Colorado Buffaloes football recruiting: Buffs are one of only two Power 5 programs with zero commitments

There are 64 schools in the Power 5 conferences that play college football. All of them have at least one commitment for the class of 2016 with one two exceptions: the Colorado Buffaloes and the Iowa State Cyclones. (Edit: I originally posted that Colorado was the only program and missed that Iowa State also does not have a commitment. Either way, horrible company to be in and they both don't have any 2016 commitments and both did not win a conference game last season.)

No matter how far away next signing day is in 2016, it can't be comforting to be a Colorado fan and know that pretty much everyone else has a commitment except the program that you root for. Mike MacIntyre is still in the process of rebuilding the program and I think anyone who watched the Pac-12 last season could see that progress is being made. But the lifeblood of any rebuild of a college football program is all about recruiting and a slow start in recruiting is never a good thing for a coach going into his third season.

I understand that it can't be all about 4 and 5 stars when you've been down as long as Colorado has and there aren't going to be a ton of local blue chip talent to try and recruit in their home state. Like Oregon State, the lack of in-state talent means they have to go elsewhere to find a lot of their players. I also understand all that the Buffs' coaching staff has to sell as far as football is concerned is hope. Even though the program was much more competitive last season on the field than MacIntyre's fist year on the job, their record actually was worse with them only winning two games and zero games within the conference. That would be a tough sell for any recruiter to overcome.

Because of the tough sell, I'm scratching my head a bit as to why Colorado would offer top players from the southeast like wide receiver Binjimen Victor and cornerback Trayvonn Mullen in what would be considered late in the process (April 30) for recruits with their offer lists. The same goes for the offer they sent out to wide receiver Dredrick Snelson yesterday. Them offering athlete D.J. Morgan a few days after he released his final five also makes zero sense. They don't have the clout right now to all of a sudden jump into the mix with recruits of this caliber if they get into the game too late.

In recruiting terms, Colorado is a classic car that still needs some time in the shop before it's ready to drive again. They are competing against other programs that are more like a Bentley or an Audi. Selling a classic before it's close to being ready to get back on the road seems like a huge waste of time and that's something Colorado can't afford to do.

That takes time away from the level of recruits they need to win battles for like the ones they have offered in the last month during the evaluation period. They should probably be focusing more energy into players like safety Max Tooley (Oregon State, Cal, Utah, and Wazzu offers), cornerback Kentrell Love (Nebraska and Oregon State offers), offensive lineman Paco Perez (Cal, Oregon State, Wazzu, and Arizona State offers), and wide receiver Davir Hamilton (ASU, Utah, and Wazzu offers). They aren't in a position to win the head to head battles for elite recruits who they offer too late in the process. All of their focus should be on the fighting the battles they actually have a shot at winning like with these players and the top player in Colorado, defensive end Carlo Kemp.

I'm sure it would help a lot if Colorado becomes bowl eligible this season and it could happen with all of the young players returning that gained so much experience last fall. By the time the season gets to that point though, they need to make sure they are in a good spot with a lot of prospects in order to finish on some of the players they are just starting relationships with now.

There is still time for Colorado to get it rolling on the recruiting front, but obviously they are playing catch up at this point of the process. I don't know how long that goose egg is going to be on the board for 2016 recruiting. If you cheer for the Buffs, hopefully it won't be too long because it's not a great look to be climbing up from the bottom when you're trying to rebuild your football program.