The Colorado Buffaloes lost their defensive pass-rush coordinator this offseason after Warren Sapp resigned in good faith to pursue other opportunities. The program has now picked Sapp’s replacement almost four months after his exit, and he joins Coach Prime and Chris Marve from the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Per CBSSports’ Matt Zenitz, the program is set to hire Xavier Adibi as its defensive ends coach. Adibi is a former NFL linebacker who is joining the program from Virginia Tech. He was also a defensive coordinator at Texas A&M-Commerce previously. The move for him would reunite him with defensive coordinator Chris Marve, with whom he worked as a linebackers coach.

Ahead of the 2026 season, Coach Prime has been on a revamping of the Buffaloes’ defensive coaching staff, and Adibi’s hire has become one of the products of that move. After a 3-9 season, Deion Sanders hired former Virginia Tech DC and linebackers coach Chris Marve as the linebackers coach of the Buffs. But the real new look came when defensive coordinator Robert Livingston left the program for the NFL, joining the Denver Broncos. As a result, Marve was promoted to become the program’s DC and linebackers coach.

Marve’s promotion was definitely the main factor that made Adibi’s hire a possibility. Alibi was a Virginia Tech linebacker who was selected in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He became a coach after his brief NFL career. He rejoined Virginia Tech a year after he became a Virginia Tech Hall of Famer, with Brent Pry hiring him as a defensive analyst under Marve. And in such a short while, he became the linebackers coach. Alibi’s undeniable talent is why he has continued to grow through the ranks.

During his college days, he earned first-team AFCA All-American and first-team All-ACC honors in 2007, after earning second-team All-ACC honors in 2006. In his final two seasons with the program, he totaled over 200 tackles.

Ever since Sapp stepped down from his role with the Buffaloes, he has moved from one controversy to another, with public officials as his main target. So far, there are many indications to prove that the many opportunities he left Boulder for were his new hobbies of visiting public offices to make public record requests. Because, other than his widely publicized altercation with public officials, and his recent court appearance, there has been no other opportunity evident with Sapp.

Warren Sapp’s clashes

Warren Sapp, just a day before his exit from Colorado was announced, had an exchange with public officials at the Tampa City Center on Hanna Avenue when he went to submit a public record request. He and two other men carried recording devices and were accused of disturbing the premises, which led to an altercation with security officials and, in the long run, a trespassing charge.

They had a hearing in court last month. And while Sapp and his attorney tried to prove that none of his actions were beyond the limits of his First Amendment rights, the officials upheld that his actions were a disruption to city business. In the long run, the City attorney upheld the trespass warnings of all three men.

But Sapp was back in no time. He recently found himself in another exchange with two female public officials in Boward County. He made a similar public record request and refused to step back when the officials informed him that such requests were out of their scope. To prevent any more chaos, they called in a supervisor to attend to him instead.