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Deion Sanders, Colorado officially name defensive coordinator with SEC experience
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Deion Sanders and Colorado on Tuesday made the hiring of Charles Kelly as defensive coordinator and safeties coach official.
Kelly joins Sanders’ initial staff in Boulder after 3 seasons at Alabama, where he was the associate head coach and safeties coach. That was preceded by a stint at Tennessee, where he was the special teams coordinator while coaching safeties.
The 55-year-old has plenty of experience at both the high school and college levels. After graduating from Auburn, the former Tigers DB was an assistant coach at Phenix City (Ala.) Central before returning to Auburn as a graduate assistant. He then served on Jacksonville State’s staff for 5 seasons before a stint at Henderson State as defensive coordinator.
Following a stop back in the high school ranks at Eufaula (Ala.) for 2 seasons, Kelly returned to the college sidelines at Nicholls State, Georgia Tech, and Florida State before heading to Knoxville and then Tuscaloosa. At Alabama, he helped guide Jordan Battle to back-to-back All-SEC 1st-team honors in 2021 and 2022. In 2022, DeMarcco Hellams was the Tide’s leading tackler, ranking 5th in the SEC in that department.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
