On Monday morning at the Arrow Touchdown Club within the Dal Ward Athletic Center on campus at CU, Colorado publicly introduced its 27th full-time head coach, Karl Dorrell.
Dorrell spoke to the media for nearly 45 minutes, explaining his background, reasons for taking the Colorado job and vision for the Buffaloes football program.
A point of interest within his remarks was how he plans to build his assistant coaching staff. Specifically, where will he look for assistant coaches and does he have any intention of retaining some of Mel Tucker's old coaches?
The incumbent coaches and personnel to attend Dorrell's introductory press conference were: defensive coordinator Tyson Summers, cornerbacks coach Travares Tillman, graduate assistant Cordae Hankton and director of player engagement Cymone George.
At the end of the day, don't look too much into the likes of Darrin Chiaverini, Darian Hagan, Brian Michalowski and other coaches not attending the press conference — hey, there has to be some coaches running practice!
But Dorrell was asked directly on Monday what he envisions the next week or two looking like in terms of him deciding to retain incumbent coaches, let folks go and ultimately, turn to the outside when it comes to building his new staff.
Dorrell indicated that he's going to hit the ground running in that regard; as early as this afternoon he'll begin meeting with coaches, all while continuing to get to know his players as much as possible.
Dorrell: “We’re going to start that process this afternoon. I met with everyone, just briefly this morning as an introductory meeting. We’ll get right into interviewing the guys that were highly recommended, which are the guys who are here, this afternoon. I do need to work fast on building the staff. I feel it’s fair for me to get a chance to visit with (the current assistants) first and then we'll piecemeal and roll from there. It’ll be a process of over this week."
"I want to meet with my players individually, as well. So it’s going to be a busy time where I’ll be burning the midnight candle a little bit, but I need to meet with those players individually for a time period, as well. I want to get that done.”
Dorrell specifically referenced his time coaching UCLA in Westwood, Calif. from 2003-07, when he, at one time or another, had under him a knowable coaching staff, many of whom went on to take some pretty solid jobs later in their careers.
Dorrell: "We need to bring in really good teachers. That’s the quality that sticks out in my mind whether it’s the college level or professional level. There’s something that clicks with me when I’ve interviewed and evaluated coaches that fits the profile I’m looking for."
"For example, my staff at UCLA, which was a really good staff and good coaches — Jon Embree (asst. head coach for the 49ers) was on that staff. Eric Bieniemy (Kansas City's offensive coordinator) was on my staff as recruiting coordinator and RBs coach...Tom Cable (o-line coach for the Raiders) as the o-line coach. Dino Babers (head coach at Syracuse), Mike Norvell (head coach at Florida State)— Kyle Shanahan (head coach of the 49ers) was with me briefly as my graduate assistant at UCLA."
"I’ve had a number of really good coaches on staff before.""From my experience, I will use my own intuition as to the style of coach I’m looking for as a teacher. I think I have a good background of looking at talent for that.”
Dorrell is thus no stranger to being able to bring in quality assistants; it should also be noted that his assistant salary pool, which has been proposed by athletic director Rick George and is pending approval by CU's Board of Regents, is about $3.8 million, up from the $3.15 million Mel Tucker worked with.
The Regents are expected to vote on Dorrell's contract (five years, $18 million) sometime in the next week or so. During that time, expect Dorrell to get moving as to identifying candidates to build his new staff at Colorado.
