Former Broncos OC works for CU, but can’t talk to players on the field

The Colorado Buffaloes have a former NFL head coach and a longtime NFL assistant coach on their all-star coaching staff, that person just happens to be former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.

Shurmur joined Deion Sanders’ crew in Boulder last month after being out of work since his disastrous tenure leading the Broncos’ offense ended in January of 2022.

“I was available, I took this year—there were some family events, I wanted to be fully there for and I made that effort,” Shurmur said on Thursday. “In coaching, we’re not always around. So it gave me a year to be around and I was thankful for that.”

Shurmur went 19-46 as an NFL head coach, leading the Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants at points over the past decade. Shurmur is from Michigan and went to Michigan State, where he began his coaching career. After working for the Spartans for a decade he worked at Stanford in the Pac-10 then made the jump to the NFL.

Shurmur, 58, will likely aid Sean Lewis who is Sanders offensive coordinator in year one of Coach Prime in Boulder. Lewis left his gig as the head coach of the Kent State Golden Flashes to lead CU’s offense.

“It’s what I remember college to be, a lot of uptempo stuff. In the NFL I would just call the plays, there wasn’t a barrier in communication,” Shurmur said of Lewis’ system. “Here with the signals, it’s a tempo-style. A lot of the plays are very familiar. In a former life what he calls apple I may have called orange.”

The Buffs are trying to revamp their offense behind transfer quarterback Shedeur Sanders, two-way star Travis Hunter and other fellow newcomers as they work to improve from CU’s 15.4 points per game in 2022, which ranked fifth-worst in FBS.

But Shurmur won’t be talking to the younger Sanders or Hunter—at least on the field.

“Being an analyst I work primarily behind the scenes, in the meeting rooms with the coaches, I’m really not allowed to have 1 on 1s with players,” Shurmur said. “It’s really hard to be out there and bite your tongue when you see something but I just have to track it through one of the coaches.”

It’s unclear why he can’t talk directly to players if it’s a Coach Prime rule or NCAA thing—no explanation was offered beyond the quote.

🦬 Offensive Analyst Pat Shurmur on what his day-to-day responsibilities entail#TrainingCamp pic.twitter.com/6N6o2eupik

— Mat Smith (@RealMatSmith) August 10, 2023

Shurmur is on the staff with former Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman and Broncos Tight Ends Coach, Tim Brewster, as some of the folks with NFL experience on Prime’s staff. The group will have a lot more talent than Boulder has seen in years as they work to turn around a struggling Buffaloes program. But under Sanders, there’s hope for Colorado’s success for the first time in a very long time—and that is a big first step toward bringing the Buffaloes back to glory.

“Living out here is awesome, we enjoy life in general in Colorado,” Shurmur said. “When this came about—we’re empty nesters, it was an easy move to make.”

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