Colorado hires Mike Sanford Jr. as next offensive coordinator

BOULDER — The wait is over.

Colorado announced Friday that Mike Sanford Jr., 39, will be the team’s next offensive coordinator. Sanford most recently served as the offensive coordinator at Minnesota, but he was fired after this season, his second in the position.

“The Colorado football program as well as the university itself stands for everything I value,” Sanford said in a press release.  “My family and I could not be more excited to return to our roots out west in Pac-12 country.  The University of Colorado has been a dream destination of mine since I was a kid growing up in California in the early Nineties.  I have the highest level of respect for Karl Dorrell as a football coach and for the man of integrity that he is.  We will work tirelessly to build a championship offense that will make the CU family proud.”

Colorado’s offensive coordinator job came open when Darrin Chiaverini was fired following the conclusion of the 2021 season. The Buffs’ offense ranked near the bottom of the country in most statistical categories.

Sanford has coordinated several offenses in the past. First, he was coordinator at Boise State on Bryan Harsin’s first staff in 2014. He jumped to Notre Dame for two seasons, the next year. Then, he parlayed success into a head-coaching job at Western Kentucky, where he was fired after two seasons.

From there, he coordinated a season at Utah State, before jumping to Minnesota in 2020. He was fired after the 2021 season. His first real job was at Stanford on David Shaw’s first staff, where he was recruiting director and coached quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers over three seasons.

“Mike’s extensive experience and pedigree speaks for itself,” head coach Karl Dorrell said in a press release.  “What attracted me to him was his familiarity with the Pac-12 and this part of the country, his coaching experience, success as a coordinator and developing players over his career.

The trend throughout Sanford’s career has been pro-style power running, typically out of jumbo sets. In the past few years, he’s worked in more spread offenses and Minnesota runs a unique RPO game. There should be some more tweaks to Sanford’s game going forward.

Stay tuned to DNVR for more information on Sanford and what to expect from his offense.