Karl Dorrell participated in a Zoom conference call with media on Monday afternoon. Here's everything he had to say, with accompanying notes where necessary.

Q: What have you learned throughout this pandemic in terms of communication that’s been necessary to do through a virtual setting?

Dorrell: “As I reflect back on it, normally we wouldn’t use the Zoom or conference call aspect of things in our normal process of coaching. That was the biggest transition, for players and coaches, to get used to this way of communicating. It actually has gone very, very well. Our players have been able to get information digested, ask questions (and) really dive into all aspects of what we’ve been doing for the last several months with our offense, defense and special teams. The only thing we haven’t done is obviously the reps physically to get information worked on. But I would say to everyone’s credit, even with myself at the beginning, there was some reluctance but when we finally found a groove as to how things work and how we can make (virtual meetings) a useful tool for us on a day-to-day basis, it’s been actually very, very good. We plan to use virtual meetings even through the summer. Our players will start working out on the 15th but when we do our meeting, we’re not going to be together — we’re going to still do it virtually. Pleasingly, it’s been a pleasant surprise for us.”

Q: How many players do you expect to be back in Boulder and ready to go on June 15th, considering health and COVID-19 testing protocols?

Dorrell: “A good majority of the (football players) that are here now have been tested and have gotten paperwork done and all that stuff. Tested in terms of physicals. The (COVID-19) testing process will start this week and next week, so we know t4hat on the onset of this thing, on June 15, most (players) will be done and ready to go, but we'll still have some that are having to serve a quarantine period of time and get their physicals done and do the testing. It’s a small percentage, but I would say that the bulk of the team is here and ready to go.”

Q: Is there a future for virtual visits after the pandemic ends and even when recruits can visit schools in-person once again?

Dorrell: “If (the pandemic) does stick around longer, I think we would be fine with (continuing to do virtual visits) because of our usage and our experience on it right now. There’s nothing that takes the place, though, of an unofficial visit where (the player) is on campus and you have eye contact and direct contact with families and the student-athletes. That’s the best of all worlds."

"But there might be a kid that we get on late in the process about getting him information on us and he’s probably seen a game or two of us playing, but just doesn’t know enough about the school — we can flat dig that up pretty quickly and shoot it on a conference call right now, put it all in front of the family and prospective student-athlete to at least give them a pretty good idea of what the setting (at Colorado) is. We’ve had really, really good feedback on all of our virtual visits. We’ve probably done at least 30-plus (virtual visits) and it’s been very well-received. It is something that we have in our back pocket, but I would rather do it in person. If the NCAA wants it that way or the Pac-12 wants it that way, we can quickly accommodate those wishes and still think we can get the information that needs to be brought to the floor in a very good efficient manner.”

Q: What are your thoughts on the nation-wide movements going on as well as Colorado players taking part in them?

Dorrell: “I’ve been very pleased with my players’ reaction to this issue of social injustice and systemic discrimination. We’ve had a great discussion about all of those things and a week ago on Monday, we had a great team meeting for about two hours. I said some things that were very emotional, the players said some things that were very emotional and I think what came from it was that we wanted to quickie put something into action that shows a sign of support and unity about wanting to make this change and (the players) being a big factor in taking a step forward in that process."

"We did organize that rally last Friday and it went very well. We had a couple of our players speak at it and it was well-received. We had a number of people, not just on the football side, but a number of our student-athletes, we had faculty, people in our A.D. and just casual bystanders sitting around campus who got word of it and wanted to be a part of it. It was good to see between 400-500 people that came. It was a really good turnout and a positive step about us being proactive about the process like most of the country is dealing with. We talked as recently as this morning that we probably want to do something actively at least once a month. I’m not saying we’re going to protest, but I would want to say that we want to make for certain that this subject doesn’t wane as time goes by, which a lot of these things tend to do. It’s definitely something that’s going to be on our agenda throughout the year. I think it’s important for our country to step up like this and power our young people to be a big part of the process."

"Voting is going to be big this year in November, so there’s a lot of big dynamics that are about to come to the forefront here in a short period of time. I think our young people should be a part of that.”

Q: What are your thoughts on your players who choose to kneel during the National Anthem, if and when the season starts?

Dorrell: “I haven’t even come to that point in time of suggesting that. Most of the things that people have put on stage for protesting was really not about the flag. It’s more about the other issues that we deal with as a country, but we’ll cross that barrier when we get to it. We just haven’t gotten a chance to be together as a team. My very first team function was Friday at our peaceful protest. That should give you a little relation to me on not having any face-to-face interaction with our team since I’ve been hired other than this past Friday. We know that there’s definitely some issues that are on the horizon for us to deal with, but we’ll take them one day at the time.”

David Plati interjects and notes that most college football players aren’t even on the field/visible during the National Anthem because of the pregame structure with a school’s band playing the song around 15 minutes before kickoff.

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Q: What’s your process been like for picking captains?

Dorrell: “We have identified some people that are specific candidates for leadership positions. We have not discussed that in a team setting yet, so those are things that we’ll probably be able to work on and get accomplished between July and August as we go through camp.”

Q: How has it been learning about your team and getting to know your players largely through Zoom and not via physical interactions?

Dorrell: “That’s been not the most comfortable of mediums early on, trying to teach a little bit about your philosophy and how you’re building the program. But over the last several months, we’ve gotten more and more comfortable (on Zoom) in terms of conveying information and getting feedback. A lot of it is, when there’s 130 people on one call, it’s hard to get a lot of interaction...you can’t ask every one of them to give you dialogue, but it’s been productive. I’ll just say that. Has it been the best? No, but it has been productive and we are moving forward and getting better with getting things in place that our team is really starting to buy into. I have to give it to our young people. They're adapted to this line of learning and getting information just as much as we learned how to convey it. It’s been a struggle on their side of it in the early onset, but I think they have a comfort level now. Is it the best thing? No. But it’s the best thing for me right now in terms of getting some things established around the program.”

Q: If players at CU test positive, will that be announced and beyond that, how important is the next month across the country to see how things go and what the college football season will look like?

Dorrell: “I would say it’s extremely important. That’s really what the NCAA and the conferences are waiting on: how’s this process going to work, the implementation of the policies that we’ve put on all of our campuses — how is it going to work? Is it going to create a bigger outbreak? Is it going to be able to be sustainable? All those things, that’s the testing mechanism that we’re going to go through this summer. There’s some strict protocol that we’re doing as coaches in the building...we’ve just got to buy in and understand what we’re trying to get done. We all want football to be here this fall and we have to do what’s in our best interest and as best as we can to adhere to the policies that are going to give us that best chance for that to happen. So that’s me preaching that to the coaches and also to our players."

"At our rally, every single one of our players had a mask on, so they’re getting information and applying it. But this is a big testing moment, that as things are starting to open up on campuses across the country, can we keep this pandemic at a containable position...but that is what we’re trying to see, is if these things can be controlled. We do think there will be outbreaks or two that are going to be on campuses, but how are we handling these things? That’s going to be the biggest thing and we’re going to go through and see. I don’t think we want to withhold any information from anyone (if Colorado players were to test positive for COVID-19). It affects all of us. This is a global issue, but for the nation, we’re all dealing with this. People are looking at either the NFL or college football to kind of be the lead in how to handle this thing and then, what are the mechanics in place to contain it? It’s an important issue right now, as you can imagine.”

Q: When you were a player, how important was it for you to have a diverse coaching staff?

Dorrell: “You’re talking about the early 80s...what makes things have so much more exposure and relevance is social media. A lot of these things have been going on for years beyond which we had the technology to have exposure instantaneously to any setting in our country or in the world. Three things occurred way, way back when I was playing. At that time, we felt fortunate if there were one or two coaches on the staff that were a minority. That’s how things were back in that time frame. You didn’t see a lot of minority coaches but you did see a couple that were there. That process has gotten better throughout the years. Lately, now, with college football and in the NFL, there’s always that is going to be in place to try to address the issue. The NFL’s way is the Rooney Rule and then they’re thinking of some ways to revamp that rule, but those are things that are drawing attention to the issues, but I don’t know if they are really the clear cut solutions to the issue. I think it’s just as much a societal thing as anything.As soon as we get what we’re dealing with as a country (and) have a better feel for how we’re addressing those things from a society standpoint, I think it’ll get better from a lot of different perspectives, in different professions and in the business world.”

Q: Will anything be implemented for the football players to be able to get extra time on their own to practice and continue going over plays?

Dorrell: “They’re already doing that on their own initiative...that is encouraged, there’s no question. It’s a voluntary time frame but since we did miss spring practice, and I am new, and the season’s almost here — there is a sense of urgency that our players have embraced (via) getting themselves ready to go. The season is right around the corner so we have to make up for a lot of lost time. I’ve been very pleased on how they’ve been creating their own initiative...we can’t direct those things or be present at those things, but they do have the product that’s needed. If they need footballs or cones or things like that, we’re able to supply them, but they are completely working on their own. I’ve been pleased with their efforts. They understand and they get it that we’ve missed a lot of time. But with that being said, we don’t want to make any excuses, either. We don’t want an asterisk on wins or anything this year — we want to do it the way everyone else is doing it across the country. We feel we should have just as goof a chance to be as successful as anybody, regardless of our start.”

Q: How far behind do you believe you guys are in terms of personal progress, compared to where you’d normally be at this time in early June?

Dorrell: “I would say that I don’t think I’m behind at all, I really don’t. We try to go through every scenario on the onset of this (pandemic) about how we were going to get the information digested and presented (to the players)...we’ve done a lot of the install stuff. If we would have had spring practice in April, and the spring game, and then after that quickly, we would have done quickly a recap of spring and then the coaches would be gone for a month recruiting for May. That’s in terms of a normal year. That’s a frame of time where the players were finishing up finals and had a three or four-week break before they came back for summer school. They would have been taking a break — not doing anything. They could work our on their own and thrown on their own voluntarily, but chances are, and I would have suggested it too — but coming out of spring practices, get your body some rest go see your family, stay in decent enough shape — we missed all that in terms of a timeframe to decompress, but put the decompression out, and we went through March, April and May of just flat meetings."

"(The players) have been saturated with information. I know our players are going to know what to do, but how we do it is the important thing now. We’re missing that time on the field to tune things up...so in terms of being behind, I feel like we’re well ahead from where (the players) are. We’re probably more behind in terms of directing information, but because of the pandemic, everybody’s in the same boat. It actually puts us on a level playing field, in my opinion.”

Q: What have you learned about Colorado and your team via watching game film from the 2019 season?

Dorrell: "There was a lot of good things particularly towards the end of the season. I feel like the last four games of the year, offensively, we were playing smarter. Our defense really started to find themselves toward the end of the season. They played pretty well in the latter stretch of the season. There had been some good individual play along the way, but what I’ve preached to my team in terms of me evaluating them offensively, defensively and on special teams, I felt that there were some definite core things on both sides of our front that we can (do) a lot better. We didn’t play as well as we could. They showed signs, particularly on defense, where we were hard to run the ball against. And they had a few games where they showed that stoutness about playing their system well, but there was a great majority of the season where that didn’t occur. They know they can continue to get better and it’s the same thing offensively — we have to create better run efficiency for our running game and we did at times, but we didn’t do it at a consistent level. Those two areas we can continue to get better at and that was already talked about with the team at the end of April."

"From a perimeter standpoint, we played a lot of new secondary players last year, and some of those secondary players were transferred over from offense. Trying to gel and play together as a unit, they struggled at ties, but it got better towards the end of the year. I think the things on the perimeter that are important to me are being sure we’re able to set the edge on the defensive side and on the offensive side, being able to stay on defenders to create more room to run and win one-on-one matchups on the outside."

"There’s a number of things that we’ve highlighted as a program, just to give (the players) an idea of what we need to work on right now. That’s really what our kids have been doing is going over their notes from meetings, from me and they’re doing those things proactively with themselves right now...I think we can play a lot better football if we can get ourselves to be more fundamentally sound, play with a more aggressive attitude and just be certain of our role in understanding the details of how we do things. Those things we anticipate will get better throughout this summer.”

Q: What have you seen in Chris Miller that might allow him to move to safety from cornerback?

Dorrell: “He’s been a corner, he's going to be playing some safety and probably will play some STAR, which is that fifth DB. We feel that he is a unique player that can do a lot of things. How much he’ll be able to digest and do, that’s to be told and found out here shortly but we’ve told him (about) what we feel he can do for us on defense. We want him in multiple roles and he’s embraced the challenge. It’s a matter of getting him in those positions to see if he can handle all of the information but we do plan on him being a big factor on our back end. He’ll be in a couple different spots.”

Q: How fun was it participating in the 1994 Zoom call to rewatch the Miracle at Michigan?

Dorrell: “I belly laughed for two minutes just looking at guys I haven’t seen in a large period of time. Great players, obviously, but it’s fun when you go back. I wasn’t at that game, I was at ASU that year, but I remember seeing the highlights and seeing everybody jumping around. (The players) can recall it like it was yesterday and that’s the great thing about those kinds of calls. You’re getting your teammates together. It’s been over 20 years, so you get a chance to do certain things, recall those moments, and it’s fun to be around that with guys that you’re very close with, that you went to battle with and whom you know intimately. It was just fun to be a part of that call, because I was with those guys in ‘92 and ‘93."