Ed McCaffrey hired as Northern Colorado head football coach

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GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — Three-time Super Bowl champion Ed McCaffrey is the new head football coach at Northern Colorado.

"I am excited to be joining the University of Northern Colorado as their Head Football Coach!" McCaffrey announced on Instagram, and the school confirmed his hiring minutes later via a news release.

A news conference to formally introduce McCaffrey as the program's 16th head coach was scheduled for Friday. He replaces Earnest Collins Jr., who went 28-72 in nine seasons in Greeley, including 2-10 this season.

The Bears are a member of the FCS's Big Sky Conference.

McCaffrey, who won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos and one with the San Francisco 49ers during his 14-year NFL career, spent the last two years as head football coach at powerhouse Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, where his sons Max, Christian, Dylan and Luke all played.

Christian McCaffrey is the star running back for the Carolina Panthers, who drafted him eighth overall out of Stanford in 2017. His older brother, Max, was a wide receiver at Duke who played two seasons in the NFL, with the Jaguars in 2017 and the 49ers in 2018.

Dylan is a quarterback at Michigan and Luke is a QB at Nebraska.

“Thank you Valor Christian High School for all the wonderful memories you helped create for me and my family,” Ed McCaffrey wrote on Instagram. “Especially the last two years where I was blessed to coach some of the smartest and hardest working young men in the country. I'm so proud of our players and the amazing coaching staff who joined me for the past two years. I am very excited to bring the same passion to this new opportunity with the UNC Bears."