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Former Cincinnati Bengals secondary coach Robert Livingston has been hired as the defensive coordinator of the Colorado Buffaloes. (Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Bengals)
Former Cincinnati Bengals secondary coach Robert Livingston has been hired as the defensive coordinator of the Colorado Buffaloes. (Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Bengals)
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Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders is going all in on NFL experience with his coordinators.

On Friday, Sanders and CU officially announced several changes to the coaching staff, all of which have been reported previously. The changes include veteran NFL coaches Pat Shurmur and Robert Livingston in coordinator roles.

Shurmur has officially taken over the offensive coordinator role with the Buffaloes. He was hired last summer as an analyst and was promoted to co-coordinator with four games left in the 2023 season. Since the end of the season, it had been expected that Coach Prime would promote Shurmur and he was introduced to the team as the coordinator nearly a month ago.

Prior to being hired by CU, Shurmur worked in the NFL from 1999-2021, most recently as the offensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos (2020-21). He has also been the head coach of the Cleveland Browns (2011-12) and New York Giants (2018-19) and held coordinator roles with other teams. Shurmur had not coached in college since 1998, when he was the offensive line coach at Stanford.

Livingston, hired this week, spent the last 12 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, including the last eight as the secondary coach. The 38-year-old Livingston coached at Furman in 2010 and Vanderbilt in 2011 before joining the Bengals in 2012. This will be his first opportunity as a coordinator.

As previously reported, Phil Loadholt was announced as the new offensive line coach and Jason Phillips as the new receivers coach. Both were introduced to the team last month.

Loadholt, who played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2009-15, was an offensive line analyst at Oklahoma the past two seasons. He had a similar role at Mississippi from 2020-21 and was on the staff at Central Florida from 2018-19.

Loadholt, who went to Fountain-Fort Carson High School, was first-team All-Big 12 Oklahoma in 2007 and blocked for Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford in 2008.

Phillips spent the past two years with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and was the co-offensive coordinator for Sanders at Jackson State in 2021. Phillips, who has coached for more than two decades, played with Sanders with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons in the early 1990s.

Also officially announced Friday were the previously reported moves of Vincent Dancy from analyst to outside linebackers coach and Brett Bartolone from receivers coach to tight end coach.

As of now, four assistants remain on staff in their same roles as last season: Gary Harrell (running backs), Andre Hart (linebackers), Kevin Mathis (cornerbacks) and Sal Sunseri (defensive line).

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