That realization made for a tough plane ride back from San Antonio. Dorrell reflected on what had gone well, what hadn’t and what needs to be changed. That reflection has continued in the weeks since the Alamo Bowl and will continue going forward.
For the most part, Dorrell says he’s worked through the team’s problems himself.
“I went through about 10 days of evaluation, just me,” Dorrell said. “I just want to make sure that we come out there and line up in 2021, I want to be different than what we were in 2020.”
As Dorrell worked through his evaluations, which are still ongoing, he came to a couple of notable conclusions. Two weeks ago, Dorrell fired strength coach Drew Wilson who had been with the program for five years. This week, Dorrell fired defensive coordinator Tyson Summers. The strength coach position could be filled over the weekend.
“Our offseason program is going to start up here quickly and we need to have (a strength coach) in place, so that’s that’s close to being done,” Dorrell said. “We went through a pretty good process of trying to hire the right coach for our strength and conditioning. We’re pretty close on that. We’re probably within days of getting that done.”
The defensive coordinator position will take more time to fill. Dorrell said he’s considering candidates from inside and out of the Colorado program. Reports surfaced this week that defensive line coach Chris Wilson was among those in the running.
“We’re just we’re going to make sure that the next person that’s in that position will do a great job of just bringing our defense forward,” Dorrell said. “We’ve done some positive things this year. Like I told you and just said there’s a number of things that we need to fix and re-examine and really try to tailor to the skillset of our players that are in the program.”
Dorrell must have thought Summers hadn’t done a good enough job at those points, an evaluation that may come as a surprise to Buffs fans. Summers, in his second year running the defense, produced significant improvements from Year 1 in numerous categories, including a league-leading opposing completion percentage and passer rating.
Dorrell said that there wasn’t a point during the season that he realized he needed to move on from Summers.
“I thought we came out like gangbusters, played really well the first few games and I’d say we started tailing off a little bit towards the end of the year,” Dorrell said. “We came in kind of limping.”
While defensive studs Mustafa Johnson and Derrion Rakestraw are moving on from the program—Johnson to the NFL and Rakestraw to the transfer portal—Colorado will get the key to its defensive success back in 2021. Nate Landman, who tore his Achilles late this season, is coming back to CU for a second senior year and the coaches are planning on him being recovered in time for the season.
“It’s doable,” Dorrell said. “We do think that he should be ready to go by the start of fall.”
Whoever becomes the next defensive coordinator at Colorado will be lucky to have Landman at his disposal.
