NEW BUFFS COACH TAKES LONG WAY HOME TO CU
How fate, and a phone call, brought Dorrell and CU Buffs back together
Rick George has gotten the usual backlash from the doubters, the dissenters, the underwhelmed, the NeverKarls. Then again, he heard the same song and dance about 14 months ago.
“What I would say is, ‘Trust me,’ ” George, CU’s athletic director, said Monday after a news conference in which Karl Dorrell was formally introduced as the 27th full-time coach in Buffs history.
“You know, when we hired Mel Tucker, there were a lot of people that had that same reaction: ‘Who is this guy? He’s a defensive coordinator, he’s never been a head coach.’ I get it … It’s kind of like what Karl said: ‘You know when you know.’ ”
They apparently knew as soon as last Friday. That’s when George, associate athletic director Lance Carl and the new Buffs coach met at the new home the Dorrell family had built in Lafayette as their forever-slash-retirement residence, regardless of where the football winds were blowing the family’s patriarch.
Dorrell, 56, had lived in the east Boulder County town during his tenures on the staffs of former CU coaches Bill McCartney (1992-93) and Rick Neuheisel (1995-98). Dorrell and wife Kim’s two children, Chandler and Lauren, were born in nearby Louisville.
The brainstorm to contact Dorrell, who recently had been promoted to assistant head coach of the Miami Dolphins, hit George and Carl on Thursday. When they called, Dorrell informed them, by coincidence, that he was flying into Boulder County for a short spell that night before heading to Indianapolis for the NFL scouting combine.
For George, it felt like pure kismet. A sign.
“When I left (his house),” George said of their Friday interview, “I knew he was going to be our next head football coach.”
Dorrell also will be the highestpaid football coach in Buffs history. Dorrell received a five-year contract worth $18 million that calls for a salary of $3.2 million in 2020 with $200,000 raises annually.
His predecessor, Tucker, who
left CU on Feb. 11 to replace Mark Dantonio at Michigan State, had been slated to make $2.675 million with the Buffs in 2020. The former CU coach received a six-year deal from the Spartans that will garner a $5.5 million salary in Year 1.
“I wanted that stability for our football team,” George explained after the news conference. “And I wanted that integrity and character that (Dorrell) displays. And I wanted that calm, confident (bearing). You know, he’s not going to be this flashy guy. That’s not who he is. But he’s very confident in his ability to develop and get to know players.”
Given that Dorrell is CU’s third head football coach in a span of just 15 months, those players are the ones who need the most convincing — and reassuring — right about now.
To that end, Dorrell had the Buffs seniors at his home in Lafayette on Sunday night to meet him and talk shop. The new coach addressed the entire team early Monday and is planning on oneon-one meetings with individual players through the rest of this week.
“They think we can win now,” Dorrell said of his roster. “Guess what. We’re going for it now.”
The Buffs are providing Dorrell his first head coaching job since December 2007, when he was fired after five seasons and a 35-27 record at UCLA. The California native spent most of the last decade as an assistant coach in the NFL, save for a one-year stint as the offensive coordinator at Vanderbilt in 2014. The Commodores that season won just three games and scored an average of 17.2 points per game.
“I know I’m here for a reason,” said Dorrell. “I’ve accepted the challenge of leading (the program) to greatness.”
The new Buffs coach said he plans to interview current CU staffers, including interim head coach Darrin Chiaverini — one of his former receivers — throughout the week, and that the process for hiring his staff “might change” the calendar for spring practices, which are scheduled to open March 16.
George said after the news conference that he’s hopeful Chiaverini, who interviewed for the CU head coaching vacancy, will remain on the new staff, but that the decision would be up to Dorrell.
“I hope this is my last job,” George said. “And maybe it’ll be his last job, and we’ll go out together.”