Marvin Sanders (born October 2, 1967) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach. He is the

defensive backs In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

coach for the

Arlington Renegades The Arlington Renegades are a professional American football team based in Arlington, Texas. The Renegades compete in the United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team was founded as the Dallas Renegades by Vince McMah ...

of the United Football League (UFL). He is also the

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator (DC) is a coach responsible for a gridiron football team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's coaching structure, wit ...

and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

s coach for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (the joint intercollegiate sports program of

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergra ...

, and

Scripps College Scripps College is a private liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1926, a year after the consortium's formation. Journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps pr ...

), positions he has held since 2021.

Playing career

Sanders played as a

for the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

from 1985 through 1989, earning a letter in each of his last three years. He graduated in 1990 with a

Bachelor's Degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

Business Administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

Coaching career

Sanders began his

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

career as an assistant coach for

Nebraska Wesleyan University Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) is a private Methodist-affiliated university in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2017, it had approximately 2,100 students, including 1,500 full-time students and 300 ...

just two years after he graduated from Nebraska, putting in two years as the Secondary Coach for the Prairie Wolves football team. He was appointed to continue as a Secondary Coach as well as Sports Information Director for the

University of Minnesota Morris The University of Minnesota Morris (UMN–Morris) is a public liberal arts college in Morris, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and was founded in 1960 as a public, co-educational, residential liberal a ...

Morris, Minnesota Morris is a city and the county seat of Stevens County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,105 at the 2020 census. Morris is surrounded by some of the nation's richest agricultural land, and agribusiness is important to the local ...

for the 1994 season, and then returned to the State of Nebraska as the Secondary Coach for the

Mavericks Maverick or Maveric may refer to: History * Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick Aviation * AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design * General Aviation Design Bureau T-32 Ma ...

at the

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) is a public university, public research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (Omaha, Nebraska), Omaha Presbyterian Theological ...

for 1995. UNO promoted Sanders to

Defensive Coordinator A defensive coordinator (DC) is a coach responsible for a gridiron football team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's coaching structure, wit ...

in 1997. During his five-year tenure with the Mavericks, the team won two

North Central Conference The North Central Conference (NCC), also known as North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, was a college athletic conference which operated in the north central United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division II. History The NCC ...

championships, and made two appearances in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). From 1978 to 2005, the game was ca ...

playoffs. Sanders was hired into his first

Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

football coaching position in 2000, when he was named by

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

Head Football Coach and fellow Nebraska alum

Tony Samuel Marlon Anthony Samuel (born November 14, 1955) is an American college football coach and former player. He served as head football coach at New Mexico State University (NMSU) from 1997 to 2004 and Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) from ...

as the

Defensive Ends Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

and Outside Linebackers Coach for the Aggies. The following season,

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

Head Football Coach

Sonny Lubick Louis Matthew "Sonny" Lubick (born March 12, 1937) is a retired American football coach. He was the 15th head football coach at Colorado State University from 1993 to 2007. Lubick won or shared six Western Athletic Conference or Mountain West Co ...

named Sanders as the Secondary Coach for the

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)2001 New Orleans Bowl The 2001 New Orleans Bowl featured the North Texas Mean Green and the Colorado State Rams. It was the inaugural playing of the bowl game. North Texas became the first team in NCAA college football history to play in a bowl after starting their se ...

. The 2002 season saw an improvement to 10-4 and a

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

championship, though the Rams ended the season with a 3-17 loss to in the .

Nebraska under Frank Solich

Nebraska Head Football Coach

Frank Solich Frank Thomas Solich (born September 8, 1944) is a former American college football coach and former player. He is the former head coach at Ohio University, a position he held from 2005 until 2021. From 1998 to 2003, Solich served as the head coa ...

brought Sanders back to Lincoln in 2003 amidst a staff shakeup following the

Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference and ...

' first non-winning season since 1961. Sanders was now in charge of the defensive backs at Nebraska, where 47 takeaways on the season set a new school record, and the Nebraska

Blackshirts The Voluntary Militia for National Security (, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts (, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party, known as the Squadrismo, and after 1923 an all-vo ...

set new school and league records with 32 interceptions, the nation's highest-ranked pass efficiency defense, and the nation's second-best scoring defense. Despite the turnaround, Solich was fired after finishing the regular season 9-3. Nebraska Defensive Coordinator

Bo Pelini Mark Anthony "Bo" Pelini (born December 13, 1967) is a former American football coach and former player. He was most recently the defensive coordinator for the LSU Tigers football, Louisiana State University Tigers football team. He is the youn ...

subsequently led the team to a 17-3 victory over

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

in the

2003 Alamo Bowl The 2003 Alamo Bowl was an American football bowl game between the Michigan State Spartans and the Nebraska Cornhuskers played December 29, 2003 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. In a defensive game, Nebraska scored first, leading 3–0 on ...

to finish the team's season at 10-3, but he and Sanders, along with nearly all of the remaining staff, were let go after Bill Callahan was appointed as Nebraska's 31st Head Football Coach.

North Carolina

Sanders was named as co-Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Backs Coach at the struggling

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

for 2004. After finishing just 2-10 in 2003 before his arrival, Sanders helped the

Tar Heels Tar Heel (or Tarheel) is a nickname applied to the U.S. state of North Carolina and its people. It is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams, students, alumni, and fans. The origins of the Tar Heel nickname trace ba ...

improve to a 6-6 (5-3 ACC) record and posting the lowest yards allowed by a UNC defense in three years. Under Sanders direction, UNC improved over 60 spots nationally in total defense. UNC Head Football Coach John Bunting was fired halfway through the 2006 season, and replaced by

Butch Davis Paul Hilton "Butch" Davis Jr. (born November 17, 1951) is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Florida International University. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he became an assistant coll ...

for 2007. Davis did not retain Sanders in his new staff.

Nebraska under Bo Pelini

After a one-year absence from coaching, Sanders was again brought back to Nebraska following the firing of Bill Callahan after a four-year record of 27-22. Callahan's replacement was former Nebraska Defensive Coordinator Bo Pelini, who had also been let go along with most of Frank Solich's staff after 2003. Pelini installed Sanders as the Secondary Coach for the Cornhuskers as part of his effort to turn around a program that had struggled under Callahan. Nebraska's Blackshirts defense improved to rank as the second best in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

in 2008 after languishing near the bottom of the pack nationally in the years prior. In 2009, two of Sanders' players were named to the All-Big 12 first team, and the Nebraska secondary was among the highest ranked in the nation with the highest-rated pass defense and highest-rated scoring defense, and among the top ten nationally in rushing defense, sacks, and total defense. The 2009 Nebraska secondary intercepted 18 times while only allowing seven touchdown passes all season. Sanders resigned from Nebraska on February 3, 2011, citing personal and family reasons.

USC Trojans

After agreeing to be FAU's defensive coordinator under new head coach

Carl Pelini Carl Anthony Pelini (born July 15, 1965) is an American football coach. He served as defensive coordinator at Youngstown State University for the 2019 season. Pelini previously served as the head coach of Florida Atlantic from 2012 to 2013. He ...

(Bo's brother) on December 5, 2011, Sanders left to become the USC Trojans defensive backs coach on February 12, 2012 under head coach

Lane Kiffin Lane Monte Kiffin (born May 9, 1975) is an American football coach who is the head coach at Ole Miss Rebels football, Ole Miss. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at USC Trojans football, USC from 2005 to 2006, head coach of the National Foo ...

. USC had gone through the whole 2011 season without a defensive backs coach as former coach Willie Mack Garza left days before the season opened stemming from his connection to Willie Lyles while at Tennessee. Sanders was the first coach hired by Pelini, as the Owls defensive coordinator. As per USC policy being a private school, Sanders financial agreement was not released. Pelini praised Sanders when he announced the hiring, saying they shared the same philosophy and that he had been the only candidate for the job. Sanders was relieved of his duties at USC after the school hired Clancy Pendergast to be their defensive coordinator.

Loyola

Sanders was officially hired as the head coach of one of the top high school football programs in the state of California,

Loyola High School of Los Angeles Loyola High School is a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory high school for boys in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was established in 1865 and is part of the Society of Jesus. It is the oldest continuously run educational ...

, on February 24, 2013. In four years, he accumulated a 20–22 record and 1–1 in the CIF Division 1 playoffs. Prior to the 2017 season, Loyola and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' announced Sanders would not return to lead the Cubs' football program as the head coach.

Dallas Renegades

After one season as defensive coordinator of the

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team represents Coastal Carolina University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Chanticleers are members of the Sun Belt Conference, fielding its teams at the ...

team, Sanders joined the XFL's

Dallas Renegades The Arlington Renegades are a professional American football team based in Arlington, Texas. The Renegades compete in the United Football League (2024), United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team was founded as the D ...

in 2019 as defensive backs coach. In 2023 XFL announced Coach Sanders reunited with

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Arlington Renegades of the United Football League (UFL). He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through ...

and rejoined the staff for the 2023 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Marvin 1967 births Living people American football defensive backs Arlington Renegades coaches Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football coaches Colorado State Rams football coaches Dallas Renegades coaches Florida Atlantic Owls football coaches Minnesota Morris Cougars football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football players Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves football coaches Nebraska–Omaha Mavericks football coaches New Mexico State Aggies football coaches North Carolina Tar Heels football coaches USC Trojans football coaches High school football coaches in California Players of American football from Chicago