Former Bronco Quarterback, Assistant Coach to Raise Blue Chaos Flag Saturday

BOISE, Idaho – Former Boise State quarterback and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford will be making a return to The Blue at Albertsons Stadium Saturday as he will raise the Blue Chaos flag moments before Boise State kicks off against New Mexico.

Sanford spent four seasons in a Broncos uniform, seeing action in 29 games and completing 55.3% of his passes for 346 yards.

He graduated from Boise State and went on to coach college football for the past 18 seasons, including spending the 2014 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Broncos, his first career role as offensive coordinator. That season, he helped guide the Broncos to a 12-2 record, won the Mountain West championship, defeated Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 16.

Also the school's quarterback coach, he tutored Grant Hedrick, who led the FBS in completion percentage (70.8), while ranking seventh in passing yards per attempt (8.91), ninth in passing efficiency (157.2), 13th in passing yardage (3,696) and 14th in total offense per game (306.3). During that year he recruited current NFL quarterback Brett Rypien to the Treasure Valley.

While Sanford's development of quarterbacks is well documented, his work with Boise State running back Jay Ajayi is just as if not even more notable. In Sanford's explosive offense, Ajayi led the FBS in scoring (13.7 points per game) and became the only player in FBS history to record 1,800 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards in a single season. Ajayi set Boise State single-season records for rushing yards (1,823), rushing touchdowns (28), all-purpose yards (2,358) and carries (347). He would go on to play five seasons in the NFL after being selected by Miami in the fifth round of the draft, and would be named to the Pro Bowl after rushing for 1,272 yards in 2016.

Sanford went on to become the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame before getting the head coaching job at Western Kentucky. Following his time in Bowling Green, Kentucky, he spent a year as offensive coordinator at Utah State before spending two seasons at offensive coordinator at Minnesota. Last year, he served as offensive coordinator at Colorado before being named interim head coach of the Buffaloes.

His coaching career began at UNLV where he was a graduate assistant under his father, Mike Sanford Sr. The Boise State product went on to coach at Stanford and Yale, as well as a year as an assistant at WKU, before returning home to Boise for the 2014 campaign.

While on The Farm, he recruited Christian McCaffrey to Stanford. His vast resume includes personally coaching almost every position at one time or another on offense, in addition to experience as a recruiting coordinator and two years as a head coach (at Western Kentucky). He has coached and/or recruited numerous players who have earned All-America honors and have gone on to play professionally in the National Football League.

Sanford is set to raise the Blue Chaos flag at 8:03 p.m., just two minutes prior to the 8:05 p.m. kickoff.

For complete coverage of Boise State Football, download the Bronco Sports App or follow the team on social media on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X.

-BroncoSports.com-

Boise State Athletics

Former Bronco Quarterback, Assistant Coach to Raise Blue Chaos Flag Saturday

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