Developing depth is the key to opening up CU's playbooks

BOULDER — Back at UCLA, Karl Dorrell ran a West Coast offense that often featured heavy personnel. The Bruins’ offense bullied opponents up front with fullbacks and multiple tight ends.

Now Dorrell is the head coach of the Buffs but his new offensive coordinator, Darrin Chiaverini, doesn’t expect to see the same heavy sets from the Buffs this season.

(NOTE: Offensive personnel groupings are often referred to by numbers; 10 personnel means one running back, zero tight ends and four receivers, 11 personnel means one running back, one tight end and three receivers, and 12 personnel means one running back, two tight ends and two receivers.)

“We’ll talk about 11 and 12, but you also have to have the personnel to run 22 personnel and we’re still recruiting the tight end position,” Chiaverini said. “You have to have the personnel to match the scheme that you want to run. You can’t just be saying, ‘Hey, let’s run 12 personnel, let’s try 23.’ Are we built for that?”

Brady Russell is a virtual lock to be the Buffs’ starting tight end when Colorado kicks off the season in Fort Collins. But — as Chiaverini said — there isn’t much behind Russell on the depth chart.

“That is still a position we’re getting better at,” Chiaverini said. “We signed two in Louis Passarello and Caleb Fauria (in the ’20 class), and we’re recruiting hard in the ’21 class to sign some top guys.”

Without tight ends, Colorado will have to put even more receivers on the field. That may seem right up Chiaverini’s alley, given the spread concepts he employed when he was the play-caller for the first time in 2018, but Chiaverini says his scheme was more diverse than outsiders may think.

“There is still going to be spread in our system and if you look back in 2018, we ran a lot of 11 personnel. We really did,” Chiaverini said. “I think the misconception with me is that ‘Well, Chev just wants to be in 10 and then you are only in spread.’ That is not it at all.”

The combination of Chiaverini’s experience in spread and Air Raid offenses and Dorrell’s experience in West Coast offenses makes the Buffs extremely versatile. In a perfect world, the number of potential gameplans that could be put together in a given week would be remarkably high.

But in reality, at least in 2020, the versatility of the offense isn’t nearly as important as the adaptability. Instead of trying to find 15 different ways to surprise a defense, Colorado’s offensive coaches have to find one or two ways to get their most talented players on the field. Only the Alabamas and Clemsons of the world have enough talent at every position year-in and year-out to take advantage of everything their coaches can dream up.

“We have had a lot of constructive conversations, Coach Dorrell, (quarterbacks) Coach (Danny) Langsdorf, our staff, and I,” Chiaverini said. “We will build (the offense) around our personnel. Who are our best players and how can we be effective?”

But to have different combinations of defenders, you have to have more than 11 defenders who you trust to put on the field. While the defensive line may be the deepest group on the roster, even new defensive line coach Chris Wilson is emphasizing the importance of building depth.

“We’ve got a good group,” Wilson said. “The biggest thing for us is to develop the bottom part of the roster.”