With five new coaches on staff and another in a new position, the Colorado football program will have the largest assistant coach salary pool in its history this season.
The 10 full-time assistant coaches will make a combined $4.65 million in base and supplemental salary, per contract details obtained by BuffZone. That’s slightly higher than the previous record of $4.59 million last year, although less than what it would have been had the 2023 staff stayed intact for this year.
After head coach Deion Sanders assembled his first staff a year ago, that group was slated to make $4.925 million in 2024. Staff changes, however, have led to that number coming in a bit lower.
Changes included new coordinators Pat Shurmur (offense) and Robert Livingston (defense) being hired this offseason.
Shurmur signed a two-year deal worth $1.65 million. He will be paid $800,000 this year and $850,000 in 2025. He replaces Sean Lewis, who left CU in December to become the head coach at San Diego State. Lewis was slated to make $900,000 this year had he stayed.
Livingston signed a two-year contract worth $1.795 million. He is slated to make $800,000 this year and $995,000 in 2025, which would be a single-season record high for a CU assistant. The current record is the $850,000 salaries of Lewis and former defensive coordinator Charles Kelly last season. Kelly, like Lewis, was slated to make $900,000 this year, but left CU to become the co-coordinator at Auburn.
New receivers coach Jason Phillips signed a two-year deal that will pay him $315,000 this year and $340,000 in 2025. It’s a similar deal that previous receivers coach Brett Bartolone signed a year ago. Bartolone, meanwhile, has shifted to become the tight ends coach and his contract was amended, giving him a $60,000 raise to $400,000 for this year.
Vincent Dancy, who was an analyst last year with the Buffs, was promoted to the role of outside linebackers coach. With that, he signed a two-year contract that will pay him $350,000 this year and $375,000 in 2025. That’s a similar deal to what his predecessor, Nick Williams, signed a year ago. Williams has since left for a job at Syracuse.
Phil Loadholt, the new offensive line coach, signed a one-year contract worth $325,000. He is replacing Bill O’Boyle, who left the Buffs originally to join Lewis at SDSU, but ultimately took a job at Northwestern last month.
Four returning assistants, Gary Harrell (running backs), Andre Hart (linebackers), Kevin Mathis (cornerbacks) and Sal Sunseri (defensive line) are going into their final seasons of two-year deals signed a year ago. Harrell, Hart and Mathis are getting $25,000 salary bumps from last year, with each slated to make $425,000. Sunseri is set to receive a $60,000 bump to $385,000.
Until recently, the CU board of regents had to approve all contracts valued at more than $250,000 annually. Due to a policy change in 2022, however, only contracts valued at $1 million or more need to go the board for approval.
In addition to paying a bit less for the staff this year than originally expected, CU will receive a total of about $475,000 from four coaches who left the program for other opportunities and terminated their contracts early: Kelly ($212,500), former tight ends coach Tim Brewster ($100,000), Williams ($87,500) and Bill O’Boyle ($75,000).
Because Lewis left for a head coaching opportunity, he does not owe anything to CU.
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