Everything you need to know about Mike Sanford

BOULDER — The Buffs have an identity on offense.

Colorado hired former Minnesota offensive coordinator Mike Sanford, 39, as its next coordinator. The Buffaloes fired Darrin Chiaverini earlier this month, after Chiaverini struggled in most statistical categories this season.

Here’s what you need to know about Colorado’s next OC:

The numbers… aren’t great

Mike Sanford has a solid resume.

His first real break was with Stanford, where he was a recruiting coordinator, running backs coach, wide receivers coach and quarterbacks coach at various times throughout his three-year tenure. Those three years were the first three years that David Shaw was the head coach, and the Cardinal’s worst finish was as the No. 11 team in the country.

From there, Sanford earned an opportunity to coordinate Boise State offense, a job he held down for one season, before he got an offer to take the same position at Notre Dame in 2015.

In 2017, he took over as head coach at Western Kentucky, but he was fired after his second season.

Then he spent a season as OC at Utah State, before spending the past two seasons as OC at Minnesota.

That’s an impressive journey for a 39-year-old coach, and there’s no doubt he has plenty of experience under his belt.

The results, though, weren’t always spectacular.

Western Kentucky posted a winning record in six consecutive seasons prior to Sanford’s arrival in 2017, including 12 wins in 2015 and 11 wins in 2016. Sanford finished 6-7 and 3-9 in his two seasons, before being relieved of his duties. Then, in 2019, Western Kentucky won nine games.

In Sanford’s lone season at Utah State, his offense scored 29.2 points per game. In the previous season, the Aggies finished second in FBS football with 47.5 per game. Quarterback Jordan Love was around for both seasons.

At Minnesota, his offense fell by a couple of points per game in both of his seasons compared to the two previous seasons.

The numbers aren’t ideal, but they’re also not all that matters.

He’s a young coach

In Sanford’s defense, it’s pretty impressive to land a head-coaching job at 34, even if it’s  at Western Kentucky.

And yeah, it didn’t go great, but it’s also true that he was following up Jeff Brohm, who has turned Purdue into a respectable program for the first time in a decade and a half. Brohm is 27-29 with the Boilermakers, and the guy before him barely averaged two wins per season.

Compared to your averaged 39-year-old football coach, Sanford is in a great spot in his career.

My point in this section is this: the man has 30 years of coaching in front of him and it’s probably a safe bet that the best is still to come… and it’d be nice if it came quickly.

People get better at what they do.

People learn.

And Sanford has learned from some good coaches.

David Shaw gave him his first job.

Brian Kelly made him his offensive coordinator.

He just spent two seasons learning the intricacies of the RPO from P.J. Fleck, and his offense would no-doubt be different at Western Kentucky if he had that knowledge in his bag.

I’m not trying to say that this is a home-run hire. It isn’t.

But to write the book on a guy at 39 is preposterous and there are plenty of reasons to be excited, even if you have to dig for some of them.

Plus, it’s not like things could get much worse.

Here’s what Dorrell had to say in a press release:

Mike’s extensive experience and pedigree speaks for itself. 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. His journey through the profession has been solid, yet he is still a fairly young coach with great coaching experience at the Power 5 level.  He has worked under some of the best in the business, has great knowledge of offensive football and in our discussions, has a great vision for Colorado football.”

It all starts with the run game

I named some names above, and the trend among most of them is a power-running, pro-style offense.

From Stanford, to Boise State, to Notre Dame, the programs that Sanford opened his career with have instilled a fairly old-school style of offense. The identity starts in the trenches.

For a Colorado team whose best bath to success in the Pac-12 is building in the trenches—think Utah—the system seems to make sense.

Banking on running the ball after seeing what the offensive line was capable of in 2021 is a major risk. But there was a lack of coaching and a lack of any sort of creativity in the running game, so an emphasis on rebuilding the running game using principles that have been the basis of notable success at big-name programs could be exactly what the Buffs need to turn that around.

More recently, Sanford has worked in power-run, spread offenses at Utah State and Minnesota. The blend between the two—plus Karl Dorrell’s West Coast, power run background—will be an intriguing blend.

P.J. Fleck’s influence is probably most exciting. The incorporation of those RPO concepts should fit what Colorado has on its roster—a dual-threat QB who could stand some simpler reads, a packed backfield, and a big-play wide receiver.

Sanford puts an emphasis on big plays, too. The goal isn’t to run and run and run. The goal is to run and run and then catch the defense cheating and hit it over the top. The RPOs mean those shots don’t necessarily be called in the huddle; if a defense cheats on a given play, the quarterback will make the read to hit them with the pass.

Last year, Minnesota finished just below average in the Big Ten in yards per game and top-three in rushing yards per game. The passing game was second-to-last in production. Here’s the thing, though: Minnesota only attempted 144 passes all season and its 8.2 yards per attempt were the fifth-most of the 14 teams.

According to Pro Football Focus, a little over 45% of Minnesota’s passes included play action, compared to 20% at Colorado.

Who knows what will happen when Sanford, Dorrell and the rest of the staff collaborate to build the 2022 version of the offense, but a heavy emphasis on power running and building the passing game off of it seems like a good bet.

He has a reputation as a recruiter

One of the reasons Karl Dorrell hired Sanford is his recruiting ability.

Sanford has landed big names like Christian McCaffrey, Andrew Luck, Ian Book and Brett Rypien.

Take this from the press release:

Everywhere Sanford has been, great players have followed. He helped bring in top 15 recruiting classes in each of his two seasons at Notre Dame, the number one class in the Mountain West during his year at Boise State, and back-to-back top 20 classes at Stanford, including the fifth-ranked group in 2012 (and best in the Pac-12) while serving as the Cardinal recruiting coordinator. Twenty-three members of those two classes were rated in the top 25 nationally at their respective positions, with six players rated as “five stars” and 16 others with “four stars.”

Recruiting to Notre Dame and recruiting to Colorado are two different beasts, but the reputation as a recruiter is solid.