Antonio Alfano’s brief time as a Colorado Buffalo has come to an end.
A former five-star recruit who transferred from Alabama last winter, Alfano is no longer enrolled in school and therefore is not a part of the football team, CU confirmed to BuffZone on Friday.
Alfano, a 6-foot-5, 280-pound defensive lineman, enrolled at CU in January, recruited to Boulder by former head coach Mel Tucker. In early March, new head coach Karl Dorrell told BuffZone that Alfano had been suspended indefinitely for a violation for team rules. Now, he is no longer on the roster.
Alfano, who grew up in New Jersey, went to three different high schools, playing two years at Bergen Catholic, his junior year at Rahway High School and his senior year at Colonia High School.
In the 2019 recruiting class, Alfano was once rated the nation’s No. 1 prospect by 247Sports.com and he signed with Alabama, enrolling in January of 2019. He had two sacks in the Crimson Tide spring game last year and went through fall camp before leaving the team in September and entering the NCAA transfer portal in October.
Tucker, who spent just one season at CU, recruited Alfano while at Georgia and reached out to him in October. In November, Alfano announced he was transferring to Colorado, becoming the most highly-anticipated newcomer to the program in more than a decade.
Navigating difficult times
Hired on Feb. 23, Dorrell came to CU about two months later than most new coaches are hired. Then, within three weeks of his start date and just days after he finished assembling his staff, Dorrell had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down college sports and cancelling spring football.
It hasn’t been the easiest start for Dorrell, who has yet to get on the field with his team or spend much time in person with his players or staff. Over the past 10 weeks, however, athletic director Rick George has been pleased with the man he tabbed to lead the program.
“I’m incredibly impressed with what he’s done (to handle the pandemic),” George said. “I’ve said this before: he’s solid, he’s got this quiet confidence, he doesn’t get ruffled.
“I’m really pleased with the way they’ve communicated when the NCAA allowed eight hours for the coaches to be engaged with the student athletes a week. He embraced that and his staff embraced that and they’re doing really good in that regard.
“Karl and his team have done a great job with that.”
Staying informed
With the fate of the college football season unknown at this point, George said CU has remained in contact with season ticket holders and donors.
“Our season ticket holders have been great,” he said. “We’re still reaching out to our season ticket holders and donors and all that, so there’s been a lot of outreach. There’s been a lot of communication back and forth.”
Of course, until the Buffs know what’s going to happen with the season – whether it will be played, whether fans will be allowed, etc. – everyone is in limbo.
“We’ve had discussions, we’re communicating, but again we don’t have anything to tell them definitively,” he said. “Once we do that, there will be an outreach that we will put in front of our ticket holders and our donors.”
