For many college football players, one or maybe two stops is all they have over the course of a career. Sometimes, in the new era of the transfer portal, even three.

For linebacker Juwan Mitchell, Colorado is his fourth stop in the Power Five, and his fifth overall as he plays out his sixth and final year of college football.

“It’s been a blessing,” said Mitchell. “I’ve kind of been dealt a crazy hand, but I won’t let that define me.”

The graduate transfer from Newark, New Jersey started his college career at Butler Community College before transferring to Texas for two seasons. In Austin, Mitchell proved he belonged at the Power Five level, starting 13 games in two seasons and emerging as one of the team’s top tacklers.

Following his junior year, Mitchell made another move, this time to Tennessee in the SEC. After a shoulder injury took most of his first season in Knoxville, Mitchell bounced back in 2022 with 43 tackles in 10 games.

“I’ve been a part of a culture at Texas where everybody’s five stars, everybody’s legit, everybody’s this, everybody’s that,” Mitchell said. “And then I went to a culture at Tennessee where it was like, we were the underdogs. I came in with coach (Josh) Heupel, so on paper we weren’t those guys, we weren’t this, we weren’t that. So sneaking up on people, it made it fun. So I’ve been able to be a part of both, and take both of those (different cultures) and put it into one.”