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Karl Dorrell continuing Buffs turnaround into next season
Karl Dorrell returned to Colorado amidst turmoil, but has steadied the ship and has the Buffs back in the PAC-12 championship hunt. (Courtesy: University of Colorado Athletics)

Karl Dorrell continuing Buffs turnaround into next season

BOULDER, Colo. (BVM) — Since the overwhelmingly successful coaching tenures of Gary Barnett, Rick Neuheisel, and Bill McCartney, the University of Colorado football program had slowly become one of the worst programs in the Power 5.

With only one bowl appearance (an Alamo Bowl loss) since 2007, highly-acclaimed coach Mel Tucker was poached from the defensive coordinator position at Georgia to lead the Buffs’ rebuild. 

Just as the Tucker experiment was getting off the ground, he unexpectedly bolted for Michigan State immediately following recruiting season in February 2020, leaving the Buffs without a head coach as they marched toward the spring season. 

In full scramble mode, Colorado chose Karl Dorrell, a former assistant with the Buffs during two different stints in the 1990s. Dorrell entered with little expectation considering the timing of his hiring in a season that quickly became clouded with uncertainty due to COVID-19. Dorrell, however, wasn’t focused on the circumstances.

“We’re going to develop our players to be tough-minded, to be battle-tested, to be smart, to have a love to compete and have passion for the game, to care deeply about each other,” Dorrell said at his introductory press conference last spring. “And most importantly, we have one goal in mind which is to bring a championship.”

Sure enough, when the PAC-12 finally got its season underway in 2020, Dorrell and the Buffs produced immediately, winning their first four games of the shortened season and making it back to the Alamo Bowl.

Now, with a season and his first full recruiting class under his belt, Dorrell remains laser focused on bringing CU the championship that he covets, and bringing in more talent to add to a senior class that is returning a plethora of players due to the COVID-19 eligibility rules will only make the Buffs better.

“We’re trying to elevate everything in our program,” Dorrell said following the Buffs’ spring game last month. “We want the competition to be fierce at every position.”

Undoubtedly, iron sharpens iron, especially at the highest level of college football. The Buffs were within a game of their second-ever PAC-12 championship game appearance last year, and with a more seasoned team, Dorrell is ready to lead them over that hump this fall.

Despite their success last season, Dorrell’s squad still has plenty of doubters going into 2021. They are projected by most to finish in the bottom half of the Pac-12 south division, the same division that they finished as the runners-up by a half a game in the regular season a year ago.

With Dorrell’s first official recruiting class coming in and a definite culture being established, Dorrell looks to be on the right track to bring the Buffs back to their dominant ways of the early ‘90s. As for this year?

“I think this team is getting better,” Dorrell said this spring. “I feel really good (about) where we are in terms of that progress.”