Ex-Deion Sanders Staffer Picks Colorado's Rival To Win Big 12

Deion Sanders' Colorado staff is dealing with some last-minute attrition before their Week 1 game against North Dakota State on Thursday, August 29.

Trevor Reilly, who was Colorado’s special teams coordinator in 2023, opted to leave the staff earlier this month.

To add more salt to the wound, Reilly appeared on ESPN 700 in Salt Lake City to express why he left. On top of that, he also revealed that he thinks Colorado's former Pac-12 and current Big 12 foe, Utah, will win the Big 12 in 2024.

"Trevor Reilly said on ESPN 700 that he thinks Utah will win the Big 12 and that they have some guys bigger than some of the NFL teams he played with," Josh Furlong of KSL Sports wrote on X. "He expects them to be really good this year."

While Reilly was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection linebacker at Utah, this declaration could be viewed as a slap in the face to the program and players he worked with just last month.

Disagreement over how the program operated in the NIL space is reportedly the reason he left the team on such short notice. According to Furlong , Reilly revealed during his interview with ESPN 700 that he had issues with the program's partnership with a name, image, and likeness company.

Reilly reportedly put together a proposal that would help expand how they fundraise rather than relying on the same donors. Unfortunately for him, the company decided not to go in that direction, which led to his resignation.

Colorado's coaching staff has been a revolving door of staffers under Sanders. Former offensive coordinator Sean Lewis is now San Diego State's head coach after being demoted by Sanders in favor of Pat Shurmur last season. Former defensive coordinator Charles Kelly is now at Auburn working as a co-defensive coordinator. In addition to those two losses, former Colorado star quarterback Darian Hagan left his alma mater to work under Lewis as the running backs coach.

Sanders did add NFL Hall of Famer Warren Sapp as a graduate assistant, former NFL staffer Robert Livingston as his defensive coordinator and most recently added George Helow, who was special assistant to Nick Saban at Alabama in 2023.

According to Furlong , Reilly now lives in Hawaii.