New Colonel football special teams coordinator and safeties coach, Ricky Brumfield, brings experience to the Colonel sideline.

Brumfield, a New Orleans native, earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Utah State University where he lettered four years and started two years as a wide receiver. During his stint with the Aggies, the team won two Big West Conference Championships and earned a berth to the Humanitarian Bowl in 1997.

After completing his eligibility at Utah State, Brumfield began his coaching career in 2001 at Union College, serving as special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach while earning his master’s degree in secondary education.

From there, Brumfield went on to coach the wide receivers and special teams at Fairmont State University for seven seasons. In 2010 his special teams were ranked No. 1 in their conference.

In 2006, Brumfield completed an internship with the Pittsburgh Steelers through a minority fellowship program developed to help minorities get into the NFL.  After completing the internship, the receiver coach that Brumfield worked with during his internship was given the offensive coordinator position with the Steelers and allowed Brumfield to continue to volunteer with the team the following summer.

From there, volunteer opportunities opened up to Brumfield with other NFL teams.

“Being with the Steelers helped me get with the other ones,” Brumfield said. “In ‘06 I was with the Steelers, in ‘07 I was with the Atlanta Falcons, ‘08 the Green Bay Packers, ‘09 the St. Louis Rams and 2010 with the Buffalo Bills.”

Brumfield worked with wide receivers and special teams during the five summers he worked with various NFL teams.

“Those experiences helped me bring together what I’m doing here with the special teams’ schemes and just coaching different positions and drills,” Brumfield said. “It helped out a lot with all that.”

Despite his immense amount of experience as a college football player and his varied levels of coaching experience, Brumfield insists it is his passion that makes him the coach he is.

“I’m not saying that I have more passion than the next man, but I just think my passion and my hate to lose mentality really separate me,” Brumfield said.

Though there are many facets of being a coach, Brumfield enjoys giving life lessons to his players the most.

“I enjoy being able to help kids be young men,” Brumfield said. “Obviously I love football, but being able to teach somebody something that they’re going to be able to use for the rest of their life is my favorite thing about coaching.”

Being a former college football player, Brumfield’s own experiences as an athlete are ones that he can transfer to his players. “Nothing worth having ever comes easy,” Brumfield said. “You have to work hard for everything you want. Nobody wins a conference championship by just taking it easy.”

It is with this mentality that Brumfield hopes to one day accomplish his goal of winning two back- to-back conference championships with the Colonels.  

Until then, Brumfield is just happy to be back in his home state of Louisiana with his wife Erin and their four children.