Report: Buffs add two coaches to football staff

Colorado’s defensive staff may be set.

The Colorado Buffaloes have added two coaches to their football staff, the Boulder Daily Camera’s Brian Howell reported Monday morning. Chris Wilson, 51, will coach the Buffs’ defensive line. Demetrice Martin, 47, will coach Colorado’s defensive backs in some form.

Wilson is entering his 28th year of coaching. He’s largely worked in the FBS ranks, though he also has four years of NFL experience and one year of Division II experience.

Wilson was Colorado’s defensive line coach from 2000-04. He also has five years of experience coaching Oklahoma’s defensive line, one year coaching Georgia’s defensive line and two years coaching USC’s defensive line. He was also the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State.

From 2016-18, Wilson coached the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive line, a stint that included a Super Bowl championship. He helped Vinny Curry, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox and Timmy Jernigan form one of the best defensive lines in the league that year.

Last season, Wilson was a defensive assistant with the Arizona Cardinals. His son, Caleb Wilson, was a rookie tight end on the Cardinals’ practice squad. The Cardinals released the younger Wilson this offseason and he signed with the Washington Redskins, which may have made the older Wilson’s decision to step away from the team easier.

While Wilson is widely considered one of the best defensive line coaches in the business, he also has experience as a special teams coordinator. Dorrell may opt to use one of his position coaches to fill that role, as Wilson did at Oklahoma from 2007-09 while working with defensive ends.

For more on Wilson, check out this clip of him breaking down his defensive line with the Eagles here:

Martin’s role with Colorado is still not set in stone. He’ll work with the Buffs’ defensive backs in 2020, but Dorrell hasn’t outlined how he’ll break down that group. Martin could coach the cornerbacks, the safeties, or the two groups could be combined and he’ll take on the defensive backs coach title.

As it stands, the most likely outcome is that he’ll coach all defensive backs.

Martin has been a Pac-12 mainstay for 15 years. He’s worked at USC, Washington, UCLA and Arizona in that time, primarily as a defensive backs or cornerbacks coach. He’s been hired by Steve Sarkisian, Pete Carroll and Jim Mora Jr.

Martin is known for his recruiting ability, in part because of the recruiting ties he built while coaching three seasons in Los Angeles-area high schools and five seasons coaching at Los Angeles-area junior colleges.

For example, Martin recruited five-star cornerback Darnay Holmes to UCLA. Holmes is expected to be a top-100 pick in April’s NFL draft.

Martin’s younger brother, Jason Martin, is the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Independence Community College, the home of seasons three and four of “Last Chance U.” Delrick Abrams and Jamar Montgomery are just a couple of Buffs who have come to CU from Independence.

Colorado poached Martin off of Arizona’s staff. Arizona hired a new defensive coordinator this offseason and had replaced all of its defensive staff, except for Martin.

Here’s Demetrice Martin mic’d up at a practice at Arizona:

 

Here’s where Colorado’s coaching staff stands, as of Monday morning:

HC: Karl Dorrell

OC: Darrin Chiaverini

DC: Tyson Summers

STC: ________

QBs: ________

RBs: Darian Hagan

WRs: Darrin Chiaverini

OL: ________

DL: Chris Wilson

ILBs: Tyson Summers

OLBs: Brian Michalowski

DBs: Demetrice Martin