Mike Sanford Jr.
Mike Sanford Jr. went 10–22 as a head coach, 2017–2022, at Western Kentucky and Colorado. Share
- Record
- 10–22 career
- Seasons
- 3
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Feb 4, 1982
- Alma mater
- Boise State 2005
- Best season
- 2017 6–7
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Western Kentucky | 6–7 | T–3rd (East) | Cure Bowl L | ||
| 2018 | Western Kentucky | 3–9 | T–6th (East) | |||
| 2019–21: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2022 | Colorado interim, remainder of season | 1–6 | T–11th | |||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 5 | 0–5 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 3 | 0–3 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 4 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Conference games | 23 | 7–16 | 30% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 12 | 5–7 | 42% |
| At home | 15 | 6–9 | 40% |
| On the road | 16 | 4–12 | 25% |
| At neutral sites | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 18 | 8–10 | 44% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 14 | 2–12 | 14% |
His own 32 games on file, 2017–2022, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Ball Stateseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| UTEPseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Old Dominionseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Louisiana Techseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Middle Tennesseeseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Charlotteseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Marshallseries | 2 | 0–2 |
| Florida Atlanticseries | 2 | 0–2 |
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005–06 | UNLV | Graduate assistant | |
| 2007–08 | Stanford | Offensive assistant | |
| 2009 | Yale | Recruiting coordinator and tight ends and fullbacks coach | |
| 2010 | Western Kentucky | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2011 | Stanford | Running backs coach | |
| 2012 | Stanford | Recruiting coordinator and running backs coach | |
| 2013 | Stanford | Recruiting coordinator and quarterbacks and wide receivers coach | |
| 2014 | Boise State | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2015–16 | Notre Dame | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2017–18 | Western Kentucky | Head coach | |
| 2019 | Utah State | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2020–21 | Minnesota | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2022 | Colorado | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2022 | Colorado | Interim head coach | |
| 2025–present | Valor Christian HS (CO) high school | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Mike Sanford Sr.UNLV
- Jim HarbaughStanford
- Tom WilliamsYale
- Willie TaggartWestern Kentucky
- David ShawStanford
- Bryan HarsinBoise State
- Brian KellyNotre Dame
- Gary AndersenUtah State
- P.J. FleckMinnesota
- Karl DorrellColorado
Assistants who became head coaches
- Mike Sanford Sr.UNLV, Indiana State
- Brian CabralColorado
- Clay PattersonNortheastern Oklahoma A&M
Worked under (10)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Sanford Sr. | UNLV | 2005–06 | Graduate assistant | |
| Jim Harbaugh | Stanford | 2007–08 | Offensive assistant | |
| Tom Williams | Yale | 2009 | Recruiting coordinator and tight ends and fullbacks coach | |
| Willie Taggart | Western Kentucky | 2010 | Quarterbacks coach | |
| David Shaw | Stanford | 2011–13 | 2011: running backs coach; 2012: recruiting coordinator and running backs coach; 2013: recruiting coordinator and quarterbacks and wide receivers coach | |
| Bryan Harsin | Boise State | 2014 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Brian Kelly | Notre Dame | 2015–16 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Gary Andersen | Utah State | 2019 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| P.J. Fleck | Minnesota | 2020–21 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Karl Dorrell | Colorado | 2022 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (3)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Sanford Sr. | Western Kentucky, 2017–18: running backs and special teams coach | UNLV, Indiana State | |
| Brian Cabral | Colorado, 2022: character coach | Colorado | |
| Clay Patterson | Colorado, 2022: tight ends coach; 2022: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | Northeastern Oklahoma A&M |
Other assistants under him (7)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Clayton White | Western Kentucky, 2017–18: defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach | |
| Junior Adams | Western Kentucky, 2017–18: offensive coordinators and wide receivers coach | |
| Maurice Crum Jr. | Western Kentucky, 2017–18: linebackers coach | |
| Ryan Mahaffey | Western Kentucky, 2017–18: tight ends coach | |
| Steve Spurrier Jr. | Western Kentucky, 2017: assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach | |
| Chris Wilson | Colorado, 2022: defensive coordinator and defensive line coach | |
| Gerald Chatman | Colorado, 2022: defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Western Kentucky | head coachbonuses up to $400,000; buyout $1,266,667 | $800,000 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Sanford’s teams went for it on 25% of fourth downs and on 41% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 59% of plays and took 23.6 seconds a play, 2017–2018.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 13 g | 27 of 99 27% | 52% | 65% | 23.5 | +0.02 | |
| 2018 12 g | 24 of 106 23% | 27% | 53% | 23.8 | −0.05 | |
| All 25 g | 51 of 205 25% | 41% | 59% | 23.6 | −0.01 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.