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Coach Prime building one of the best Coaching Staffs in the Nation
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The Buff Nation has been waiting for the past few months, sometimes impatiently, for an announcement of Coach Prime’s contract extension.
Both CU athletic director Rick George and Coach Prime said towards the end of the 2024 campaign that an extension was in the works, but that the parties would wait until the end of the season to finalize the new contract.
The end of CU’s season came … and went … with no announcement.
Then the NFL regular season came to an end, with seven head coaching positions coming open. Almost instantly, Coach Prime was linked with the Las Vegas Raiders and then the Dallas Cowboys as potential destinations. With Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Shilo Sanders heading off to The League, the speculation was that Prime Time – despite his protestations to the contrary – was ready to move on.
Now, with the seven NFL head coaching spots filled, the noise has quieted about Coach Prime leaving Colorado … but the news of an extension remains elusive.
Not one to shy away from the spotlight, Coach Prime was a regular on all of the Super Bowl pregame programs. While promoting Deion Sanders, he also told anyone who would listen that he was happy in Boulder.
For reassurance, Buff fans can put on replay what Coach Prime had to say on ESPN during Super Bowl week:
“I love Colorado. I’m not using them as a stepping stone to land anywhere else. I absolutely love it there. I love my Rick George. I love everything about the city. The town. The school. The campus. I love everything about the community. I like it because it’s our thing. You know what we built around our thing and coaching staff is impeccable, laced with people that have matriculated from the NFL”.
Coach Prime is entering the third year of his five year contract. While an extension – and a hefty raise – seemed to be a foregone conclusion, an extension is not required at this or any other time this off season.
On the periphery, though, there has been plenty of evidence that CU’s head coach is focused on building a program in Boulder.
Coach Livingston’s contract extension
The Colorado defense made significant strides during the 2024 season, moving into the Top 50 nationally in both total defense and scoring defense (after not finishing in the Top 75 in total defense since 2018, and not finishing in the Top 75 in scoring defense since 2016).
Defensive coordinator Robert Livingston had a great deal to do with CU’s progression, and was rewarded for his efforts with a raise and a contract extension.
Livingston’s new contract is a two-year deal through the 2026 season worth an average of $1.55 million in base and supplemental salary. Livingston will make $1.5 million in 2025 and $1.6 million in 2026. In addition, Livingston would receive a $100,000 retention bonus if he is still on the CU staff on September 1, 2026.
The new deal replaces the two-year contract Livingston signed a year ago when he was hired by CU and head coach Deion Sanders. He made $800,000 in 2024 and was slated to make $995,000 this year.
“Coach Prime and I have worked extensively to build on the incredible momentum that has been created with our football program over the last two years,” CU athletic director Rick George said in a statement. “Robert Livingston is a top caliber coach, and this new contract illustrates the investment Colorado Athletics is making to ensure our program remains among the nation’s best. I’m thrilled that Coach Livingston will continue to mentor our student-athletes for years to come.”
Prior to this new contract for Livingston, the highest salary ever for a CU assistant was the $850,000 salaries of former offensive coordinator Sean Lewis and former defensive coordinator Charles Kelly in 2023.
According to USA Today, Utah coordinators Andy Ludwig ($2.05 million) and Morgan Scalley ($2 million) were the only assistants among the 13 public institutions in the Big 12 to make more than $1.2 million last season. Only 26 assistant coaches around the country made at least $1.5 million during the 2024 season.
The last paragraph is telling, and is almost as important as any other news coming out concerning the coaching staff. The numbers from Livingston’s contract are not only impressive, they are competitive.
If Coach Prime is going to keep CU in the national consciousness, not only in national rankings, but late into the season when College Football Playoff rankings are announced, there needs to be a commitment from the athletic department to not only attract but retain quality coaches.
Speaking of attracting coaches …
There was a great deal of hand-wringing in the Buff Nation when it was announced that CU Football Quality control analyst Gunnar White had been promoted to the position of co-assistant offensive line coach, to serve alongside George Hegamin, who came in last year as the director of leadership and engagement.
With an offense which was last – 133rd – in the nation in rushing, and near the bottom (again) in sacks allowed, the announcement that the unit was being led by two assistants who had never served in that position at the collegiate level, much less at the Power Four level, was discouraging … at best.
So when it was announced that former Buff great offensive lineman Andre Gurode was also coming to coach the Buff offensive line, there was a collective sigh of relief.
A four-year starter at CU from 1998-2001, Gurode was a consensus All-American in 2001 and was inducted into the CU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
Gurode was selected in the second round (37th overall) of the 2002 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He played nine seasons in Dallas and was selected for the Pro Bowl five times. Gurode also played with the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders.
Following his playing career, Gurode got into coaching. He worked at one point as a defensive assistant for the Cowboys. Most recently, he has worked in the XFL as an offensive line coach for the Houston Roughnecks (2023) and San Antonio Brahmas (2024).
Does Gurode have an extensive coaching resume? No.
Does Gurode’s hire bring back some unpleasant memories of the Jon Embree/Eric Bieniemy experiment of bringing back CU stars as coaches? Yes.
But Gurode isn’t coming in as head coach or offensive coordinator, and is coming in with the credibility of being an NFL star as an offensive lineman.
For someone like freshman All-American Jordan Seaton, who is looking to emulate Gurode’s NFL career, this is a significant hire.
Speaking of significant hires …
Coach Prime made a splash last year when he hired Warren Sapp to help coach the defensive line. Sapp had no coaching experience, but he did have a gold jacket, and plenty of enthusiasm.
Sapp was spirited, loud, and brought a unique energy to a unit which had struggled in Year One under Coach Prime.
While Sapp wasn’t the only reason the Buff defense improved, but the experiment went well.
Fast forward … to the hiring of Marshall Faulk as CU’s new running backs coach.
Faulk replaces Gary Harrell, who coached the Buffs’ running backs the previous two seasons.
“Marshall is one of the smartest offensive human beings that I’ve been around,” Sanders said. “What he’s gonna attract there, but not only that, the standard that he’s gonna demand – just like the standard (Damione Lewis) and coach Sapp demands on the defensive line – it’s unbelievable.”
Although Faulk, who will turn 52 on February 26th, does not having coaching experience, he brings an exceptional resume as a player. Faulk was a three-time All-American at San Diego State and, from 1994-2005, he was one of the best running backs in the NFL.
On the field, Faulk will work with Tommie Robinson, who was named last month as the Buffs’ assistant running backs coach. Robinson, 61, has nearly four decades of coaching experience, including as a running backs coach at Texas A&M, LSU, USC, Texas and the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals in the past 15 years.
The hope here is that, just like Sapp, Faulk will bring enthusiasm and credibility to a unit which hasn’t fared well in the first two years of the Coach Prime era.
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There have been losses to the coaching staff. Offensive line coach Phil Loadholt and defensive ends coach Vincent Dancy left CU for Mississippi State, and, more recently, defensive line coach Damione Lewis returned to his alma mater at Miami.
But, as a whole, the coaching staff has not only been able to stay together, but improve.
Rivals National Recruiting Director Adam Gorney, a name familiar to both college football fans and – significantly – recruits and their families, had this to say about Coach Prime and his staff:
What should not be overlooked is that heading into 2025, Colorado might have the best coaching staff in the country. Not one of the best. The best. With the most NFL experience. With the biggest names who could do wonders on the recruiting trail.
There is a ton of momentum right now in Boulder, and some of the biggest marquee names the sport has ever known coaching there now.
What Sanders has put together there – roster and coaching staff and fan excitement – in just two years is nearly unfathomable.
For the Buff Nation, which has suffered enough, these are amazing words to hear from a nationally respected recruit analyst.
CU’s coaching staff – one of the best, if not the best – in the nation?
Heady stuff.
Now, if we could just get Coach Prime’s contract extension ironed out …
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4 Replies to “CU Coaching Staff – Building a Winner”
Seeing the DC’s contract rewrite and new hire’s makes me think that Rick George & Prime have come up with a total budget with targets for salaries for Prime’s & his staff’s salaries and Prime is handling his staff’s salaries before his own. He probably already knows about where he’s going to land with his own deal, but may be dealing with his staff before settling his own deal.
In other words he may be playing a bit with his own monies to complete his vision of a winner; I think he wants to win over all of the money for himself. He’ll get paid, one way or another, but his drive to be a winner is something he embraces and he’s sees the whole picture and how to get there and the payoff in the end.
I think losing Lewis is the biggest blow. I heard a comment that Sapp wants to remain the second voice in the room and not take the lead. On Prime’s contract. A while ago Prime said he had enough money and so I wonder if they are paying the assistants and waiting for college football settlement and NIL to settle itself this year to finalize. I.e Sanders wants to make sure he has the full amount to recruit players before paying himself. That pretty damn altruistic so not sure how realistic it is, but it does agree with his public comments as I think CU needs to come up with 20mm a year to pay players per the settlement.
You just trolled me Stuart.
Yes, an elite level with the coaching staff but not one mention of the fly in the ointment, the OC.
It is still my opinion ALL of the success the Buffs had on offense was carried by the elite talent of Shedeur and the WRs w/o a shred of help from the running game which shurmer has refused to acknowledge for a season and a half.
Odds are Salter will the the starter next season because of his experience and his ability to run the ball as a dual threat. Odds are he wont be completing passes at Shedeur’s 74% rate but will compensate somewhat with his running ability. Will that be enough for shurmur to rely on and leave the rest of the running game continue to rot? or will he design some plays to use Salter’s ability as an option or decoy to make the opposing D have to respect both? I aint holding my breath.
I never once thought of the Embree debacle when Gurode was hired.