In Coach Sanders’ final post-game press conference of the season, he claimed changes were coming. Before departing that press conference, Sanders referred to this as “the last supper”, leading to significant speculation on the long-term future of the program.
On Thursday Sanders hired Sacramento State head coach, Brennan Marion, to serve as the Buffaloes offensive coordinator. A move at offensive coordinator should have been expected given how the Buffaloes struggled in 2025 to generate consistent scoring opportunities.
Marion brings to Boulder his ‘go-go’ scheme that Marion describes as a pro-style, triple option offense. Not to be confused with a spread offense. Courtesy of USA Today, Marion calls his system a “true West Coast passing game, a triple option run game, and the up-tempo principles of Coach Malzahn”.
There is no reason to question a change at offensive coordinator at Colorado. The question is why hire an outside head coach to run the offense when former Marshall quarterback, former NFL quarterback, and former Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was already on the staff?
Coach Sanders likes having an NFL presence
There are two competing schools of thought, and both have to be considered when discussing Prime’s Buffaloes. Coach Prime’s staff is mostly comprised of “FoP” (friends of Prime). While some of those friends are former players and coaches, many of which have NFL experience. Some even have a “gold jacket he didn’t buy” as Sanders likes to say. If it works, great. However, what happens when it doesn’t work? It puts the head coach in a difficult situation of trying to evaluate if it's time to fire a friend.
Sanders also has given several examples that speak to a belief that college football should do just about everything it can to prepare college football players for the NFL. It's why Sanders has an issue with players wearing “biker shorts” in games, it's why he’d like to see certain penalties called based on the NFL’s criteria, and it's also why Sanders has an affection for pro-style or NFL caliber coaches.
By introducing Marion, Sanders is again bringing in someone who adds to the NFL dynamic. While Marion is not a former NFL coach, he does utilize a pro-style offense. The one aspect of this news that cannot go unnoticed, is that Sanders had a successful, NFL coach on staff with a resume that demands consideration.
Where is Byron Leftwich in all of this
Where is Byron Leftwich? Throughout the quarterback musical chairs in 2025, where was Leftwich? When the offense had become predictable under Pat Shurmur, where was Leftwich? When the program seemed hesitant to start true freshman Julian Lewis, where was Leftwich?
Leftwich served as the Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks coach from 2016-2018. From 2019-2022 he served as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator, where he won a Super Bowl. For the entirety of the 2025 season, Leftwich was an assistant under Sanders at Colorado. Yet, short of an introduction video posted by Well Off Media, Leftwich has been consistently not visible.
In 2025 Colorado made several position coaches and assistants available to the media, except Leftwich. While Sanders restricts the media’s access to most practices, he had been seen exiting the Franklin practice field on occasion in Boulder. Various Buffaloes related YouTube channels have shown some sparse footage of Leftwich working with quarterbacks with little context.
Which raises the question. Why bring in a coach with Leftwich’s resume and not use him to advance the offensive woes in season? Why ask a head coach to become an offensive coordinator when you already had a qualified offensive coordinator on the staff?
When Sanders was dealt a horrible life changing diagnosis and his day-to-day tasks had to take a back seat to medical concerns, why did we not hear about Leftwich’s role getting elevated? Even if it was just running spring ball practice or being Sanders’ eyes and ears in recruiting meetings?
For a head coach that values NFL experience and the totality of the NFL experience on his staff, it seems curious that Leftwich didn’t seem to be utilized more than he has been. Perhaps this is all part of a larger plan at play.
After his Kansas State post-game press conference and his promise of change, it would almost seem counterproductive if those changes don’t include Leftwich. Its also counterproductive to not use a coach on the staff that not that long ago was being discussed in NFL circles as an NFL head coaching candidate.
More college football news:
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