Coach Karl Dorrell addressed Colorado's 2021 downturn head-on early in his comments Friday at Pac-12 Media Day in Los Angeles, and when the lights turn on at Folsom Field in five weeks the Buffaloes' response to that setback will be illuminated -- one way or another.

As Dorrell noted, it starts with an offense that simply struggled to produce last fall -- averaging 18.8 points per game to rank 121st in the country -- but there has been change across the board for the Buffs in 2022.

Six coaches were either let go or left the program and impactful players such as top running back Jarek Broussard, leading wide receiver Brenden Rice and starting cornerbacks Mekhi Blackmon and Christian Gonzalez departed via the transfer portal.

Dorrell focused his comments mostly on the changes made on the offensive side -- changes to both staff and scheme he felt necessary to move forward from that 4-8 finish.

“The way that I operate as a coach, in my 34 years of coaching, is when things aren't right, you have to make things right. I don't ever try to celebrate a lack of successful season, so we had to make some changes,” Dorrell said in his opening remarks. “I made changes primarily on the offensive side for new coaches there that are here and they've done a great job of reinvigorating and reinventing our offense.”

Time will tell, but Dorell delivered the optimism Friday a day after his Buffs were picked last in the preseason Pac-12 media poll.

Quarterback J.T. Shrout’s absence last year while recovering from injury limited the Buffs’ ceiling of offensive potential. Shrout is now 100 percent, according to Dorrell, running the same reps as the other QBs. One objective for fall camp is to get Shrout -- the fifth-year redshirt junior who started his college career at Tennessee -- fully back in rhythm as he competes with 2021 starter Brendon Lewis for the job.