Colorado’s special teams unit will once again be coached by committee.
Deion Sanders revealed last week that the Buffaloes do not plan on hiring a new special teams coordinator after dismissing Michael Pollock.
Coach Prime announced his decision to reporters on Friday, dismissing the notion that the team needed to onboard three new coordinators this offseason.
“We got three new coordinators?” Sanders said. “We don’t have a special teams coordinator.”
Uncle Neely of Thee Pregame Show confirmed Sanders’ decision shortly after the press conference.
“What he’s taken in this [year’s] approach is more ownership as far as the coaches that you depend on to feed into special teams,” Neely said of Sanders after Friday’s press conference.
“The guys who coach the [defensive backs], the guys who coach the tight ends, the guys who coach the linebackers, etcetera, they’re all now having a say in special teams … You will see probably coach Nib[lett] in front of special teams’ kind of stuff, but it’s also all the other coaches.”
While an unconventional approach, leaving the position vacant isn’t a foreign concept to Colorado football.
Since 1990, as outlined by Sports Illustrated, less than half of Colorado’s seasons have featured a designated coordinator for the special teams unit — rather, a platoon between coaches and analysts.
In fact, the Buffaloes didn’t have a special teams coordinator in 2024, when the program finished with an impressive 9-4 record and reached the Alamo Bowl.
Colorado then elevated Pollock — who had worked for Sanders since his Jackson State days and served as a quality control analyst during his first two years in Boulder — to the role in 2025, which proved a disastrous year for the unit.
Exacerbating a miserable 3-9 (1-8 Big 12) campaign, the Buffaloes sat 109th in net punting and “ranked near the nation’s worst teams with four blocked kicks allowed,” according to Football Scoop’s John Brice.
Coach Prime’s staff will look completely different in 2026.
Not only did Sanders fire Pollock, but he brought in Brennan Marion and Chris Marve to replace offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and defensive coordinator Robert Livingston, respectively.
Marve was originally hired as a linebackers coach in December before receiving an impromptu promotion after Livingston suddenly departed for the Denver Broncos less than a week before training camp.
A total of 14 coaches have either joined Colorado’s staff or been shuffled into new roles — including former NFL safety Vonn Bell, who signed on as a defensive analyst.
At Friday’s press conference, Sanders emphasized his confidence in the overhauled leadership corps.
“They’re changes to you all, they’re not changes to us,” Sanders said. “You don’t think we knew there was a possibility of something [that] could possibly happen? … We got a guy that is overqualified for this position right on staff, and we don’t have to go outside and find somebody on the street at the last minute. We knew what time it was, and I’m thankful that we knew.”
