Former Colorado football staffer Trevor Reilly, who last season was in charge of the Buffs’ special teams, recently resigned from his position over what he says were disagreements with the program’s plan to become a bigger player in the name, image and likeness (NIL) space dominating this era of college athletics.

In an interview with ESPN 700 in Salt Lake City this week, Reilly criticized CU’s partnership with Blueprint Sports, which helped launch the “5430 Alliance” in a move that combined the two previous main entities in the NIL efforts in Boulder.

“These people were brought in to help run the business side and they made a bunch of promises, but really it seemed like all they did was cash checks and they went after the same donors,” Reilly said on ESPN 700. “Blueprint (Sports) stinks. They got fired from Utah. They don’t know football. Football is a different language. It’s just a different animal. You don’t go home at 5 o’clock. Weekends? We work on Saturdays and Sundays. They stink for our business. Maybe they’re good for somebody else.

“I don’t like these guys. I think they’re weak.”

Reilly, who starred on defense at Utah from 2009-13 and earned All-American and All-Pac-12 honors in his final season, went to CU after spending two seasons as a graduate assistant on Deion Sanders’ staff at Jackson State, which was the start of his coaching career after he spent parts of five seasons playing in the NFL.

After the Buffs’ loss to Reilly’s alma mater, Utah, in the season finale last season, Reilly didn’t return to Boulder with the team. Instead, he said he tried to use some of his contacts from his time at Utah to find a way for the Buffs to be bigger players in the NIL space.

“When Deion got to Boulder, they had a couple hundred thousand dollars in NIL money,” Reilly said. “By the end of that season, it was up to about six million, give or take about a few hundred thousand. That’s the emotion he brought right off the rip and that’s coming from Jackson State. The problem becomes, what are we gonna do next? As you know, $6 million is gonna be what San Diego State’s going to be spending in the next couple years.

“You start bringing up national championships and conference championships, that’s not really a thing. (It’s the) Oakland A’s versus the New York Yankees. It’s possible, (but) highly unlikely.”

That’s apparently where Reilly’s offseason took an interesting turn.

“That’s when I ended up going to the Middle East,” he said. “I ended up being in Amman, Jordan, (on) Christmas. I had an opportunity to go over there and meet with their government. Then I went to Saudi Arabia. I met with (the Saudi Public Investment Fund) for an hour and a half and we had a great meeting.

“This is a new type of atmosphere we’re in and not everybody knows what to do. There’s not really any rules, the rules change and when you don’t have Texas (or) LSU type of backing, you have to find ways to get some freakin’ money together. You gotta make a dollar out of 15 cents if you’re gonna compete with these guys, which is what we did at Utah. I know the blueprint of how to do this.”

This is where Reilly’s disagreements lie and apparently why he resigned from the CU staff.

“I put together a bunch of proposals,” Reilly said. “I got a bunch of millionaires involved, burned through all my Mormon contacts and these guys decided to go another way. So I resigned. They were paying me pennies; $90,000 a year in Boulder will get you on the poverty line with three kids. I don’t agree with the direction with what they’re doing with their money. I don’t think it’s a sustainable model for success.”

Reilly said his animosity is not toward Coach Prime. Reilly said Sanders understood when Reilly told him he’d be resigning earlier this month. He even compared Sanders to his college coach, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, who is highly respected and one of the longest-tenured coaches in college football.

“Deion’s awesome,” Reilly said. “Whenever you have a bright shining star, you’re gonna have people who are gonna pick him apart. He has flaws just like the rest of us, but I always tell people there’s a lot more good that comes out of this guy than bad and I’ve seen the guy for three or four years. (Sanders and Whittingham) are not much different in the way they operate.

“They have different styles of communicating, but at the end of the day, they know how to win and they expect their coworkers and they expect their players to give their best efforts to win. Deion wants to win and he wants to help kids. I loved working for the guy.”

Reilly said he’s since moved to Hawaii, where he’s taking time away from football after he’s “been volunteering my time to football for the better part of 10 years.” CU has seemingly filled Reilly’s spot on staff with former Michigan linebackers coach George Helow, who has also spent time on staff at Colorado State, Maryland, Alabama, Georgia and Florida State.

Helow is officially a senior defensive assistant and was seen working with CU linebackers during a recent Well Off Media video posted by Deion Sanders Jr.

Reilly said he’ll be rooting for the Buffs.

“Colorado’s gonna be improved because they have the two best players in the league,” Reilly said. “I think they’ve got a better defense this year. These guys are gonna be aggressive, (and) they’re gonna stop the run. This is a better team.”