Karl Dorrell took over as the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes on Feb. 23, 2020, but his run there has been anything but smooth. That team went 4-2 in the pandemic-shortened season in 2020, then 4-8 last season, and they were 0-5 so far this season after a 43-20 road loss to the Arizona Wildcats Saturday. That led to the school finally deciding to move on from Dorrell (and also DC Chris Wilson), long after many had called for that change:
Sources: Karl Dorrell has been dismissed as well. https://t.co/EEIfx4MSNn
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 2, 2022
AD Rick George announced that the Colorado Buffaloes will part ways with head football coach Karl Dorrell. The process of searching for a replacement begins immediately.
Full Release: https://t.co/vD8StU8vDG pic.twitter.com/hQ3U22JgrK
— Colorado Buffaloes (@CUBuffs) October 2, 2022
This led to a lot of reactions from the college football universe:
Karl Dorrell had a 8-15 record at Colorado, all 5 losses to start this season were by more than 20 points.
All 5 of those opponents currently have winning records: TCU, AFA, Minnesota, UCLA, Arizona.
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 2, 2022
Colorado has had two Pac-12 coaches of the year:
Mike MacIntyre in 2016
Karl Dorrell in 2020
Both were fired less than 2 years after winning that award#cubuffs— Brian Howell (@BrianHowell33) October 2, 2022
Karl Dorrell is out at CU.
Only 23 games as the Buffs head coach, but this is no surprise after the 0-5 start. Have heard rumblings on this for a couple weeks. First by @PeteThamel.
Dorrell went 8-15 in his tenure, 6-9 in PAC-12 play.
— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) October 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/lukezim/status/1576663311739162624
"Dorrell will be paid in installments and the total buyout would be mitigated by the salary of his next position."
**I'm sure Dorrell will be on LinkedIn this week trying very hard to get his next gig lined up to offset the millions he would get paid to vacation.** https://t.co/1TJS10tHuj
— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) October 2, 2022
It’s worth noting that even before the firing of Dorrell (he’s seen above in September in a loss to UCLA), there was criticism of athletic director Rick George for hiring him in the first place, and of the school for not finding the money to fire him before now.
Someone explain to me like I'm 3 years old why the AD who hired Karl Dorrell should be permitted to take another crack at this https://t.co/OGTrpV4nC5
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) October 2, 2022
Colorado is comically bad. Karl Dorrell looks like he is on tranquilizers. Arizona declines all CU offensive penalties. @RickGeorgeCU needs to go. He cant be allowed another hire. #skobuffs #cubuffs
— BuffJason 🦬 (@JasonEMaggard) October 2, 2022
I don't feel like there are many universal opinions in college football but 'Hiring Karl Dorrell is a terrible idea' is one of them. Never made sense, despite the brief 2020 resurgence.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) October 2, 2022
Don't fire Karl Dorrell, #CUBuffs.
Fire EVERYBODY in the Colorado Buffaloes' chain of football command.
If you're going to axe Dorrell, why AD RIck George & Chancellor Phil DiStefano must go, too, up now via The @DenverPost:https://t.co/pJzLgXo3rg#SkoBuffs #Pac12 #NCAA
— Sean Keeler (@SeanKeeler) October 2, 2022
And there’s some merit to those criticisms. Before taking over at Colorado in 2020, Dorrell’s only previous head coaching work came with the UCLA Bruins from 2003-2007, and he went just 35-27 overall in that span. He had a lot of background as a NFL assistant coach, especially with receivers (with the New York Jets from 2015-18 and with the Miami Dolphins in 2019), but that doesn’t necessarily translate into what’s necessary to succeed as a college head coach.
And there was also lots of discussion that Colorado was only waiting to fire Dorrell because of his buyout. So this feels like a move that was coming for some time. We’ll see where the Buffaloes go from here.
[Photo from Ron Chenoy/USA Today Sports]