Colorado responds to troubling recruiting allegation from Division II school

Dec 4, 2022; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders speaks during a press conference at the Arrow Touchdown Club. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

An NCAA Division II football coach took to social media this week to accuse Colorado of engaging in illegal recruiting activity, but the Buffaloes insist they are innocent.

Philip Vigil, the head coach at CSU Pueblo, shared a screenshot on X Wednesday that claimed to show a Colorado staffer trying to openly recruit a player who is currently committed to CSU Pueblo. The player received a text message from someone claiming to be Colorado assistant director of player personnel Devin Rispress.

In the text exchange, the person claiming to be Rispress asked the high schooler if the player was a “full commit to CSU Pueblo.” When the player said that he was, the supposed coach asked if the high schooler would have “interest in a commitment flip with us.” You can read the exchange:

Hey @NCAA and @Big12Conference, is this considered tampering, or is @Coach2Bless and @CUBuffsFootball able to recruit our current players like this? #ToTheTop pic.twitter.com/PV7dN1yko1

— Coach Vigil (@PhilipVigil) May 29, 2024

“Hey @NCAA and @Big12Conference, is this considered tampering, or is @Coach2Bless and @CUBuffsFootball able to recruit our current players like this?” Vigil wrote on X.

That would certainly be frowned upon, at the very least. However, Rispress said the text message did not come from him. He responded via X that CSU Pueblo was “catfished” and called out Vigil for “embarrassing your program.”

“nice try yall been catfished wrong guy brother. You could’ve hit me up before tweeting this and embarrassing your program,” Rispress wrote.

nice try yall been catfished wrong guy brother. You could’ve hit me up before tweeting this and embarrassing your program.

— Devin Rispress (@Coach2Bless) May 29, 2024

We know Deion Sanders uses some unusual recruiting strategies, but that would be a risky one. The situation is probably not serious enough for the NCAA to dig into it and figure out if the text actually came from Rispress. Vigil should have secured some proof before going public.