On Sunday, the Colorado football team lost another player to the NCAA transfer portal, while also adding a transfer.
Senior linebacker Akil Jones has elected to put his name in the portal and seek another opportunity. Meanwhile, Oklahoma safety Robert Barnes, a five-star recruit out of high school in 2017, is on his way to Boulder.
Jones was a fifth-year senior with the Buffs this season, but has one year of eligibility remaining after the NCAA granted all players an extra year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Jones, from Valley Christian High School in San Jose, Calif., played in 34 games during his CU career including 11 starts over the past two seasons. He recorded 86 tackles and eight tackles for loss during his career.
This season, Jones played and started in five of the Buffs’ six games, finishing with 23 tackles, including five tackles for loss. Jones missed one game this year, Dec. 5 at Arizona, when he went to New Jersey for the birth of his son.
CU head coach Karl Dorrell said on Friday he was scheduled to meet with Jones that afternoon.
“I’m not sure what his goals are,” Dorrell said. “I don’t know if he wants to play. I’m not sure. He graduated in the fall, and he has some options in front of him.”
Barnes comes to CU as a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility remaining.
A 6-foot-2 safety who had transitioned to linebacker this season, Barnes played in 27 games with the Sooners, racking up 77 tackles and two interceptions.
Barnes started the Sooners’ last eight games of 2018 at safety and finished the season with 54 tackles. In 2019, he played in four games before redshirting. He then moved to linebacker this season. In 2020, he played in nine games, with one start. He also played safety in several games and finished with nine tackles. Most of his game time this season was on special teams.
Coming out of Southlake Carroll (Tex.) High School in 2017, Barnes had a five-star rating by 247Sports.com, which ranked him the No. 3 safety in the country and a top-five recruit in Texas. He had 14 scholarship offers, including from Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas and Southern California.
Barnes is the second player to join CU as a transfer this offseason, along with former Tennessee quarterback JT Shrout.
CU has had six scholarship players enter the transfer portal since the regular season finale against Utah on Dec. 12, joining quarterback Tyler Lytle; running back Jaren Mangham; receiver KD Nixon; outside linebacker Jason Harris; and safety Derrion Rakestraw.
Harris has transferred to Arizona and Lytle to Massachusetts.
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