UCLA Football Preview: CU's Dorrell on Hot Seat with 8-13 Record
UCLA Football Preview: CU's Dorrell on Hot Seat with 8-13 Record
After an 0-3 start this season, Karl Dorrell's seat is getting hotter in Boulder.
We begin our previews of the Colorado Buffaloes today with a look at the Buffs’ coaching staff and special teams.
As bad as the UCLA football program may seem after the first three games of the season, the Colorado football program looks like it’s in worse shape. Rather amazingly, Karl Dorrell still has a job this morning even though Arizona State’s Herm Edwards does not.
Of course, UCLA fans did try to warn Buffs fans when Dorrell was hired that he was, until that point anyway, the worst Bruin head coach in recent history, even if his record wasn’t quite the worst.
But Colorado hired him and, now, their program is exactly where we thought it would be. So far this year, that means Colorado is 0-3 with a 25-point loss to TCU, a 31-point loss to Air Force and Saturday’s 42-point loss to Minnesota.
As a further indication of the state of the Colorado program, CU Athletic Director Rick George put out the infamous statement of support that frequently precedes a coaching change on Sunday. In it, George wrote:
We have not come close to meeting our expectations this season and we own that. I know that Coach Dorrell, our coaching and support staff, and our student-athletes are working hard to get us on track, and with conference play starting this Saturday, we hope we all will enjoy a home victory over UCLA.
I wonder if Dorrell will tell the CU media this week that he and his staff will be “coaching hard” like he did when he was on the hot seat in Westwood.
If Dorrell doesn’t win a game soon, he could be the next FBS head coach shown the door.
Considering how tough it’s been for the Buffs to score so far this season, maybe he shouldn’t have replaced Darrin Chiaverini, his offensive coordinator last season, with Mike Sanford. The Buffs are averaging just 10 points per game through three games. Given that they haven’t scored more than one touchdown in a game yet this season, even a suspicious UCLA defense should be able to keep Colorado from getting into the end zone.
Sanford has an interesting coaching history. He was the head coach at Western Kentucky, replacing Jeff Brohm. In his first season, the Hilltoppers went 6-7, losing the Cure Bowl to Georgia State. In his second season, they went just 3-9 and Sanford was fired.
He has been the offensive coordinator for Boise State, Notre Dame, Utah State and Minnesota. He also served in multiple roles on the Stanford coaching staff.
Chris Wilson returns for his second season as the team’s defensive coordinator.
Special Teams
When Dorrell was head coach at UCLA, one of the more maddening aspects of his coaching philosophy was his reliance on field goals. So far this season, Colorado has kicked as many field goals as they have touchdowns. That’s not a very good sign, but it helps that the Buffs have a good kicker.
Sophomore Cole Becker is a perfect three for three on field goal attempts this season. In fact, he leads the team in scoring with 12 of Colorado’s 30 points. When your kicker is your team’s top scorer, that’s another red flag regarding your offense.
Becker’s season long field goal is 43 yards, but, as a freshman, he also made one from 56, even though he was just 14-for-20. He is a perfect 28-for-28 on PAT attempts in his collegiate career, but your team needs to get into the end zone in order for that to happen and that seems to be Colorado’s problem this season.
Becker also handles kickoff duties for the Buffaloes. All nine of his kickoffs have gone for touchbacks and eight of the nine have gone through or over the end zone. So, don’t expect the Bruins to be able to return any kickoffs.
Another sign that the offensive isn’t playing well is how many times your punter has to punt the ball. Freshman Ashton Logan, who hails from Orange County, has punted 17 times already this season. By comparison, UCLA has only punted six times so far.
Logan has punted for more than 50 yards twice this season and his season (and career) longest is 55 yards. Four of his punts have landed inside the 20. His average on the year is 40.59 yards per punt.
Another indication of how bad of a football team Colorado is this year is the fact that, through three games, the Buffs’ opponents have punted just six times. Only one of those punts has been returned and it went for 11 yards. Sophomore Chase Penry was the punt returner for that and he is at the top of CU’s punt return depth chart.
On the kickoff return team, it’s been more of a committee approach. Sophomore Nikko Reed and senior Maurice Bell have each returned two kickoffs while junior Deion Smith has returned one. Of these three guys, Reed appears to be the most dangerous. His returns have gone for 45 yards and 29 yards, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell’s two returns were 19 yards and 18 yards in length and Smith’s return was just 11 yards long. Redshirt freshman Charlie Offerdahl is the only man on the depth chart who has not yet returned a kickoff.
Go Bruins!!!
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Despite the 0-3, all essentially blow-outs, why am I not more confident about a possible upset? The Bruin offense will score points, but our D might make Safford look awfully good!
Karl’s totally beating UCLA and saving his job. I can definitely see it.