Chiefs’ Bieniemy says he hasn’t been contacted about coaching vacancy at Colorado

Eric Bieniemy knows there’s chatter connecting him to the Colorado football coaching vacancy.

But just because the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator is landing on lists of potential candidates to succeed fired coach Mike MacIntyre doesn’t mean Bieniemy is leaving his NFL post for his alma mater.

“Have I heard talks? Yeah,” Bieniemy said Thursday. “Do those talks concern me? No. The only thing that matters is practice today. The only thing that matters is preparing for the Oakland Raiders. The only thing that matters is helping our team go out and win. So all that stuff, Coach talked about it since Day 1. Eliminate distractions. That’s what we’re about as a team, as a staff and as an organization.”

Bieniemy, who was a running back for the Buffs from 1987-90 and was a member of the 1990 national championship team, said he hadn’t been contacted by the program about the opening. In the midst of his first season as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Bieniemy has two previous coaching stints at Colorado, including a year as CU’s offensive coordinator that immediately preceded his tenure with the Chiefs. He was also the Buffs’ running backs coach from 2001-02.

In the midst of a 9-2 season with the Chiefs, the timing of the Colorado job is less than ideal. Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who has a history of producing head coaches from his tree of assistants, isn’t worried about the tough decisions that Bieniemy or any of his assistants could face this time of year with the college coaching carousel ramping up.

“You don’t know exactly who’s going or coming or anything else right now,” Reid said. “I don’t spend much time worrying about that or navigating that. I just haven’t spent much time with that at all over the years.”

Brooke Pryor

Brooke Pryor covers the Kansas City Chiefs and NFL for The Star.

This story was originally published November 29, 2018 at 5:15 PM.