Brennan Marion helped orchestrate the biggest upset in college football history.
During his first Division I coaching opportunity as Howard’s offensive coordinator, the Bison knocked off UNLV as 45.5-point underdogs in the 2017 season opener. Marion’s coaching career took off from that point, making stops at Pitt, Texas, UNLV and other spots before becoming the head coach at Sac State in 2025.
In his head-coaching debut for the Hornets, Marion’s Go-Go offense put up just three points. It was a stark difference from his previous season openers as a playcaller.
Despite the three points scored vs. South Dakota State to open the 2025 campaign, Marion’s offenses still average 29.8 points per game in season openers when he’s the OC/playcaller (six games). That includes two games scoring 40-plus points and two more scoring 30-plus.
Marion admitted Thursday that his approach to last year’s season opener was not what it was in year’s prior.
“I think last year was the first year that my approach to the first game was not right and obviously we didn’t come out successful,” Brennan Marion said Thursday. “Every other year prior, we stalked our opponent and made sure we knew every nuance and every single detail about them.
“Last year, I was just so much focused on trying to get our guys right and making sure that they play the way we wanted to play.”
The Colorado football team can’t afford a slow start similar to the one Marion’s offense had last season, and he knows it. That’s why he’s going back to his roots as it relates to preparing the Buffs for Week 1 vs. Georgia Tech.
Brennan Marion says he knows a lot of the coaches on the Yellow Jackets’ staff and he’s excited for the opportunity to beat a quality opponent because “to be a real guy, you have to play a real guy.”
It’s safe to assume that Marion spent countless hours watching film of Southern Miss, where new Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Jason Semore coached last year.
“This year, I just went back to my old school approach of what got us the biggest upset in college football history,” Brennan Marion said. “When I first got into it at Howard, it was to stalk your opponent, to know every single thing about him, know every call he ever made and give the kids the best chance to win versus the looks that guy’s presented in the past because we all have things that we’ve done before as coaches.
“So our approach going into game one would just be to make sure that we play to the standard that we want to play and then also have great scheme as well.”
Semore will likely have a tougher time preparing for Colorado and Marion’s Go-Go offense. There will certainly be some carry over with what Sac State ran last year, but the increased level of talent Brennan Marion has at his disposal with the Buffs will allow him to get even more exotic.
The Go-Go’s philosophy is to “err on the side of creativity” and that’s exactly what makes it so hard to prepare for and defend. Colorado defensive coordinator Chris Marve has seen it first hand.
“You don’t know what you’re going to get; good luck figuring it out,” Marve said of what makes Brennan Marion a good playcaller. “Guys better have their eyes in the right place but you just don’t know. He’s hyper-creative and innovative.”
Colorado opens the 2026 season in Atlanta on Thursday, Sept. 3 as 6.5-point underdogs to Georgia Tech.
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