BOULDER — Are they bruised? Heck, yeah. But despite three player departures in two days, a three-game losing skid, and back-to-back road defeats by an average of 37 points, CU Buffs coach Mel Tucker insists his roster isn’t broken.

Or, for that matter, divided.

“First, they’ll all my guys,” Tucker said Tuesday at his weekly news conference when asked about potential locker room division after humbling losses at Oregon (42-3) and at Washington State (41-10) with USC on deck Friday night.

“They’re all our guys right now. And I told them that (on) Day 1: ‘Whether I recruited you or not, we’re going to love you up … I’ll run through a wall for you.’ And that’s the way it’s going to be.’”

Roster turnover isn’t uncommon when a new coaching staff takes over a Power 5 program, but the Buffs (3-4, 1-3 Pac-12) have found themselves preparing for the Trojans (4-3, 3-1) without three veterans — including a defender who started the first three games of the season.

Tucker announced Tuesday that sophomore outside linebacker Jacob Callier was no longer with the program, becoming the third CU veteran to leave the team this week. The coach confirmed earlier reports that junior strong safety Aaron Maddox, a starter in Weeks 1-3, and senior tight end Darrion Jones have also left the Buffs and entered the transfer portal.

The first-year coach said Maddox and Jones had expressed interest in taking advantage of the NCAA rule that allows for a season in which you play no more than four games being treated as a redshirt year for eligibility purposes. Tucker said he told both players — who had already each played in four games — that he couldn’t promise that he could preserve a redshirt for 2019, so they chose to enter the portal rather than play for the Buffs again.

With Callier, “it was just not working out for him here,” the coach explained. “That’s three guys in a matter of two days … but I wish them the best and I’m going to be here for them if they need anything.”

Tucker, who saw 12 players enter the transfer portal between his hiring in December 2018 and the start of the 2019 season, talked at length about the improvements the program has made in the last 10 months, but also noted that “it’s just not for everyone.”

Callier was credited with one tackle and one third-down stop this season in three appearances. The California native had recorded a sack each in 2017 and 2018, primarily in a reserve role, and took an injury redshirt last fall following shoulder surgery.

It was Callier who made the fourth-quarter hit that knocked then-freshman Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez out of the game with a knee injury a year ago. Replays showed Martinez’s leg being twisted on said tackle, which drew the ire of Huskers coach Scott Frost, who submitted tape of the incident to the Big Ten and Pac-12 offices. Neither conference nor CU officials determined that there was any wrongdoing.

Junior Derrion Rakestraw had replaced Maddox in the starting lineup for the Buffs’ win at Arizona State on Sept. 21 and kept his No. 1 position at strong safety each of the last two weekends. The earlier portal entries were originally reported Monday by 247Sports.com.

Montez still Mel’s man. Tucker said he remains confident in Steven Montez as his starting quarterback. More importantly, he says that the fifth-year senior — despite coming off two games in which he’s completed 54.6 percent of his passes and posted a touchdown-to-interception-ratio of nada-to-six — remains confident in himself.

“(The confidence) looks good to me,” the coach said of Montez. “You can tell when a guy doesn’t have confidence, because you see him all the time, you see him every day … and I haven’t seen that from (Montez). I mean, he’s fighting and scrapping.”