Gunnar White didn’t take a conventional path to his current job, but hard work got him to where he is today.

Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders recently promoted White to coach the offensive line. He will work with co-offensive line coach George Hegamin, as they replace Phil Loadholt, who left the Buffs last month to take a job at Mississippi State.

It wasn’t a flashy hire, but it’s one that falls in line with how Sanders often operates, by elevating people he sees putting in hard work. White has never been an offensive line coach at this level, but spent the past two seasons at CU as an offensive quality control analyst, working with the line.

“It speaks a lot on hard work,” White said of his promotion during an interview by Thee Pregame Show. “You come in, you do the job, do what you need to do, but it’s about the work and it’s also about the relationship, too.

“In the past, I’ve been told you had to leave to come back. That wasn’t the case here. The fit was good, my relationship with Prime was good. It naturally worked itself out.”

An all-state player at Terry (Miss.) High School before playing two seasons at Hinds (Miss.) Community College, White graduated in 2016 from Jackson State. He got his start in coaching as a student assistant for two years with the Tigers.

White spent the 2017 season coaching offensive line at Belhaven University and then was at Nevada as a graduate assistant from 2018-20.

In 2022, White returned to his alma mater, working as an analyst at Jackson State, where Sanders was the head coach. After Sanders came to CU in December of 2022, he brought White and several others with him.

White is now preparing for his fourth season working under Sanders.

“It’s a rare deal because not a lot of people get that opportunity to go from a volunteer to quality control to being the position coach in the same staff,” he said. “I know the setting changed, but at the end of the day, Prime was still my boss, he was still our head coach.”

Sanders also promoted Hegamin, who played with Sanders with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s and spent this past year as CU’s director of leadership and engagement.

“I love George,” White said. “He’s been a mentor to me even before he got on staff here, because he was around a little bit at Jackson, but he was around more the 2023 season at Colorado.”

Together, White and Hegamin will have a player-led offensive line room, White said.

“I’m going to bounce ideas off of them, too, but at the end of the day, it’s gonna be me and George coming together and coming up with the result, too,” White said. “I think I’m going to lean on (the players) a little bit more because at the end of the day they have to do it. They’re the ones who have to get the job done.”

It won’t be an easy task. Offensive line play has been shaky over the past two years, even with projected first-round NFL draft pick Shedeur Sanders at quarterback. Sanders is now gone and the line will have a new QB to protect. Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter, five-star freshman recruit Julian Lewis and returning sophomore Ryan Staub will battle for the job.

Left tackle Jordan Seaton leads a group of returners that also includes Tyler Brown, Cash Cleveland and Kareem Harden, who combined for 23 starts in 2024. Right tackle Phillip Houston, who started nine games, could also be back.

So far this offseason, the Buffs have added experienced transfers Zy Crisler (Illinois), Zarian McGill (Louisiana Tech), Aki Ogunbiyi (Texas A&M) and Mana Taimani (Mississippi), as well as three freshmen.

White said the group knows there will be some expectation to step up and play well to protect the quarterback and get the run game going.

“They know we don’t have a Heisman Trophy winner on the team right now,” White said. “They know we don’t have arguably the best quarterback in the country on the team right now. All in all, it does fall on us. I think the more they hear it and the more they feel it, the more they’ll be prepared for it, too.”