Colorado announces hiring of Rod Chance as new cornerbacks coach
One week after losing its cornerbacks coach to Oregon, Colorado went out and hired Oregon’s former cornerbacks coach.
The Buffaloes announced on Friday they had hired Rod Chance to replace the departed Demetrice Martin. Chance spent the previous two seasons on Mario Cristobal’s Oregon staff, but was not retained by new UO head coach Dan Lanning.
Welcome to Boulder, @Coach_Chance 🤝
📝 https://t.co/TkmPWGod9O#GoBuffs | #CUlture pic.twitter.com/M4TRnsqVCS
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) December 31, 2021
Chance, 37, first crossed paths with CU head coach Karl Dorrell at Vanderbilt in 2014, when he was a defensive quality control assistant and Dorrell the Commodores’ offensive coordinator. In 2016, Chance landed at Southern Utah as the program’s defensive coordinator. He was a defensive analyst at Oregon in 2018, then a corners coach at Minnesota in 2019 before heading back to Eugene.
“Rod comes to us as a coach that can develop our corners and impact our defense right away,” Dorrell said in a release from the program. “He is known as a developer, a strong recruiter and has the defensive knowledge to help our secondary improve and play at a high level.”
Chance was key in recruiting top-150 cornerbacks and 4-star prospects in Avante Dickerson (2021), Jaylin Davies (2021), and Jalil Tucker (2022) while at Oregon.
“I’m excited and privileged to join such a great staff of good people,” Chance said. “I am looking forward to get right to work and help the foundation that’s being built in Boulder. At Vanderbilt, I had the privilege of learning and developing under Coach Dorrell and Coach (Brett) Maxie (CU’s secondary coach) and it’s exciting to be reuniting with them. I want to thank coach and athletic director Rick George for having the faith in me for this opportunity.”
Chance is the second addition to the CU staff this week. On Thursday, Dorrell announced the hiring of former USC assistant Vic So’oto to serve as the Buffs’ new defensive line coach. The arrivals of both would seem to indicate at least one more move is on the way. Colorado is now carrying 11 full-time assistants—six on defense alone. FBS teams are allowed to have 10 on staff.
Defensive coordinator Chris Wilson will remain with the program but he won’t coach the defensive line in 2022. It wasn’t immediately specified what position he’d coach.