Colorado football coach Deion Sanders held an NFL-style draft to create two teams for spring practice and other activities.
Freshman quarterback Kaneal Sweetwyne was the surprising first overall pick over presumed starter Julian Lewis.
Besides increasing the competition on this team, pitting the two teams against each other also is expected to build camaraderie on a squad with so many new faces.
In an effort to increase competition and camaraderie on his team this spring, Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is trying something new:
On Friday, Feb. 20, he debuted an NFL-style draft to create two separate intrasquad teams that will compete against each other in practice and other activities.
“I love this,” Sanders said after the draft, as documented on the YouTube channel of his son Deion Jr. “I love every last bit of it. And I can’t wait to see us compete.”
A select group of captains was put in charge of picking the black team and the gold team, with a limit of 45 seconds allowed between draft picks. The ESPN NFL draft chime was blasted over the speaker system when it was time to make the first player selection.
Then came the surprising first overall draft pick, announced by black team captain Brady Kopetz.
“First person picked in the 2026 spring ball draft: Kaneal Sweetwyne,’ Kopetz announced.
Who was the first player taken in Deion Sanders’ spring draft?
Sweetwyne, a dual-threat freshman quarterback, is straight out of high school in Lehi, Utah, and is expected to open the spring practice season behind presumed starting quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis.
The pick wasn’t explained by the captains of the team on the video. But the other team picked Lewis No. 2 and made it an issue. Lewis, a redshirt freshman, started two games in 2025, when the Buffaloes finished 3-9.
“So y’all took Kaneal Sweetwyne at No. 1,” gold captain and safety Ben Finneseth said to the opposing team. “And the thing I know about Julian Lewis is he’s got that fire in him, right? And this is gonna (expletive) him off… Julian Lewis, he gonna bring that fire.”
Players were selected by position, with quarterbacks going first. San Jose State transfer receiver Danny Scudero was the first wide receiver selected after leading the nation last season with 108.1 receiving yards per game.
‘Winning is the bottom line’
Besides increasing the competition on this team, pitting the two teams against each other also is expected to build camaraderie on a squad with so many new faces. At least 47 new transfers are coming into Boulder for the 2026 season, offsetting at least 35 players from last year’s team that transferred out.
“Some days I’m going to have all-competition days, and you’re gonna go out there in the color of your team,” Deion Sanders said. “That’s how we’re gonna get down.”
Sanders also said he’d be keeping a score of the competitions and encouraged the captains to take ownership of their draft picks.
“We keeping count of everything,” Sanders said in a video from Darius Sanders, who is no relation to Deion Sanders but is one of Sanders’ favored videographers. “So a lot of the guys you pick, ain’t got nothing to do with us (coaches). That’s on y’all. Y’all picked ‘em and y’all are teammates. And you don’t blame the coach. Don’t blame nothing else but yourselves.
‘You all picked this team. So y’all gotta take ownership of it. Y’all gotta encourage them. You gotta motivate them. You gotta get on them. … And you guys gotta win. Winning is the bottom line, so you gotta kick their butt, and they gotta kick your butt. You got that?”
“Yes sir,” the team replied.
Spring practice for Colorado begins March 2. The season opener at Georgia Tech recently was moved to Thursday, Sept. 3 for a national telecast on ESPN.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com