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Recapping Colorado's big recruiting week

Braedin Huffman-Dixon
Braedin Huffman-Dixon

The verdict is already in, and the Buffaloes' decision to host top prospects during the spring was a big success.

In years past, high school juniors were not able to take official visits until the fall of the senior year. The NCAA changed that rule to allow juniors to take spring official visits, and the Buffaloes took advantage of the new rule.

Colorado does not prefer to bring up recruits during the season unless it's on their bye week, as the recruit does not get to enjoy the full experience of CU. They have to come in late, are more tired from travel, and before they know it, the trip is quickly over.

"Official visit weekends during the season are hard," CU head coach Mike MacIntyre said. "They're not as good a visit. You don't have as much time. They fly in on Saturday mornings or get in late on Friday nights. You miss all the day Friday that you usually have. Saturdays you are preparing for a game and Sunday they're there and they have to fly back home."

One concern is that if you bring a recruit up for a spring official visit, then you can't bring him back in the fall/winter [unless they come in on their own dime] and other schools will have the last word and final shot at him. However, Colorado sees a huge advantage with spring official visits.

A lot of recruits will talk about waiting to take all five of their official visits during the fall, but it typically never happens. It's a logistical nightmare. And if the recruit wants to sign in December, he may only get one or two official visits total.

So for Colorado, why not bring your top recruits on campus now, rather than wait and he maybe not ever get the chance to see Boulder? That's what CU is doing, and they brought five priority recruits in for an official visit on the weekend of April 27-29.

Four star recruits in WR Braedin Huffman-Dixon, DE Sua'ava Poti, DE Stephon Wright were in Boulder and greatly enjoyed their time. Three-star cornerback recruits KJ Trujillo and Alex Hogan also visited CU.

Again, the mission was successful. The Buffs landed commitments from Trujillo and Huffman-Dixon -- the latter is one of their biggest commitments in recent years, as he ranks as the No. 159 overall recruit in the nation.

"It was big for us," CU offensive coordinator Darrin Chiaverini told cubuffs.com. "You have to make sure you are getting these players on campus officially. The fact that we are able to have some of the best players in the country come and see Boulder when the weather is really nice, the sun's shining, they can see the campus, the rec center, the pool, the mountains — that's incredibly valuable."

For the prospects who didn't commit, the Buffs left a lasting impact and certainly helped their chances to land them.

"The people there are different," Wright said of CU. "They're really cool. Boulder is a really nice place."

Moving forward this spring, the Buffs can still host official visitors in May and June, but to our knowledge, CU doesn't have any definitive plan for another crop of official visitors. There could be a weekend of junior college recruits in the month of May, so stay tuned for that.

MORE -- ANALYSIS: Buffaloes land a pair of southern California stars

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