Football
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
- Title:
- Defensive Graduate Assistant Coach
Chidera Uzo-Diribe is in is in his fourth year on the Colorado football staff, his third as a graduate assistant working with the defense. He initially joined the staff as a recruiting intern, named to the position on July 13, 2015 and in the process, returned to his alma mater.
Uzo-Diribe, 26, participated in the Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship program in the summer of 2018 with the San Francisco 49ers. The program was initially created by Walsh as a way to get minority coaches more opportunities to learn, coupled with greater exposure to job opportunities.
He was a four-year letterman at defensive end for the Buffaloes, and graduated from CU in December 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Communication. He finished his career tied for sixth in quarterback sacks (20), tied for 17th in tackles for loss (31) and second in forced fumbles (10); his percentage of solo tackles (99) to overall tackles (118), or 83.9 percent, is the highest in CU history.
He signed with the New Orleans Saints as a free agent, and was one of the last to be waived during their training camp.
As a senior team captain, he earned first-team All-Colorado honors from the state’s chapter of the National Football Foundation, was named CU’s Defensive Trench Award winner and played in the East-West Shrine game. For the season, he was in on 46 tackles (36 solo), with 11 for losses including four quarterback sacks; he had seven tackles for zero gain, meaning he had 18 total stops at or behind the line of scrimmage. He was second in the nation in forced fumbles with five, and he also batted down four passes in 739 snaps of action. He was one of 27 players on the final watch list for the Ted Hendricks Award (defensive end of the year), and was one of 76 players on the official preseason watch list for the Bednarik Award.
He was born May 30, 1992 in Long Beach, Calif., and graduated from Corona High School where he lettered in football, basketball and track and field. A cousin is Osi Umenyiora, the second round choice of the New York Giants in the 2003 NFL Draft; in 10 seasons with the Giants, he appeared in two Pro Bowls and was a member of the 2008 Super Bowl champion team; he spent the last two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons. Another cousin, Charles Saseun, was a sprinter at Cal-Berkeley.
