Colorado is set to overhaul its offense with the addition of Brennan Marion, who is expected to leave his head-coaching stint at Sacramento State to join Deion Sanders’ staff as offensive coordinator. Marion, 38, revitalized Sac State in his lone season there and previously turned heads at UNLV, where his creative “Go-Go” scheme helped power one of the Mountain West’s most explosive attacks.

Meet Brennan Marion: American college football coach and former player 

Brennan Marion spent just one season at Sac State (7–5) and made enough noise to earn Deion Sanders’ attention. Marion has already informed his team that he’s heading to Boulder to take over as Colorado’s new OC, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

This makes Marion the third OC for Coach Prime in four years. The carousel has been spinning fast. In 2023, Sean Lewis arrived, got demoted midseason, and was replaced by Pat Shurmur. Then Shurmur held the job through 2024 and most of 2025. Due to his below-par performance, his play-calling duties were taken away as well. Now, the keys go to Marion.

With that, good days seem ahead for the Buffs, as Marion’s offense moves fast. At Sacramento State, he lit up the scoreboard, averaging 33.8 PPG, 20th in the FCS. Before that, the Hornets showed significant improvement in their first year under Marion, improving their win total by four games. But not only his offensive prowess, but his recruiting game also turned heads. While Sac State’s latest class ranked 77th nationally, Colorado sat at 103rd. That gap said it all.

However, the HC’s playing career went through a tough time. He left Pittsburgh after a turbulent childhood, and football became his anchor. Even when he had no housing and lived out of garbage bags in California, he refused to quit. He became a junior college All-American and earned a shot at Tulsa. Then he broke the NCAA record for yards per reception, but injuries robbed him of an NFL run with the Dolphins. After that, coaching became his second act.

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“Thank God for the ball that saved my life… football is what brought me family,” he said.

Marion spent 14 years bouncing across the country, sharpening his craft at high schools and major programs like Texas, Pitt, and UNLV. At Howard, he branded his fast-tempo, run-heavy scheme the “Go-Go” offense, inspired by the Go-Go music of Black D.C. artists.

Although his players laughed at the name at first, it made headlines. First with Howard’s shocking upset of UNLV, and later with UNLV’s back-to-back conference title game runs. Now he’s heading to lead the Buffs as OC, but first, know where this talent came from and how he reached this point.

Brennan Marion’s early life and background

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Marion dreamed of being a basketball star. But his mother had other plans.

“There’s no one who loves football more than my mom,” joked Marion. “She told me, ‘You get out of my house if you don’t like football!'” So he switched sports.

And his journey eventually took him across the country in pursuit of new opportunities. At 18, he landed in the Bay Area to play junior college football. Then he pushed through, becoming a JC All-American and earning a scholarship to Tulsa. There, he made waves, breaking an NCAA yards-per-catch record. But then, due to injuries, his NFL dream vanished. Still, he refused to break the connection with football, and that mindset pushed him into coaching.

Marion started small, helping high school kids. “I knew I could help kids, serve kids,” he said. But his offensive power play got attention, and soon, the CFB world came calling.

From Howard to Hawaii to Texas, and eventually UNLV and Sac State, Marion carried his “Go-Go” offense everywhere he went. Through it all, he kept hitting milestones.

Brennan Marion: career highlights and the birth of the “Go-Go” offense

Marion became the 13th head coach in Sac State history following his achievements with the “Go-Go” offense at UNLV. The Rebels went 19-8 in two seasons, setting a school scoring record with 36.2 PPG. Considering that, Marion earned a spot as a Mountain West Wire’s Coordinator of the Year and a Football Scoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year finalist.

Pro players like Kansas City Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy often referred to him as the “best coach” they’ve had around. That praise followed Marion as he rebooted offenses from Howard to UNLV. In 2017, his “Go-Go” scheme put Howard on the national map with the historic upset over UNLV. At Pitt, he coached Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison into a first-round NFL talent. Then in Texas, he helped shape Worthy, who became a first-round pick.

After that, at UNLV, his blueprint produced all-conference stars like Hajj-Malik Williams and Ricky White III. Now, when asked about the idea behind this innovative offense, Marion was candid.

“When I first got into high school coaching, I went to a school called Harker Academy, where it was just super wealthy, well-off kids that had never really didn’t have much football background,” said Marion on Thursday. “And that’s when I started trying things and getting curious. Just got immersed in trying to figure out, how do I create an offense where even if you don’t have the best players, you still have a chance to win game.”

While Marion’s approach still works, we’ll see how it fits with the Buffs. But none of his efforts came without a paycheck.

What is Brennan Marion’s net worth in 2025?

Despite a well-established coaching career, the contract details from Marion’s various stops haven’t been publicly disclosed. Now, because of that limited information, estimating his 2025 net worth is tricky. Still, his salary as UNLV’s OC was on a steady rise between 2022 and 2024.

According to USA Today, he earned $383,040 in 2024 as the Rebels’ OC. Then, his move to Sacramento State as head coach likely gave his finances a significant boost. Now the spotlight shifts to Colorado, where we’ll soon see what the Buffs are willing to invest in him for the future.