Shedeur Sanders shades 'very mid' ex-Colorado safety who ripped Deion

After former Colorado safety called out Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders in an interview with The Athletic, Shedeur took to social media to take a shot at the defensive back.

The Buffaloes signal-caller took to X, quoting a post from the outlet and throwing some shade on Smith, basically saying he did now know who the safety was.

"Ion even remember him tbh. Bro had to be very mid at best," Sanders wrote on Tuesday.

Smith, in speaking to The Athletic, discussed a meeting he had in April 2023 after the team's spring game with the Colorado coaching staff.

The upshot of it was that the defender should not come back to Boulder.

This came amid Sanders overhauling the entire program as he used the transfer portal to bring in new players.

"We sat on the sofa, and he's talking to us, but he's not even looking at us," Smith told The Athletic. "I'm looking [Defensive coordinator Charles Kelly] dead in his eyes. [Sanders] said he felt like I should hit the portal. He didn't want me to waste a year thinking I could earn a spot.

"I was actually getting mad, like tears coming to my eyes. Because, bro, you never even tried to get to know me."

Smith added the way Sanders handled the entire situation of telling players to leave the program was not exactly the most graceful.

"He was destroying guys' confidence and belief in themselves," Smith added. "The way he did it, it could've been done with a little more compassion."

Smith, who was part of the program in 2022, was not brought back and eventually hit the transfer portal and landed at Austin Peay.

Sanders was criticized by a number of others while making wholesale changes to the 2023 Colorado roster, including Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi.

"That's not what the [transfer portal] rule intended to be," Narduzzi told Brandon Marcello at 2023 ACC spring meetings. "It was not to overhaul your roster. We'll see how it works out, but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country."

It seemingly did work out for Colorado — at first — as it went 3-0 to start the year and entered the top-25 rankings.

But the Buffaloes struggled during the second half of the year, closing the season with a 4-8 record.

Deion and Shedeur will be back next season as Colorado plays its first season in the Big 12.

Smith, for his part, recorded 75 tackles, one sack and one fumble recovery in his first year with Austin Peay.