The 2026 college football season starts in under two weeks, but Colorado defensive lineman Ezra Christensen cannot step onto his own team’s field. Instead of gearing up for Georgia Tech, the senior transfer is stuck in legal limbo while a Boulder judge decides on his emergency injunction against the NCAA. Because of this hold-up, the university cannot even let him inside team facilities.

For a guy who hasn’t missed a single fall camp in his life, sitting in a room doing nothing is torturous. All the legal paperwork is done. Yet, the wait drags on. Speaking to DNVR, Christensen didn’t hide his suspicion that playing for Coach Prime might be working against him.

“It’s frustrating to talk about it,” Ezra Christensen confessed. “I don’t know if it’s a politics thing. I don’t know if it’s a Coach Prime or Colorado thing. I know for sure if I was at another institution, this would’ve been a lot easier.”

Christensen admitted that if he had known this transfer would turn into such a legal circus, he would have just skipped college entirely and entered the NFL Draft.

The frustration goes beyond typical NCAA red tape; it comes down to a deliberate procedural maneuver in court. After both sides submitted their final arguments, the Boulder County judge explicitly instructed that no further filings were needed.

Despite that boundary, the NCAA submitted a last-minute filing of “supplemental authority” into the docket anyway. By dropping unnecessary paperwork into an already backlogged Colorado court system, attorney Darren Heitner called it a “dirty play” that effectively forced a procedural pause, dragging the clock out just days before kickoff.

What makes Christensen mad is looking across the country and seeing other players get cleared in days. Just weeks ago, Oklahoma State player Kashie Natt won a similar court order under attorney Heitner to rejoin his team.

Similarly, judges granted injunctions in similar JUCO eligibility suits like McQuaide v. NCAA and Clemson’s Tristan Smith. Attorney Heitner submitted these exact precedents to the Boulder court, leaving Christensen to wonder why his file is sitting frozen on a desk.

“We provided every similar case to the judge,” Ezra Christensen said. “These guys got their injunctions, and there’s no difference from my case. What’s taking you two weeks to decide?”

Although the legal battle continues, the rest of the Colorado Buffaloes are grinding through the final weeks of fall camp. Meanwhile, Christensen is out there in the Florida heat, waiting for his approval.

Pro Football Focus currently ranks him as the highest-graded returning defensive tackle in the Big 12, with an impressive 88.6 grade. In 2025, he earned first-team All-CUSA honors after recording 11 tackles for loss and five (or six) sacks.

He was also one of the best pass rushers in the country, leading all FBS defensive linemen with 28 quarterback hurries.

However, losing out on valuable camp reps means Christensen is missing a prime opportunity to build chemistry and trust with defensive line coach Dante Carter.

Even though he’s working out in Florida, he knows that it is not the same as practicing with the team. He cannot simply arrive in Boulder and expect everything to come together.

The mental side has also been difficult, and the situation has made it hard for him to feel like himself.

Christensen grew up without parents in an orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He was adopted at 16 and knew nothing about American football. After COVID-19 wiped out his senior year of high school, he worked his way through junior college before becoming a star at New Mexico State.

Now, the long wait has given him even more motivation. His move to Colorado was supposed to be a fresh start, but it has quickly turned into a revenge tour.

Another Bias Campaign Against Sanders?

The idea that an anti-Deion Sanders bias is behind the delay is not just a random thought. It is a real concern for Christensen. And this would not be the first time Coach Prime has faced heavy criticism from college football’s old guard.

When Sanders first arrived in Boulder, rival coaches heavily criticized his use of the transfer portal to rebuild Colorado’s roster. They called his approach harmful to college football, only for many of those same programs to later use the transfer portal themselves.

Colorado has also received plenty of attention during the Sanders era. The team’s culture is constantly discussed, while its losses often get celebrated more than those of other programs.

Christensen feels like the system is actively taking food off the table for his family and people back home in Africa who are waiting to watch him play. When the court finally clears him, his original goal of a double-digit sack season will take a backseat to making everything personal.