Before he called his parents with the good news of receiving a scholarship offer from Colorado and head coach Deion Sanders in December, Kyeran Garcia soaked in the moment.
“I took, like, maybe five minutes just to sit and think to myself, ‘All the work paid off,’” he said. “And then I just called up my mom and dad.”
A three-star linebacker recruit from Dunbar High School in Fort Myers, Florida – the hometown of Coach Prime – Garcia was a surprise addition to the Buffaloes’ 2024 recruiting class when he signed his national letter of intent on Feb. 7.
It was somewhat of a surprise to Garcia, too.
An exceptional student with a 4.3 GPA, he had 20 scholarship offers, but none from a Power Five conference school before CU called. He drew interest from, among others, the service academies and Ivy League schools. In fact, he took a visit to Air Force.
Then, he got an invitation to the Florida Athletic Coaches Association (FACA) All-Star game in December. CU finally noticed Garcia.
“We were getting out of practice and I got a call from my head coach and assistant coach that trained me,” he said. “They were just telling me Colorado was just looking at me. I really didn’t think it was nothing serious. They wanted to get my measurements, I took a picture. And then I got to text that said, ‘Coach Prime wants to get on FaceTime with you.’ I ended up getting on Zoom with them. It really happened so fast. It was like 15 minutes.”
CU loved Garcia’s grades and character and then saw his film.
“They said I’m a playmaker and they offered me a scholarship,” he said. “I was very excited. I’ve been working my whole life just for a big opportunity. And coming into high school, I’ve just been grinding looking for my first Power Five offer.”
A receiver early in his prep career, Garcia said he began to add size as a sophomore without losing his speed. In the spring of his sophomore year, in 2022, Garcia’s coaches asked him to try linebacker.
“That spring game, I ended up with 15 tackles and a couple of big hits,” he said. “So they just said I’m a linebacker and I’ve just been a linebacker ever since.”
Despite being a receiver to that point, Garcia said it was an easy transition to defense.
“I feel like I always had a dog mentality,” he said. “It was just more about learning tackling technique and I just always had my speed. So I just put on some size and it came naturally. I love hitting people. It feels good.”
As a junior in 2022, Garcia had 142 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and a sack. This past year as a senior, he had 140 tackles, 22 TFLs and 10 sacks.
Now, he’ll get a chance to develop under Sanders and CU linebackers coach Andre Hart.
“I feel like I caught on very fast (to linebacker) and the ability to go to Colorado, I feel like they’ll develop me,” he said. “It shouldn’t really make a difference only having two years of experience.
“Coach Hart, the linebacker coach out of Colorado, I look forward to playing up under him. I feel like he does a really good job at developing his linebackers. I watched some film and they just play like lights out. So I feel like he can develop me into just being an animal and get to the next level.”
