Blake Street Tavern in downtown Denver hosted the 3rd Annual Front Range Huddle where most of the head coaches at Colorado college football programs gathered before the start of the college football season.

Colorado State and their head coach, Jay Norvell, did not attend but DNVR was able to talk to and hear from Colorado head coach Karl Dorrell and Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun.

While the Buffs start their season against TCU next Friday, Calhoun talked about the relationship between Air Force and Colorado and gave us a short preview of what we can expect out of the Falcons this year.

“We have a brand new team,” said Calhoun. “And I say that from the standpoint of we had 29 Seniors that all are now graduates of the Air Force Academy. And we haven’t added anybody else. And we haven’t added anybody through the [last] two years through the portal.

Calhoun praised the Colorado football program and addressed if he sees a potential rivalry brewing with the Buffs.

“There’s just so much mutual respect [between Air Force and Colorado],” Calhoun said. “You think about our flagship university in our state being a great school, a phenomenal town. Just the commitment they’ve made in terms of the athletic department, especially to football, that makes you proud to live in this state.”

“We just don’t play enough [to build a rivalry],” said Calhoun.

Coach Dorrell gets candid about the past and present of CU’s football program

Reporters asked Dorrell about the quarterback position and how he plans on handling announcing a starter.

“Right now we haven’t made a decision, officially,” said Dorrell. “[CU offensive coordinator] Mike [Sanford] and I have talked a lot about it the last few days. It’s really hard. But the thing that we’ve come to a great conclusion about is there’s not a player on the offense that’s not totally confident in either one of these guys.”

Dorrell then expanded on the possibility of playing both quarterbacks, unprompted.

“There’s also this scenario about playing both anyway since they’re both really close in terms of what they were able to do this camp so there’s a lot of options out there for us,” said Dorrell.

Later on, Dorrell was asked more about a potential two-quarterback system.

“For example, out of Michigan, they had two quarterbacks that they played with last year. One was a starter and one came in and played significantly too. So I know that that can work. But we haven’t talked about that at length and detail. But that’s something that we’re going to consider because it is pretty close. It’s not like one’s really out there going further than the other. We wouldn’t have this discussion if that was the case. But that is something that is a possibility.”

When asked about Brendon Lewis and J.T. Shrout individually, Dorrell explained the processes both have gone through this offseason to put themselves in a position to be the starting quarterback.

“[Lewis] made up a lot of ground from what he did last year. And he had a lot of study time, really watched himself, really made a lot of changes to the things that he saw that he was doing poorly,” Dorrell said. “So as good as it was for him to recognize those things and have the offseason that he had and to have a good spring and got him to this point.”

“I think JT is pretty unique. His challenge was really accomplishing milestones or checklists of, can I be elusive enough in the pocket to evade a rush? Oh yeah, he can do that. So he checks that off. Can he run with the ball? Because that’s part of our offense, is that position running with the football and he was able to do that. Okay, [he’s] good there. So I think he feels like he’s ready to play,” Dorrell saidl.

In what’s been one of the main points driven home by Dorrell and his staff this preseason, the Buffs’ third-year head coach talked about why he is emphasizing the depth of this team and how the Buffs will be better off in that regard than in previous seasons.

“The last two years we were pretty decent with our first group,” Dorrell said about the defensive line. “But it was a significant drop off whenever the second group was in. But you had to use them because those [first-string] guys can’t play the whole game.”

Dorrell mentioned the depth the quarterback room has this season as well as the wide receiver room before getting excited about the inside linebackers and the new leader of that group.

“We’ve got depth at linebacker for the first time in a long time. We’ve got like six or seven inside linebackers. We’ve only had maybe two or three in years past,” said Dorrell.

Coach Dorrell talked about the Buffs receiving more than they bargained for when linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo, a graduate transfer from West Virginia, joined the team in May.

“The surprise guys for us are guys like Josh Chandler-Semedo who we just got here in May. He’s one of our top leaders in such a short period of time,” said Dorrell.

Oh, what the future holds…

The most interesting part of Dorrell’s media availability from the Front Range Huddle was how he talked about his future as CU’s head football coach and the overall health, and future of the program.

“I think everybody in this profession because of the competitiveness and being in the business of winning, we always anticipate that you can get fired,” said Dorrell. “Going back to me, and because of my experience in the NFL, which is really more drastic than others, I actually treat every year, every coaching year, since my UCLA years that I’m going in with a mindset I can be fired after this year.”

Dorrell continued, “I told [CU Athletic Director] Rick George that I’m trying to approach this year as it’s my last year. I say that to him every year, just because I want that and that’s how this thing is. That’s how you feed that inner monster inside. It’s a great feeling, just knocking off the chips as you go and the naysayers as you go and just making progress.”

He then transitioned to a birds-eye perspective of the program and what could be the driving success of CU’s future.

“We’re going to be good moving forward for a long period of time. The reason why is that I think I have a quarterback room that has some special talent,” said Dorrell. “I always judge the greatness of your team by that room. And we finally have depth in that room and we have good prospects for the future.”

Dorrell also mentioned that he feels that the recruiting at CU will only get better from here on out even if he is not the head coach for the Buffs.

“At the end of the day, if I were not here, and I’m not the leader of this program, this program is in much better shape than when I got here. It’s ready to be built on to win. So if it doesn’t work out for me right now, I know that it’s in much better shape right now than when I had it two years ago,” said Dorrell.

Before ending his media availability, Dorrell emphasized the growth the CU football program has seen since he was hired.

“I’m hoping I’m here a long time. But the bottom line is to build it right as we’ve done. And for the type of players we have in the program now that are better, more committed, inspired and competitive. The right work ethic, things like that. Those things were missing from the bulk of this team when I first got here. I just couldn’t say it. My job is to get it turned around. And now we’re at that point where it is turned around and now we’re ready to win.”

The Buffs’ 2022 campaign starts with a tough out-of-conference schedule that features TCU, Air Force and Minnesota where everyone will find out just how ready Colorado football is to get back to winning again.