It didn’t end the way Darrin Chiaverini wanted.
In the coaching profession, though, that’s typically the norm. Receiving walking papers is far more common than getting carried off the field on the shoulders of your players after a championship win.
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For Chiaverini, the former Colorado player and coach who remains passionate for all matters black and gold, the adage that everything happens for a reason has proven prophetic. Denied a chance to lead the CU football program on a full-time basis in the wake of Mel Tucker’s abrupt departure in February of 2020, Chiaverini soon faced a personal reboot.
Chiaverini had to pick himself up off the turf and reinvent himself. And he’s done it with resounding success.
Currently in his third season as the head coach at Division II Northeastern State, Chiaverini has authored two dramatic turnarounds as a head coach, and also has found time to author a book, “Champions Think Differently,” set to be released Monday.
“Even though I feel strongly that I should’ve been the head coach after Mel left, I feel strongly I should’ve gotten an opportunity, but I think what’s been good about the journey from ’21 on is I’ve had a chance to develop as not only a better play-caller, but a head coach,” Chiaverini said. “It’s been a hard journey, because I had to go down and win and take another tough job and win.
“But I don’t think I’d change it. I’m such a better coach now, and I’m such a better play-caller and I’ve really developed as a coach because of all the adversity I had to go through. It made me bet on myself and be very creative in how I develop offenses.”
After starring for the Buffs as a receiver in the late 1990s and spending four years in the NFL, Chiaverini’s coaching journey eventually brought him back to his alma mater in 2016. He survived a tumultuous six-season tenure that included three full-time head coaches, his own brief stint as the interim head coach, the COVID season, and the program’s first winning season in 11 years when the Buffs went 10-4 and won the Pac-12 North Division in 2016.
Chiaverini served as offensive coordinator (or co-coordinator) in five of those six seasons. He was the recruiting coordinator in four of them, building a reputation as the sort of “player’s coach” who relates well to the younger generation.
Still, the reunion hit an unceremonious end. Chiaverini was named CU’s interim head coach when Tucker left, but athletic director Rick George soon gave the permanent job to Karl Dorrell. Chiaverini spent two more seasons as the Buffs’ offensive coordinator, including the pandemic-shortened 4-2 season of 2020, but Chiaverini left after a 4-8 campaign in 2021.
It was time for that reboot. And it began at UCLA.
Picking Chip’s Brain
A Southern California native, Chiaverini returned to his home turf to serve as an offensive analyst at UCLA under Chip Kelly in 2022. Chiaverini spent just one season at UCLA, but he credits the time with Kelly — long considered one of the game’s great offensive minds — for inspiring a greater willingness to adapt and revise the offensive schemes that mostly served Chiaverini well at CU.
“That year working with Chip Kelly was unbelievable,” Chiaverini said. “I think Chip Kelly is one of the smartest offensive minds in college football. And I got a chance to be on his staff and pick his brain, and we had conversations daily in the offensive staff room, and I really enjoyed that year. I wasn’t calling plays. I was just helping the offensive staff. That was a cool experience for me, and I’m grateful for that year at UCLA because I learned a lot with Chip, and I’ve used it a lot on my coaching journey.”
Chiaverini began his coaching career at Mt. San Antonio junior college in 2008, but after coaching at Texas Tech and CU, he believed his time working his way up from the bottom was in the past. Instead, in 2023 Chiaverini took a job at another junior college, Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California. He oversaw a dramatic turnaround, going 11-0 with a program that had gone a combined 2-18 in the previous two years.
Chiaverini took that blueprint to Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Revival
Chiaverini’s staff at Northeastern State has a CU influence. His son, Curtis, is Northeastern’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, while also following in his father’s footsteps as the program’s recruiting coordinator.
Former CU running back Jarek Broussard is a graduate assistant serving as the program’s running backs coach. With Chiaverini calling the plays, Broussard led the Pac-12 in rushing during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He’s had a front-row seat to watch his former offensive coordinator evolve into a head coach, and he describes Chiaverini in terms usually associated with CU’s current head coach.
“He’s like the coach that’s for the players — social media savvy, he’s got the swag, he brings the juice,” Broussard said. “When we were at Colorado, he was just the receivers coach and play-caller. Now, he has to be in charge of everything. Seeing his whole approach to things, and with me playing for multiple head coaches that I played for, the way he does it is the right way. He’s transparent with his guys. He allows the young coaches to coach. There’s no dictatorship, like my way or the highway. He pours into us, we pour into him, and I really enjoy working with him.”
Chiaverini once again led a dramatic turnaround, going 2-9 in his first season before going 9-3 last year, marking the program’s highest win total since 2000. He tried to capture the ups-and-downs of his playing career as well as his coaching journey in “Champions Think Differently,” a project he collaborated on with his daughter, Kaylie, that Chiaverini describes as part memoir, part mental performance manual. It’s available via Amazon on Monday.
Chiaverini has always been straightforward regarding his departure from CU. He’s equally so about his desire to get back into major college football, this time as a head coach.
“It’s developed me to a level that whatever my next opportunity is, I’m going to be ready for it,” Chiaverini said. “I know I’m good enough. It’s got to be the right situation, and you’ve got to have support. I think the one thing I can say about Northeastern State is we have a great president and a great athletic director who are very supportive. If the opportunity comes up that I have the support and the resources, there’s no question I know I can be successful.”
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