Colorado’s Charles Kelly has been named the National Recruiter of the Year for the 2023 cycle by 247Sports.

The honor goes annually to college football’s best assistant for their work on the recruiting trail. Most of what Kelly accomplished in the 2023 class was for Alabama, which signed the No. 1 class in the country and the third-best class in 247Sports’ history. Kelly helped the Tide ink a record nine Composite 5-star players.

He left Nick Saban’s staff after the season ended to join Coach Prime in Boulder, and immediately got to work on flipping 5-star cornerback Cormani McClain from his commitment to Miami.

Colorado signed McClain — the No. 1 corner in the class — on Wednesday. He becomes the third-highest-ranked recruit to sign with CU in the recruiting service era.

Kelly, 55, is a seasoned coach with experience at every level of football. He’s coached running backs at Jacksonville State, defensive backs at Henderson State, and has spent the last near-decade working with Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher.

The excitement over his, Deion Sanders, and the rest of this CU coaching staff’s arrival in Boulder helped usher a top-30 high school class and a top-25 overall recruiting class to town. That’s a remarkably quick turnaround for a football team that just went 1-11 on the field last fall.