We're back with our series of the most impressive new staffs of 2023.
At the #6 spot, we've got the man who has dominated headlines since his successful turnaround at Jackson State, in first-year Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.
The previous spots on our list are occupied by Charlotte (#10), Western Michigan (#9), Liberty (#8), and USF (#7).
As we shared previously in this series, there's no exact formula for putting together a staff that is going to put a successful product on the field Saturdays in the fall. So generally speaking, coaches look for a mix of guys they have a prior relationship with, or have worked with coaches they have ties to and trust, or are excellent recruiters, have a ton of experience, have learned under some of the most respected coaches in the game, or retaining guys that have an intimate understanding of the roster.
Really, any mix of all those and so much more go into building a quality staff, and all while being able to do it with the salary pool allotted.
Prime and his staff immediately went to work flipping the roster, controversially ushering out over 70 players, and taking full advantage of the transfer portal to replace those departures with new Buffs players excited for the vision of Coach Prime and his staff.
COORDINATOR RECAP
Coach Prime was able to bring a big chunk of his Jackson State (FCS - MS) staff to Boulder, and he bookended them with two strong coordinator hires in Charles Kelly and Sean Lewis.
Sanders was able to present an opportunity for Kelly to return to defensive play calling duties after serving as Nick Saban's associate defensive coordinator and safeties coach in Tuscaloosa last season.
Kelly has previous coordinating experience at Georgia Tech and Florida State and also spent a season coordinating the special teams in Tallahassee and Tennessee before joining the Alabama staff.
Lewis left an FBS head coaching job at Kent State, where he went 24-31 turning around the program, taking the team to two bowl games with a MAC East title in 2021.
Before landing the opportunity at Kent State, Lewis was an integral member of the staff of Dino Babers at both Bowling Green and Syracuse, where he held the co-offensive coordinator / quarterbacks title.
Anytime you can pull away two coordinators that are either an accomplished member of Saban's staff, or a sitting FBS head coach, you're starting to build something people are easily going to get excited about heading into your initial season.
BIGGEST HIRE
It's impossible to talk about big hires without mentioning Lewis and Kelly, who I think were among some of the most impressive coordinator hires of any new head coach this cycle.
With that said, another monumental hire for Sanders staff was Sal Sunseri, who has coached on the defensive side of the ball at a number of SEC stops including Alabama and Florida and coordinated an SEC defense at Tennessee.
Like Kelly, Sunseri also left the Alabama staff, where his title was special assistant to the head coach.
With Sunseri alongside Kelly, Prime has some impressive veteran experience on the defensive side of the ball.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE AHEAD
While the future of the Pac-12 is up in the air, the Colorado defense will have to battle with offensive innovator Lincoln Riley and veteran creative play caller Chip Kelly for just another season before they head to the Big Ten in 2024, the fact remains that in order for the Buffs to have success in the win column, their defensive staff is going to get tested by the likes of offensive minded head coaches in Troy Taylor (Stanford), Kenny Dillingham (Arizona State), Jonathan Smith (Oregon State) Kalen DeBoer (Washington), and offensive schemes from defensive minded head coaches like Kyle Whittingham at Utah and Dan Lanning at Oregon who have creative offensive play callers challenging defenses weekly.
Kelly, Sunseri, and the rest of the defensive staff consisting of Andre' Hart, Nick Williams, and Kevin Mathis are going to be challenged, and their success - especially early on - will depend on how well they mesh, and adjust.
MOST UNDERRATED HIRE
Receivers coach Brett Bartolone coordinated the Jackson State offense for Prime last year, helping to lead the team to a SWAC title and 12-1 season.
Sanders decided to hand the reigns of the offense to Lewis when he took the Colorado job, and Bartolone still decided to follow Prime to Boulder as the receivers coach, where he's able to provide input on what was successful for them at the FCS level, and mesh it with what Lewis brought to the table.
There are a lot of offensive similarities between the two offensive approaches, so Bartolone - who brings an intimate understanding of not only what Sanders wants on offense, but also what quarterback Shadeur Sanders is comfortable with - joining the staff has the potential to pay some big dividends on the offensive side of the ball.
KEY OFF FIELD HIRE
Known as one of college football's top end recruiters for years, David Kelly brings over three decades of experience to his off-field role as Prime's General Manager with stops at Georgia, Duke, LSU, Georgia Tech, UCF, and FAU in various personnel and coaching roles.
Now, as Prime's right hand guy, Kelly will be leaned on to use that experience to help guide Sanders during his first head coaching opportunity at the FBS level.
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