CU Buffs notes: Sy’veon Wilkerson eligible for this season, Tyler Brown must sit

4-5 minutes 8/25/2023
Friday brought good news for one new Colorado Buffalo and heartbreaking news for another.
Head coach Deion Sanders announced to the team that running back Sy’veon Wilkerson has been deemed eligible to play this season after transferring from Jackson State this summer.
Offensive lineman Tyler Brown, however, had his waiver request denied by the NCAA and he must sit out the 2023 season.
The NCAA allows athletes a one-time transfer exception without sitting out a year of competition. Second-time undergraduate transfers must submit a waiver request to avoid sitting out a season.
Wilkerson began his career at Delaware State and transferred to West Virginia as a walk-on in the spring of 2022, but never played for the Mountaineers. He then went to Jackson State in the summer of 2022 and was a first-team All-SWAC performer, rushing for 1,152 yards. He joined the Buffs this summer with two seasons to play.
Brown began his career at Louisiana from 2019-21, but missed all but one game in the 2021 season with an injury. He transferred to Jackson State last year and earned FCS third-team All-American honors.
Brown transferred to CU in January and went through the spring with the Buffaloes. An illness has kept him out of camp this month.
In a social media post Friday, Brown said not being able to play alongside his teammates “hurts me more than anything.”
Brown said he’s battled mental health issues and cited that in his waiver request to the NCAA.
“I’ve been going to therapy and on antidepressants as well as anxiety medication since I was 18 years old,” he wrote on social media. “It’s nothing I’m ashamed of or hide from. The NCAA stated to our compliance office that since I wasn’t struggling to get out of bed that my mental health case wasn’t serious enough. … Football has always been the largest tool in helping me through my struggles and not having that hurts.”
In an interview with BuffZone in December, Brown said he felt anxiety early last season at JSU and Coach Prime recognized it and helped him get through it.
“Every Thursday I’d meet with him and get to talk with him,” Brown said. “It was like a therapy session really. It was everything I needed to help me.”
Brown will lose a year of eligibility, but can return for his final season in 2024.
Newest Buff
CU has added some big-time experience on defense. Former Texas, Tennessee and Arizona State linebacker Juwan Mitchell appeared on a YouTube video Friday wearing No. 90 at practice.
Mitchell, a sixth-year senior in his final year of eligibility, led Texas in tackles in 2020, with 62, including three against CU in the Alamo Bowl. He transferred to Tennessee in 2021 and recorded 43 tackles for the Volunteers last season.
In June, Mitchell transferred to ASU and was expected to be a starter, but was dismissed from the team on Aug. 8.
Mitchell began his collegiate career at Butler (Kan.) Community College, earning all-conference honors in 2018 before going to Texas in 2019.