaches can no longer assume their rosters are locked down for the summer. Any football player who can passably run, jump, or throw a javelin for the track team can legally opt out of a program mid-summer. Compliance departments across the country will be bracing for a wave of football players suddenly showing renewed interest in spring track and field roster spots just to secure some kind of transfer insurance.

Elliot Arnold is the starting kicker for Colorado

McCormick’s departure has caused a depth issue for Coach Prime. However, the good news is that the program has the perfect person to replace Alejando Mata, whose college career ended last season. Elliot Arnold, a five-star prospect from McCallie School, was a huge commit for the program in the class of 2025, as the likes of TCU and Tennessee were also after his commitment.

During his senior high school season, Arnold completed 15 of his 17 field goals, with the longest coming from 52 yards. That’s exactly what Mata was struggling with last year, despite being quite efficient under the 40-yard range. More importantly, he sat behind Mata for a year during his redshirt season last year.

“Everybody knows their roles right now,” Sanders said about Arnold in April 2026. “Elliot is the guy. We have the utmost faith and confidence in him. He does it every practice. He’s going to be the guy, and he’s going to surprise a lot of people in this room. He’s really good, and he has really stepped it up.”

Arnold was seen in the Colorado spring game, where he displayed his range with a 43-yard field goal. He only missed one out of 4 attempts during the game. McCormick only attempted two field goals, and he converted both, but his longest make came from just 38 yards out.

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