Everything we learned at Karl Dorrell's introductory press conference

BOULDER — The Karl Dorrell era has arrived in Boulder.

After a 12-day search, the University of Colorado announced Sunday evening that Dorrell, 56, would be the 27th head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. Monday morning, he met with the media for the first time.

Here’s what we learned:

He loves Colorado

One thing is very, very clear: Karl Dorrell does not plan on leaving CU any time soon. Dorrell, who previously coached in Boulder from 1992-93 and again from 1995-98, has decided to plant his roots just outside of town.

Dorrell got his Division I coaching start at CU. His son was born 10 minutes away in Louisville. His brother lives here. Dorrell and his wife actually decided that they were going to live in Colorado when his coaching career is over, so they bought a plot of land in Lafayette and built a house on it two years ago.

“I’m here for the long haul,” Dorrell said. “That’s what I want you to know. This is my dream job. This is my dream job. You’ll get the best out of me, and I’m sure that it’s going to be reflected in the players that you see play on Saturdays. I want to thank you and I want to thank the Boulder community. I’m happy to be back home.”

Dorrell reiterated his love of Boulder repeatedly in his press conference and was close to tears on at least one occasion. He’s no longer just visiting his home for four or five weeks during the NFL offseason, he’s able to spend all year here.

“[The Miami Dolphins] made it hard because they tried to keep me, but I’ll tell you this, I would probably still be there because of where my career was going in the NFL if it was another college job, but because it was Colorado, my home, there was no one that was going to take me away from this job,” Dorrell said.

It’s safe to say Dorrell is appreciative of the opportunity.

“I know that I’m here for a reason and I know that I’ve accepted the challenge of leading this program to greatness,” Dorrell said. “I’m going to work tireless hours to do that because this is a place that I believe in. It’s a part of my fabric, it’s a part of my background, and you guys are going to get the very best of me which is going to be a very good football team.”

He already met his team

Just hours after the University of Colorado announced Dorrell’s hiring on Sunday, the coach called all of the Buffs’ seniors into a meeting room to introduce himself. The idea came from athletic director Rick George and associate athletic director Lance Carl.

“This is their last hurrah for their career,” Dorrell said. “It was a great statement of support and respect for us to do that the day prior to meeting with the team. They were very appreciative of that and we really had some great discussions.”

Monday morning, Dorrell spoke to the rest of the team. His message was that he wants to help them grow as people first and football players second.

“It’s important that we really get a chance to know our players and know them on an intimate level and understand how they know what needs to be done to pride them to be successful, both on the field and in the classroom,” Dorrell said. “Also, to be there to love them when they need that, as mentors or father figures, for them in their lives. That’s the job of a coach. Our coaches will understand that. The staff that I bring here will have the understanding that we’ve got to be in the people business.”

Dorrell says that’s how you build a championship-caliber program.

“Our coaches and culture are going to develop our players to be tough-minded, battle-tested, smart, to have a love to compete and have passion for the game, to care deeply about each other, and most importantly, have one goal in mind which is to bring a championship,” Dorrell said.

The next step is to have one-on-one meetings with most of the team this week. Again, the emphasis will be on trying to figure out more about the student-athletes, so Dorrell can try to decipher how to teach them.

“The biggest thing I would say is, like I’ve expressed today, our players are our number one asset,” he said.

He’s about to start building a staff

When Mel Tucker left, he brought some of his staff with him.

So far, offensive coordinator Jay Johnson, offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic, linebackers coach Ross Els and offensive quality control coach William Peagler have gone to Michigan State. Defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh left for Tennessee just before Tucker left.

All of those positions are now vacant and need to be filled. Ideally, they’ll all be filled well before spring practice starts on March 15.

“Our staff will consist of great teachers,” Dorrell said. “I’m going to hire teachers that I think are great communicators that care deeply about our student-athletes. They have to have these qualities that build up this staff.”

Whether Dorrell will rely more heavily on his extensive ties in the NFL or in college football is still unknown. He says that getting the right type of coach is more important than his background.

Dorrell must also decide which, if any, coaches on the current staff he’ll retain for the 2020 season. He’s starting that process by sitting down for one-on-one conversations with all of them, beginning Monday.

“I feel it’s fair for me to get a chance to visit with them first and then we’ll kind of go from there,” Dorrell said. “It’ll probably be a process of over this week.”

His schemes are flexible

Dorrell runs a West Coast offense but we don’t really know the details of it. His last stint as an offensive coordinator was way back in 2014, so we haven’t been able to see much of his work recently. With how quickly the game of football is changing, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, it’s anybody’s guess what we could see on Saturdays this fall.

The coach provided some clarity on Monday, but it seemed as though he’s holding out on the details until he hires his coordinators. Expect the team to be physical though.

“I’m an offensive coach, a wide receiver coach, quarterbacks, passing game, all that stuff, but I know from the very heart of hearts that the program came from a cornerstone which was our defense,” Dorrell said. “Whether it was Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGee, Chad Brown, Deon Figures, there’s a number of great players that played in this league and played on a professional level, but it was the cornerstone of the team.”

More specifically, Dorrell plans to keep the 3-4 scheme that Mel Tucker’s defense used last season.

“The last time I was here we were a 3-4 team,” Dorrell said. “I’m good with that because it’s a great defense to adjust to with these offensive sets that offensive coaches do. So, I think it’s a good foundation for our defense.”

On the offensive side, Dorrell may not lean as heavily on the ground-and-pound style of play that was being established in Boulder in 2019.

“I like balance,” Dorrell said. “We’re going to throw the football for sure, but we need to be able to run the football as well. The best it’s ever been, and it probably hasn’t been that way since, was when we had the Heisman Trophy runner with Rashaan [Salaam] and two prolific receivers outside that he had 2,000 yards rushing and they each had 1,000-yards receiving.”

One note from Dorrell’s meeting with the players hints at a high-powered attack though.

“What we do as a program stays within our program, but what we do on Saturdays will be a sight to be seen.”

He’s going after the top recruits

One of the knocks on Dorrell’s time at UCLA was his recruiting. There were obvious mitigating factors during his time in Los Angeles, notably Pete Carroll’s USC teams dominating the recruiting in the area, but one thing in particular stood out: UCLA was investing much money in football.

“It’s important at this level to feel like you can build your program and have the resources to be successful,” Dorrell said Monday, leaving a prolonged pause halfway through the sentence.

In terms of his actual recruiting plans, Dorrell led off by saying recruiting Colorado is the first step.

“We want the foundation of the best players in our state to stay here, so we need to do a great job of taking care of home,” Dorrell said. “That’s kind of the heartbeat of your team, right here from home, so we want to keep our best players here.”

From there, Dorrell labeled some locations as primary areas and conection areas. California, Texas and Louisiana are primary areas, as are other hotbeds in the western part of the country.

“I lived in Florida for a while, my son and daughter went to high school there, we have connections there so those would be kind of spot recruiting, not primary areas but connection areas,” Dorrell said. “I think we’re going to continue with the path that we have right now. I think that’s been very instrumental to our success.”

The type of player Dorrell is after is much simpler.

“The type of player, I think that was the other part of your question, we’re going for the best players,” Dorrell said. “We’re going to get back to recruiting the best players.”