Mike Sanford is speaking into a different kind of microphone this fall.

The former interim head football coach at CU and longtime college offensive coordinator is getting back into the coaching world as he was announced as the new coach at Valor Christian.

He takes over for Brett McGatlin, who stepped away from the program earlier this winter.

Sanford came to Colorado as a member of Karl Dorrell’s staff in the 2022 season. He was hired as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator following two years at Minnesota where he held the same position.

He has additional head coaching experience outside of seven games with the Buffs. He was the head coach at Western Kentucky from 2017-18. His resumé is beyond solid as he played at Boise State from 2000-04 before entering the coaching ranks. His stops include UNLV, Yale, Stanford, Boise State, Notre Dame and Utah State on top of Western Kentucky, Minnesota and Colorado.

When Deion Sanders was hired as the Buffs coach in December of 2022, Sanford was not retained on staff. He since jumped into the media world where he became a fixture on Altitude Sports Radio and as an analyst for local TV stations.

He’ll be tasked with returning the Eagles to the championship level of play they’ve become accustomed to.

Valor last played in the Class 5A state championship game in 2022, losing to Cherry Creek 24-17. For the Eagles, it was the third straight loss to the Bruins in the title game in as many years.

In 2023, the Eagles came into the state tournament as the No. 7 seed, but lost to No. 10 Legend in their first game of the postseason. This last fall, they reached the semifinals as the No. 5 seed but lost to Cherry Creek 42-17.

That marked the first time that the Eagles had failed to play for a state championship in back-to-back seasons since winning their first state title in 2009.

In 2017 and 2019, Valor lost to in the semifinals. The 2017 loss to was to Grandview and the 2019 loss was to Columbine. After each of those losses, the head coach (Rod Sherman and Ed McCaffrey) did not return the following year.

Sanford now has the task of catching the Eagles up with Dave Logan’s Cherry Creek program. The Bruins have been the dominant football team in Colorado since 2019, winning five of the last six 5A football titles.