Colorado’s Dorrell is the clear choice for Coach of the Year
Rick Neuheisel has known Karl Dorrell so long, the first-year Colorado coach had hair when they met.
“And you tell him I said that,” Neuheisel laughed recently while discussing his close friend’s surprising success in Boulder.
They were teammates at UCLA in the mid-1980s — Neuheisel the chatty quarterback from Wisconsin, Dorrell the quiet receiver from the Bay Area, with lockers next to each other.
From there came a lasting friendship, coaching companions ... and bald jokes.
“You talk about a guy who doesn’t say much, it was our sophomore year before I heard him talk,” said Neuheisel, who went on to become Colorado’s head coach in 1995 and hired Dorrell as the offensive coordinator.
“He looks like the same old Karl to me on the sideline. He’s very stoic. But he’s got a fire inside.”
A quarter century after Neuheisel and Dorrell coached together in Boulder, Dorrell returned to lead a program reeling from the unexpected departure of Mel Tucker.
CU’s search lasted 10 days. Dorrell moved in, hired a staff and crafted a plan.
Then the pandemic hit. Dorrell had no spring practices and six months of disruption.
He got to know his players over Zoom and found his quarterback in the secondary.
He navigated the curveballs from Boulder County and the policy changes by the Pac-12.
All the while, he never flinched.
CU’s decision to hire Dorrell, who hadn’t been a head coach in more than a decade — and who appeared perfectly content as an NFL assistant — was hardly conventional.
While we’re several years away from a final verdict, Dorrell proved the perfect hire for a pandemic season, when the steadiest of hands was needed to navigate the tumult and keep the players focused.
“His dad was a military guy, and the family’s approach to everything was, ‘Just do your job,’” said
Neuheisel, a former Pac12 coach at three schools (Colorado, Washington and UCLA).
“Karl is all about discipline, and he practices what he preaches. I don’t know that he has ever weighed more than 184 pounds.
“He’s just so predictable, so reliable. And that’s what you need in this environment.”
Dorrell was named Pac12 Coach of the Year in 2005, in the middle of his five-year tenure at UCLA. (He shared the honor with USC’s Pete Carroll.)
When the conference unveils its 2020 award winners and all-conference team on Tuesday, Dorrell should collect his second COY.
Here are the Hotline’s selections.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR » Colorado TB Jarek Broussard. The redshirt sophomore didn’t play either of the past two seasons, then was a yardsgobbling revelation for the Buffaloes. His average of 162.6 yards-per-game is a bit misleading, because it includes the San Diego State game. In conference play — the standard used for all other tailbacks
— Broussard averaged 173 ypg. Also considered: Oregon State TB Jermar Jefferson, UCLA TB Demetric Felton and USC WR Drake London.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR » USC S Talanoa Hufanga. A dominant playmaker in the middle of the field, Hufanga has the mobility of a safety and the physicality of a linebacker. How many players over the years have ever led the conference in interceptions and ranked in the top five in tackles and the top 10 in sacks? Very few. Also considered: Colorado LB Nate Landman and Washington LB Zion Tupuola-Fetui.
COACH OF THE YEAR » Colorado’s Karl Dorrell. We considered one other coach: Stanford’s David Shaw, whose team was forced to relocate for the final three weeks of the season and won every game as nomads. The Cardinal finished tied for second in the North (4-2) despite a COVID testing error by the conference that kept starting quarterback Davis Mills out of action for one game (Oregon) and for the following week of practice (prior to playing Colorado).