Vonn Bell will be joining Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes football coaching staff as safeties coach ahead of the 2026 season. Bell retired from active play following the 2024 NFL season with the Cincinnati Bengals and took a gap year in 2025.
Now, he's going to be in a diminished spotlight in Boulder, where the "Prime Time" story has faded from national relevancy following a 3-9 season this past fall. Worse yet, he's replacing someone who made a name for himself at CU, molding cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter into a Heisman-winning DB as the defensive coordinator/safeties coach.
That'd be Robert Livingston, who's now Sean Payton's defensive pass game coordinator with the Denver Broncos, and someone Bell played for during their shared time with the Bengals. Bell will replace Livingston as safeties coach, while Chris Marve, who also took a gap year in 2025, joins the Buffs as the new defensive coordinator after serving as the Virginia Tech Hokies' defensive coordinator/linebackers coach from 2022-2024.
Colorado was awful defensively during Coach Prime's first year in 2023. The Buffs' defense took a major step forward in 2024, though, with safeties Cam'Ron Silmon-Craig, Shilo Sanders, and Carter Stoutmire among the most important defenders on the team. CU ended up 9-3 that year and may never sniff that success again.
Even though the Buffs regressed to 3-9, the pass defense maintained a top-50 ranking. If Bell can't uphold that standard, Coach Prime may be a lame duck head coach.
Von Bell could build case to be hired by Ohio State football
On the flip side, if Bell can perform as well as Livingston, there could perhaps be a future with the Ohio State University's football program. After winning a title in 2014/2015 as one of the Buckeyes' top all-time performers in the secondary, Bell will always be highly regarded in Columbus.
Succeed under the Sanders spotlight and help revive a brand everybody in College Football has written off, and Bell should have a few pay raises lined up.
We all know Bell bleeds Scarlet and Gray, so let's hope it works out and he's back home where he belongs sooner rather than later.