College football can be a strange space. Transfers happen on a moment’s notice, recruits jump ship without any warning, and coaches are left with more holes than ever in the squad. Ask Kirby Smart about this, and it’ll be an unending session of complaints and uncertainty. Or try asking it to Matt Rhule, who has outrightly banned the spring games in a bid to protect his players from poaching. The point is coaches are feeling the heat of the portal, and players? Well, it could well be a whole new Pandora’s box for them, too.

Take, for instance, the 2024 commit tight end Davon Mitchell, who joined Oklahoma with high hopes and big dreams. A 5-star tight end initially who was ranked 1st in the nation at the time. He reclassified to the 2024 class and got downgraded to 4 stars, ranked 11th in his position and 179th overall. Still, Mitchell has all the same talents he would have had if he had joined in 2025. A solid frame of 6’3″ and 250 lbs promised a skill resembling Jermaine Gresham (a Sooners legend). But things didn’t quite pan out the way he would have expected.

Initially, in the 2024 season, Mitchell had to work on his game and felt the ire of head coach Brent Venables, who wasn’t quite satisfied with the player. “When Davon got here, Davon will be the first to tell you it took him a little while to transition.” However, as the season passed, things still didn’t favor the well-touted tight end, who failed to manage a single snap at any game as the season ended. At last, he did what anyone would do.

The player has decided to transfer-list himself and is looking for pastures anew. The move was hardly shocking, but Davon was already making moves to secure his future. A prominent Colorado Buffaloes fan page, ‘We Coming,’ messaged the tight end to come to Colorado and play for Coach Prime. The player, without any hesitation, replied, “Tell Prime to come find me.” The page then shared the screenshot of the conversation, which has garnered more than 30k views, with people urging Coach Prime to look at the former Sooners’ prospect. But will it be a reality?

Coach Prime does need players like Davon Mitchell as his main weapons; Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Shilo Sanders are entering the NFL draft. And Deion Sanders is now busy making his tight end room more formidable than it previously was. Sam Hart would be the leading tight end for the Buffs, who had previously played for three seasons at Ohio State. He still has 2 years of eligibility. Then there are others, too.

Davon Mitchell, a talented prospect for Deion Sanders?

The backup TE room at the Buffs revolves around Sav’ell Smalls, a DL prospect who initially moved to the tight end position. Then there is Brady Kopetz, a three-star prospect of the 2022 cycle who redshirted in his first season. All in all, the addition of Davon Mitchell will surely make the tight-end group more star-studded and deep, with Mitchell having the potential to challenge Sam Hart with time. Also, the player has all the ingredients to do so.

A native of Los Alamitos High School, California, Davon Mitchell was selected as the Texas District 5-6A first team as a sophomore. Furthermore, he has the talent to challenge for the next level in a setup like Deion Sanders. A coach who builds on personal relationships quite quickly and develops players out of their eggshells, as we had seen with Jimmy Horn Jr. and Hunter.

Combining it with his world-class talent, Mitchell has been physically dominant, with rushing ability after a catch and a massive catch radius. His experience of playing in the slot as a WR will favor Coach Prime, who can mold the player into a WR if he wants. Now, it remains to be seen whether Deion Sanders actually pays heed to the tight end’s message.