One Day After Monster Spring Game For Deion, Colorado WR Enters The Portal: Shedeur Sanders Calls It ‘Crooked’

If you're going to hit the transfer portal, make sure you make a splash on the way out. This is exactly what Colorado wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig did on Sunday night after Deion Sanders' Colorado television debut on Saturday.

One day after making every highlight reel from the Colorado Spring game, the wideout had his name in the transfer portal. In front of a sold-out crowd in Boulder on Saturday, Montana Lemonious-Craig hauled in 154 yards and 2 touchdowns, driving up his value on national television.

Montana started twelve of the 25 games he played at Colorado.

Could this have been his plan all along? Possibly, considering that Saturday presented one last opportunity for him to shine, with ESPN cameras all over the field. On Sunday night, Montana Lemonious-Craig put out a statement via social media, thanking Colorado fans and coaches for their help while he was in Boulder. He did not mention Deion Sanders by name in his letter, which is worth mentioning.

Also, it's not as if you can just magically appear in the transfer portal. The process can take up to 72 hours, depending on the circumstances, especially for a weekend announcement.

Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders Calls Former Teammate Out

Taking on Instagram Sunday evening, starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders called out the wide receiver, saying people have their own crooked ways.

"I'm just saying, people have their own crooked ways about themselves, bro. I can only control me, man," Shedeur Sanders said. "Somebody said MLC in the TP right now man. I'm just saying that's foul though. I'm not gonna delete that picture, but I am not, since we ain't men no more."

There's no telling how this played out behind the scenes, but I imagine we will know more soon, as almost every aspect of the Colorado football program is documented on social media. Judging by the reaction of Shedeur Sanders, it seems this move caught Colorado folks by surprise.

"You know how it is, it's a crooked world nowadays man, crooked world," Sanders said towards the end on Instagram.

Maybe Colorado's Montana Lemonious-Craig Played The Coaches

If you were a player on this Colorado team and your roster spot was up in the air, maybe this was the right way to go. Sorry, the transfer portal has changed college football and this is how things are done in this new era. The Buffaloes have Travis Hunter at wideout, who will be the main weapon at that position this fall, so maybe Montana saw the writing on the wall.

There's also the possibility that Deion Sanders knew he was entering the portal, but gave him one last shot to showcase his skills for other schools. Again, this doesn't feel like the case, based on the reaction of a few players.

If Saturday was an audition for other teams around the country that are willing to float NIL opportunities, then more power to him. In this day and age of coaches leaving, making threats to cut every guy on the roster or going on national television to tell the world they weren't done with the portal yet, it's hard to blame the player.

If anything, I have to give Montana some credit. He played the game on Saturday, then played his game off the field. I don't particularly care for anyone who wants to attack the young man without a backstory of how it all went down.

It is kind of interesting that Montana did not mention the transfer portal in his goodbye letter to Colorado fans and staff. But, I'd say the same thing about some of these coaches moving from job-to-job, not caring about the players they recruited to their previous school.

The transfer portal will be open until April 30th, which is when players have to let their intentions of leaving be known. According to the NCAA, the player doesn't have to enroll at another school during that time, but they do need to submit the paperwork in order to leave their existing program.

It looks like the player got one over on the coaches publicly, which we don't see very often in college sports. We'll wait to see where Montana Lemonious-Craig ends up playing next.