This morning, Colorado introduced formally its Class of 2021 verbal commits that signed National Letters of Intent today, the first day (of three) of the December Early Signing Period.
The Buffs welcomed 17 players — 16 high school athletes and one junior college transfer — into their ranks. Head coach Karl Dorrell shared his thoughts on the 2021 class earlier today with Voice of the Buffs Mark Johnson.
Below is a transcript of Dorrell's full remarks.
Dorrell on the '21 class having the potential to make a quick impact:
“I have been waiting for this day for quite a bit. I am excited about this class. It is a very important class.The ‘20 class that came in this summer was a tremendous class and an unbelievable class. A lot of those guys are playing for us right now and have bright futures in their careers. With this class, we wanted to kind of back it up with a class that can really impact us just as well."
"We have some freshmen that are playing and there is a good chance some of these freshmen in the ‘21 class will be playing. A lot of them are very, very talented just like the ‘20 class. We feel really, really good about how these guys are going to impact us. They are really going to impact our depth and how we play. It is exciting for our future.”
Dorrell on his commits buying into the vision he and CU's coaches have for the program:
“That is the most impressive thing that I like about this class. They are not only confident in their abilities, but they actually believe our message. They believe what we stand for, what we are building, and the process of what that is going to take. They understand that they are going to be a big part of that."
"There is work to be done. Even though we have had a lot of success this year, and it is great that our team has had a great amount of success this year, we know that we are not finished. We are not where we need to be. This class kind of has that mindset that, ‘I understand what he is trying to build’, even though they haven't seen a lick of it and made a decision prior to us starting to play this fall. That tells you a lot about their character and what they think they can do to help us.”
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Dorrell on the message he worked to relay to recruits:
“Our big message is that our culture is so unique and different. Our culture is about building our student-athletes to be the best that they can be in everything that they do in life. I want them to be great students and I want them to compete in the classroom for that. I want them to be great players and compete on the gridiron."
"We want to have that balance and want guys who want to be difference makers in both of those arenas. We know how this is. This is a very social network society right now. A lot of it is building your image and likeness of who you are as a person. We think that Colorado and being at this university and playing this level of football and all of the great things that go about it, can help a man really establish his platform about who he is and what he stands for, and then how he can impact our country and our society in a positive way. These guys completely agree with that.”
Dorrell on helping his commits succeed on the gridiron and off the field, as well:
“I know that most of these kids can come from what could be a two-parent home or one-parent in a home, but the bottom line is my job is to make sure that when these guys are done at Colorado and their eligibility is exhausted that they have opportunities in the NFL or business world. They have both options. I want them to aspire to be a great NFL athlete one day. I want them to work and do those things and we have great coaches who can help get them there, but it is not just football."
"Football can only be played for so long. It is also getting that degree and understanding that you create that brand for yourself in a positive way and you have your degree. That opens up many doors in the business side of things. I want our student-athletes to be great at all of those things so that they have success both on the field and off the field.”
Dorrell's general thoughts on the 2021 class:
“It is a small class, but a very, very impactful class. Every position really has a chance to compete and help us this fall. We have had a shortage of tight ends with our current team right now. We have had some guys that have stepped up and done some really positive things."
"Getting a guy like Erik Olsen who is a local kid and is a dynamic player that can really impact us right away. He is one of those guys that we know can be of influence right away, as soon as he steps on campus. Drew Carter, the quarterback that we recruited, knows that we don't have a lot of quarterbacks in our program and he has a chance to compete, be elevated on the depth, and maybe be the starter at some point in his career in an earlier fashion just because he believes in our style of offense and understands what we are trying to build. He sees himself playing here. He is also an excellent basketball athlete too. Tad Boyle has spent some time with him on the phone from that standpoint. We have a number of guys’ offensive line wise."
Jackson Anderson is a really athletic tackle. He actually ran the 100-meters in high school. We are looking for athletic linemen on both sides of the ball. He fits what we are trying to build in terms of the foundation of our program. Those are just some examples on the offensive side of guys we think can impact us and elevate our level of play in an earlier fashion.”
Dorrell on desiring to keep the in-state pipeline flowing:
“That is the thing that I need to make sure I am reaching out to and I have done a number of outreaches to our high school coaches already. It is so important that we have great representation of our best players right here in our program. My job to make our program attractive. We have to have success just like the success we are having this fall. We have to have success, so our local kids see that this program is on the upswing. It is going back to what it used to be in the ‘90s. It is doing some really positive things to compete for the conference championship year in and year out."
"I want them to look at Colorado and think they have a chance to play championship level football in the Pac-12, but also the ultimate goal is to get this program in the College Football Playoff. That is what we are going to try to get ourselves to and we want to get there in a hurry.”
