With two losing season sandwiched around a nine-win campaign that included a Heisman Trophy winner in 2024, Deion Sanders has revamped much of his Colorado Buffaloes coaching staff as the program transitioned into 2026.
But, FootballScoop has learned, Coach Prime hasn’t finished assembling his fourth Buffaloes coaching staff.
Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Colorado is seeking to hire a new special teams coordinator. Per sources, Sanders already has spoken with multiple candidates about the special teams coordinator role.
Most recently, Michael Pollock — hired initially into the program as an analyst in 2024 — had served as Colorado’s special teams coordinator for the 2025 season, a campaign that saw Colorado close just 3-9 for the program’s seventh losing season in the past eight full seasons.
Pollock first joined Deion Sanders’s coaching staff in 2021 at Football Championship Subdivision program Jackson State, a tradition-rich HBCU that experienced unprecedented success and exposure under Sanders. At Jackson State, Pollock served as Sanders’ co-offensive coordinator.
After Sanders was hired atop the Colorado program in December 2022, he brought with him Pollock to Boulder, Colorado.
Pollock then was elevated from analyst to the Buffaloes’ special teams coordinator a year ago. Colorado finished the 2025 season 109th in net punting (37.19 yards per punt); it ranked near the nation’s worst teams with four blocked kicks allowed.
Before he joined Sanders in the collegiate coaching ranks, Pollock had a decorated career of more than 20 years as both an offensive assistant and head coach at the high school level in the state of Georgia. After his high school team was declared the national champions, Pollock coached in the Under Armour game where he met Sanders. When Deion got the Jackson State opportunity, Pollock was one of the first coaches he called to hire.
Colorado sat at 3-4 just past the midpoint of last season before it closed the year on a five-game losing streak.
Since the season ended, Sanders has hired Brennan Marion to take over as Colorado’s offensive coordinator after Coach Prime had demoted Pat Shurmur, a longtime NFL coaching veteran who returned to the college game to work alongside Sanders, during the 2025 season.
Marion is now Colorado’s third different offensive coordinator in Sanders’s four seasons, following first Sean Lewis and then Shurmur.
Colorado also saw veteran analyst Josh Conklin depart for a role on James Franklin’s Virginia Tech staff earlier this month and top personnel staffer Corey Phillips exit to take over as general manager in first-year Memphis coach Charles Huff’s program.
The Buffaloes are set to open Year 4 under Coach Prime Sept. 5, 2026, at Georgia Tech, which kicked off the 2025 season with a road-win at Colorado. The Buffaloes return home to host Football Championship Subdivision program Weber State before another intersectional road trip against a Power Conference foe, this time at Northwester.
Colorado begins Big 12 Conference play a week later at Baylor before it hosts its first league game Oct. 3 against reigning Big 12 Champion and College Football Playoffs quarterfinalist Texas Tech.
