Marching to the Beat of His Own Drummer

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Marching to the Beat of His Own Drummer – Karl Dorrell has a Plan

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The 2021 season will be unique in many ways, not the least of which will be the size of team’s rosters. Teams will be filled to overflowing with returning players. Schools will be hard pressed to find their way down to their scholarship limits (which this year is 85-plus returning seniors. In CU’s case, that number is 88, with “super seniors” Sam Noyer, Nate Landman and Kary Kutsch accounting for CU’s “bonus” scholarships).

Colorado entered spring practices several warm bodies over the 88-man limit, meaning that there are several players running around wearing black-and-gold this spring who won’t be on the team come August. What’s more, for every new player coaches may want to add to the fall roster, another current scholarship player will have to go.

From where will the attrition come?

Looking at the current roster, there are a few units which seemed primed for reduction … Tops among them being the tight ends.

CU has 12 tight ends this spring, including five walk-ons, but likely won’t have that many in the fall.

“I’ve never had 12,” CU head coach Karl Dorrell said this past week. “That’s a lot, I get it, but it’s pretty competitive.

“I like that group. It has a lot of different types of players; guys that are more just in the run game and some guys that are just new to the position. It’s a luxury right now, I guess, having 12. The problem is I don’t think we’re going to be able to carry that many going into training camp.”

CU can bring 120 players into fall camp, and Dorrell said the Buffs will have to figure out how to reduce their numbers at tight end.

“I don’t know what that number will adjust to yet but it probably won’t be 12,” he said.

Now … when it was announced on Friday that CU picked up a late addition to the Recruiting Class of 2021, fans were excited.

A defensive back? A defensive lineman? Another linebacker?

Nope … a tight end.

Not just any tight end, but a freshman tight end who only had offers from the likes of Florida A&M, Brown, Fordham and Georgetown. A tight end from football mad Texas … who generated a two-star rating from Rivals, and was not even rated by 247 Sports.

Nothing against Austin Smith. A 6’5″, 220-pound recruit who can run a 11.01 in the 100, Smith might be the answer at tight end that the Buff Nation has been waiting for for over a decade.

But, adding another scholarship player to the roster, when CU is already over the 88-scholarship limit? And another tight end? A Texas prospect who didn’t generate any Group of Five conference offers, much less a Power Five offer?

In Karl we Trust.

If Buff fans have learned anything in the past 14 months since Karl Dorrell was hired, it’s that he has a plan. And that his plan does not conform to ordinary convention.

Convention would have had Dorrell starting Tyler Lytle at quarterback last fall. Lytle was the only quarterback on the roster with any experience, and Lytle’s competition was a true freshman and a converted safety. Buff fans would have forgiven Dorrell for using the 2020 season as a training session for freshman Brendon Lewis. Instead, Dorrell went with Sam Noyer, the third choice for most of the Buff Nation.

All Noyer did was earn second-team All-Pac-12 honors. Not that big a deal? Can you name the last time CU had a quarterback who earned 1st- or 2nd- (or even 3rd-team) all-conference honors? (Answer at the end of the column. Here’s a hint … it’s been awhile).

Convention would have had Dorrell keeping strength and conditioning coach Drew Wilson.

Last October, during the period when only the strength and conditioning staff was allowed to have contact with the players, Dorrell was singing the praises of Drew Wilson:

“I’m glad you brought him up,” Dorrell when asked about Wilson. “Because I’ve been giving him kudos in front of the team and our staff for his dedication from his area and his staff of doing everything within the protocols that have been put on us.”

… “When we had that time period where we only can work out one player at a time, he handled that and they had to work early mornings and late to the evenings,” Dorrell said. “They did that for 10 days.

“He’s kind of an unsung hero right now because he did the job and he didn’t bat an eye about it. He knew we had to get ourselves ready – as ready as we can be for camp and there’s no question that those guys have done a great job with getting us to this point.”

Two months later … Wilson’s contract was not renewed. Dorrell dropped the popular Wilson in exchange for Shannon Turley, who had a stellar record at Stanford (but who left the Cardinal under murky circumstances).

Probably an upgrade in the long run, taking Turley over Wilson … but not the safe move.

Convention would have had Dorrell keeping Tyson Summers on at defensive coordinator. Summers was popular, did not have a bad season in 2020, and perhaps deserved a pass for the final six quarters of poor play from the defense after Nate Landman was lost for the season.

Instead, Dorrell dismissed Summers, promoting defensive line coach Chris Wilson to become the new defensive coordinator.

There are other examples, of course, like Dorrell bringing in an offensive line coach (Mitch Rodrigue) who was last seen coaching high school football in Alabama.

The point being that Karl Dorrell has a vision; a plan. He was a head coach at UCLA for five seasons, taking the Bruins to five bowl games before being dismissed. He has been plotting and planning for a potential return to the head coaching ranks ever since.

He knows what he wants, and what he doesn’t want.

After the 55-23 blowout loss to Texas in the Alamo Bowl, Dorrell said what you would expect the losing coach to say:

“It’s hard for me to imagine any excitement right now,” Dorrell said during his postgame media session. “Even the games that we won this year, it’s really the final impression. That’s kind of the things that are kind of on my mind right now. The way I look at it, we have a tremendous amount of work to go. We’ve got development. We have got a number of issues that we’ve got to get cleaned up, both coaches and players. I’m going to have a lot of work to do this offseason.”

But, here’s the thing … for Dorrell, this wasn’t just coach-speak. His actions since December indicate that basking in the glory of CU’s second winning season in 13 years – and only third bowl appearance in the past 15 years –  was not on his agenda.

A 4-2 record wasn’t good enough. A second-place finish in the Pac-12 South wasn’t good enough.

Dorrell wants more.

Now, time will tell whether using a precious scholarship this week on a two-star tight end with no FBS offers to his name will prove to be a bold move … or a wasted scholarship.

But, until proven otherwise, Karl Dorrell gets the benefit of the doubt. Proof is in the pudding, and, to date, that “pudding” is a team with a winning record and a bowl appearance on its resume, and a roster filled with potential for the 2021 season.

Karl Dorrell may be dancing to the beat of his own drummer at this point, but Buff fans (and the nation’s pundits) would be well advised to join the parade.

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Answer to the trivia question – When was the last time CU had a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-team all conference quarterback? Well, you have to go back quite a ways, all the way to the 20th century in fact, when, in 1999, Mike Moschetti was named to the 3rd-team All-Big-12 team (Joel Klatt, 2002; Sefo Liufau, 2016; and Steven Montez, 2017, were named honorable mention All-Conference).

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This post, about the Spring Practices game, from the 2021 Season, is filed under Article.
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