It undoubtedly is transfer portal season and that's been particularly relevant for Colorado in the last few days. Yesterday, senior wide receiver K.D. Nixon entered his name into the transfer portal and he was followed by a handful of players on Thursday.
1. K.D. Nixon
For a recap of K.D. Nixon's career at CU and his decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal, click here.
2. Derrion Rakestraw
Senior safety Derrion Rakestraw's 36 games played entering this season was the most on the Buffaloes. He started all of CU's five regular season games this fall as well as the Valero Alamo Bowl against Texas.
He led the entire defense in snaps played (348) while his 28 unassisted tackles and 35 total tackles were bests among Colorado's defensive backs corps.
A former two-star recruit that signed with Colorado's Class of 2016, Rakestraw came to Boulder originally as a wide receiver and redshirted as a freshman.
It was in the spring of 2017 that the Mike MacIntyre coaching staff moved him to defensive back and that fall, he saw defensive snaps in two games while playing all 12 on special teams.
Rakestraw began moving up the pecking order of the depth chart as the 2018 season drew to a close, starting two games on defense and seeing defensive action on seven.
However, it was the 2019 campaign, Mel Tucker's lone season at the helm in Boulder, where Rakestraw established himself as a dependable veteran. That year, he started the final nine games of the season at safety and saw 601 total snaps, the fifth-highest total of all CU defenders.
Rakestraw recorded two interceptions in 2019 and ends his CU career with 93 total tackles.
He will look to play another year of college football as a graduate transfer.
3. Jaren Mangham
Seeing the name of soon-to-be junior tailback Jaren Mangham in the transfer portal comes as little surprise. After a promising 2019 season, one in which he rushed for 441 yards on 107 carries during an impressive true freshman campaign, Mangham seemed to take a step back this fall.
He carried the ball 25 times but gained just 35 yards, with his season-longest rush being only five yards.
As the year went on and Jarek Broussard emerged in as dominating a fashion as he did, eating up the lion's share of the carries, Mangham was thrust into a committee role along with fellow sophomore Joe Davis and true freshman Ashaad Clayton at the No. 2 tailback spot behind Broussard.
Mangham is a former standout from Cass Tech High School in Detroit, Mich. A four-star prospect coming out of high school, Mangham was one of the prize gems in CU's Class of 2019.
4. Mike Chandler
The final recent entrance into the transfer portal was by true freshman walk-on quarterback Mike Chandler.
Given the uncertainty and inexperience surrounding Colorado's quarterbacks heading into fall camp, Chandler's addition to the fold was seen as a good way to add some cost free depth and competition to the position group upon his commitment to CU in August.
The former standout at Converse Judson High School in Texas put up monster statistics in 2019. His total offensive yardage was 3,844. He posted a 62% completion percentage, threw for 2,563 through the air and tossed 25 touchdowns compared to just four interceptions.
In total from 2018-2019, his junior and senior seasons at Judson, he led the Rockets to a 24-3 overall record.
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