Vance Joseph, 44, will become the 16th coach in Denver Broncos history, the team announced Wednesday.

Here's how Joseph rose through the football ranks to his first head coach job:

• Joseph played college football at the University of Colorado, where he was a teammate of Broncos director of player personnel Matt Russell. Russell was one of the Broncos’ front-office executives to sit in on the team’s interviews with Kyle Shanahan, Dave Toub and Joseph.

• Joseph was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets in 1995. He played two seasons in the league for the Jets (1995) and Indianapolis Colts (1996).

• Joseph's coaching career began at his alma mater. He was a graduate assistant at Colorado from 1999 to 2001. He coached at Wyoming in 2002 before returning to Colorado as defensive backs coach from 2002 to 2003. He was defensive backs coach at Bowling Green in 2004.

• Joseph moved to the NFL in 2005, when he was hired by the San Francisco 49ers as a secondary assistant. He was promoted to secondary coach for the Niners from 2006-10. He moved to the Houston Texans as defensive backs coach in 2011 and stayed for three seasons. He then did the same job for two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals (2014-15). He spent this past season as defensive coordinator for Adam Gase with the Miami Dolphins.

• Vance's older brother, Mickey Joseph, was a quarterback for Nebraska in 1990 and 1991.