You'll pardon me once again — I'm leaving out a few quotes from Karl Dorrell regarding the irony about being a UCLA alum and former head coach who now starts off his CU career against the Bruins; think we can do without those juicy quotes...but here's what Dorrell said today, with some more tidbits on Brendon Lewis, an update on Antonio Alfano, the offense CU plans to run and what Dorrell thinks the strengths of his team are.
1. Dorrell's opening statement:
“We’re excited that we get the chance to have a good fall season here. I know that all of us in the Pac-12 have dealt with many issues with this pandemic in terms of football and all the landscape of how things were going from March all the way through this point. But we’re really excited that our conference and the members of our executive teams came back together and reconvened about an opportunity to play this fall.
I think all of us as coaches and players alike are excited to get a chance to compete and play this season. I think it’s right on time given how the last few weeks we’ve been playing college football in other conferences and I think , if you can imagine, the juices and the energy and adrenaline is starting to flow when you see other people play. I’m just very excited that our conference didi reconsider and give us the opportunity to play this fall.
As for us here at CU, players are really excited to go. Like all of us, it’s not a perfect scenario in terms of getting the preparation done and things that were missing along the way, but it is an opportunity to play. We have an opportunity in front of us to get 25 practices in and play out first game on Nov. 7. There’s plenty of time for us to get this team ready to go.
Will we be perfect? No. But I think we’re showing great promise early on and I think we’re building to get better each week. Our team is excited about putting their hat in for a chance to go to the championship. That’s what we’re shooting for. I know the expectations are probably not there on the outside of this building, but we feel that we can put something together with a good staff and good players and good attention to detail in getting yourself ready to go. Next month, we feel like we can be a pretty good program and that might surprise some people.
We’re going to ride that momentum. Our team, for example, has been resilient throughout the whole process of not having spring practice, we had some work in the summer — not much — that stopped, we made the announcement not to play and we reconvened later. So as you can imagine, like all of us, it seems like the programs and schedules changed week to week, day to day and hour by hour but for the most part, I’m very excited about this team because they're resilient, they’ve kept a positive attitude — they wanted a shot to play and we have that shot to play, so we’re excited."
2. In similar fashion to how injuries can make players appreciate the game of football a lot more than before they had to miss time, does the COVID ordeal have that same mental impact?
“Yes. I would say you’re absolutely correct. You can see in the games that have been played both on the professional level and the guys who have been playing in college — you can tell that there’s a level of appreciation that probably went by the wayside in normal circumstances. You saw that was much more prevalent in the games we’re seeing and that’s on both levels, professionally and in college.
That’s the one thing that tells us this great game we have is part of the fabric (or our lives). We can’t take this game for granted. It’s a blessing to play, it’s a blessing to play at a high level like in college or as a professional level — we need to take advantage of those things. Given this year and how difficult it’s been for everybody in all walks of life, there is a level of appreciation that’s probably higher than it ever has before.
That’s definitely how we feel. It was almost a fall season for me not coaching the game of football in the last 33 years. It was a missing element in my life. There’s no question that there’s a different level of appreciation both from a coaching standpoint and for our players.”
3. How optimistic that Boulder County will grant you a COVID health exemption to begin practicing by Friday?
“We’re hopeful that it’s going to work out. We’ve operated the last two and a half, three weeks, under the new ordinance that was made by our county for particularly the age group of 18-22-years-old young people.
We’ve been doing individual workouts for the last week and a held. This week, on Monday, we still had to partner up for workouts with just two guys, but we could go in pockets of 10s in a group. We’ve been operating under the guidelines of what Boulder County wants us to do.
We want to do what’s right for our community and our university. And obviously, the health and safety of our student-athletes. So we’ve been progressing for the last few days and we’re hopeful that we’ll be cleared to have practice on Friday but we don’t know for sure.”
4. How is the team right now on the overall health front?
“We’re in pretty good health. Most of the issues that we have from a training aspect have been soft issue stuff — no broken bones or anything like that, it’s guys with a tweaked hamstring or groin...we’re in pretty good health for the most part.
We had some guys that had surgeries way, way back in the spring but (those) are guys that have already been put on the long term (injured) list. But since then, we’ve been in pretty good health, other than some soft issue stuff.”
5. What update can you provide us on Antonio Alfano, his status with the team and also his eligibility?
“We are currently working with that (eligibility) case right now. We did have him reinstated in our program. He did some great work over the summer, getting himself eligible and taking care of business from a school standpoint. He did miss some time in the spring dealing with some medical issues, so that’s really the hangup right now — getting him cleared medically given his condition, which we’re trying to get a handle on.
He has not been cleared as of today but he is reinstated as being part of our football program and training. He’s been in limited fashion because of some of the things he’s been dealing with, but it’s a process right now. As of today, right now, he’s not eligible.”
6. What are fair expectations for this team and have you had to alter your own expectations of what this team can do because of your late hire, COVID and a lack of any practice time until now?
“Unusual is an understatement — I still have great aspirations for this team. I know that we haven't had a lot of time together and we haven’t practiced together. Hopefully that starts for us on Friday. But we’ve done enough work off the field — everybody’s a Zoom expert, right. We have had a lot of time in that aspect in terms of the information that could be taught. Now we’re at that point where we have to put it together in this camp and in 25 practices. We’re going to have to get it tuned up and ready to go to create a great product when we line up on Nov. 7.
I think we can do it, I really do, just because of how quickly our guys have digested information. They know it, so it’s just a matter of getting some practice and some reps for us to perform at a high level. That’s the challenge — I didn't have enough field time to forecast that. But I feel good about the mental aspect of our team and that gives us a chance because I know that our mindset is in the right place, I know that (players) understand that every practice is critically important as it relates to the season and we feel that we can come out there, play well, compete and win some games.
One thing I told this team is that we’re not concerned about missing spring practice or things like that...I think there’s a lot of programs in our conference and around the country that have had shortcomings because of this pandemic We’re one of 100 or so D1 programs that have dealt with this. You can see that there’s still pretty food football being played and we anticipate that we’re going to be one of those teams, as well.”
7. What is your evaluation, despite the real lack of opportunities to effectively do so, of your QBs room?
“We have to determine and find that starter for us for Nov. 7. Normally, when you’re in this scenario, you go through a battle in the spring, you kind of have an idea, you have summer work, go into training camp and evaluate from there. We’re just going to have to do that all in one time and to be honest with you, it is something I haven’t done before in my career but it is what it is, given our circumstances. We’re going to make the best assessment we can in these 25 practices and that’s the best we can do.
I feel like we have really good coaches, particularly our QBs coach in Danny Langsdorf, that’s a veteran coach whose coached multiple players, some of whom are paying in the League...I believe we’ll get someone out there who can manage our team, manage or offense and do some good things — probably getting better as the season progresses. We just have to do all of our evaluation process in this one month of time.”
8. We've heard about how Brendon Lewis is killing it in the weight room, but where is he in terms of his knowledge of the playbook and understanding of offensive terminology?
“Brendon is, for a guy at his age being a freshman, basically has written up most of the records that are in our weight room in terms of a strength perspective. He’s done a really nice job of transitioning here and getting comfortable with our staff and doing those things. I’ve been very, very impressed with him. He’s an extremely talented kid, a tremendous athlete and has a really good arm.
His challenge, like most people in their first year, is picking up our system, being able to perform in a timely manner and understanding how to navigate it. For any freshman, that’s always a challenge. He’s been very impressive — I think he acts a little bit older than his age, which is a good thing for his position.
I’m curious to see how he does, I know we had a chance to watch him in the summer with some field instruction drills that we had, so he was throwing (which allowed us) to let us make some comparisons with he and Sam and Tyler.
He’s got just as good arm talent as anyone that we have, so it’s just a matter of him really digesting our information to be able to perform with great timing and anticipation — which I think most freshmen struggle with, not getting a lot of reps, but he just hasn’t gotten a chance to do that year.”
9. With yourself, Darrin Chiaverini and Danny Langsdorf all being offensive-minded coaches with playcalling experience, how have you all bounced ideas off of each other and shared your own thoughts about the offense will look like?
“That’s always a dangerous proposition — because I’ve been a coordinator a number of years in my career, there’s a lot of offenses that I know, a lot of offenses that Danny knows because he’s a great experienced coach, as well. Darrin has some experience in other systems, too, so there’s a wealth of information and no shortage of information, for sure.
I think the challenge we all have to deal with — and this is something that I often remind (Chiaverini) about, being head coach, is that whatever we decide idea-wise pf what to do, it has to fit the skill set of our quarterback and the people that we operate with. It’s not really so much about what we know but what (the QBs) can do and do it at a high level. That’s what the blessing of having a lot of offensive experience is — you have more information to see what fits those particular players.
We’ve been really guard about not putting in too much just because we haven’t had a lot of field time but I see as soon as we get someone established and starting and playing, we can continue to add more to that player’s plate. As long as he can digest it and as long as it fits what he does best. That’s been our mindset with the three of us. I’m more on that side of it — really stepping back and seeing the process from the background as Darrin calls the plays.
I get a chance to make a really good assessment about if this is good, if it’s not — that kind of thing. That’s how we’ll treat these next 25 practices, just really try to cut it down to things that are important for that (QB) to feel confident that he can be successful.”
10. Have you given any thought as to the possibility and feasibility of conducting practices outside of Boulder County if necessary?
“We’ve had some discussion about that but we haven't done anything concrete about that. What we’re really trying to do, in a nutshell, is operate completely under the ordinance of what Boulder County health people want us to do and showing our support for that and acting in good faith with that. And then gradually, hopefully getting to the next step. But other than discussion, we haven’t really planned to move off(campus) or do any of those things.
We’ve been working each and every day with Boulder County, giving them all the reports and all the things we’ve been doing. They have been very pleased with us and how our student-athletes are operating under their guidelines. We’re going to continue to do that because we want to do what’s right here in Boulder County and do it in a way that’s going to give us a chance to line up and play this next month.
I haven’t been told officially, but we’re hopeful that it’s going to give us a chance to have an exemption so that we can go and practice on Friday.”
11. What position groups stick out the most to you as strengths on this team?
“I’m really pleased and excited about — probably our deepest group and most experienced group has been our offensive and defensive lines. They have some returners with great starting experience and they have some production on defense under their belts. I think from my perspective, as a new coach, if any place you want some experience, it’s up front.
I would say we have a number of guys that are back offensively that have some great experience playing that really are going to be solid for us. We have all three starters returning on the defensive (line) in Mustafa Johnson and Terrance Lang and Jalen Sami. We feel that those position (groups) are pretty solid for us and I couldn’t ask for anything better.
I like our backfield, with Alex Fontenot leading that group — there’s depth there and there is depth at receiver, even though we lost Laviska (Shenault). K.D. Nixon is back and a couple other helmets that played last year. Those are solid elements for us. Our linebacker group — three starters are back with Carson (Wells), Nate (Landman) and Akil (Jones).
And with the secondary, we’ve got a good, young influx of talent coming in this summer that’s here and trying to establish themselves as depth. We’ve got some guys that have played last year for the first time — I know Mel Tucker converted some receivers into corners, so they played a season and ended on a positive note and had some progress from making some steps into this year, along with the freshman depth.
We feel like there’s some things that could work in our favor, but the most important thing that I’d say I am really pleased with on both sides of the ball is that we have some experience.”
FIN
Regarding the Boulder County health situation — I get the sense that CU is optimistic they will get an exemption and be good to go. Fingers crossed:
I asked Dorrell about Brendon Lewis to get more context on how exactly far along he is and Dorrell did provide some more snippets on him; ultimately, it appears there is still some work to be done, as is the case with the vast majority of freshman QBs. Right now, I say advantage to Lytle in terms of who opening day starter is.
Alfano's situation remains up in the air. Dorrell gave some details on him but was a bit cryptic in the waiver process / getting him medically cleared to go.
As for the offense, it definitely seems like a lot of the playbook and how the offense will be run is still TDB. Obviously, the blueprint is there, but Dorrell seems to fully understand the differences in skill sets amongst his three QB contestants and I imagine it'll take a few weeks of camp for the coaches to get a clearer picture on who's going to start, at which point they'll go from there in formalizing the playbook.
1. Dorrell's opening statement:
“We’re excited that we get the chance to have a good fall season here. I know that all of us in the Pac-12 have dealt with many issues with this pandemic in terms of football and all the landscape of how things were going from March all the way through this point. But we’re really excited that our conference and the members of our executive teams came back together and reconvened about an opportunity to play this fall.
I think all of us as coaches and players alike are excited to get a chance to compete and play this season. I think it’s right on time given how the last few weeks we’ve been playing college football in other conferences and I think , if you can imagine, the juices and the energy and adrenaline is starting to flow when you see other people play. I’m just very excited that our conference didi reconsider and give us the opportunity to play this fall.
As for us here at CU, players are really excited to go. Like all of us, it’s not a perfect scenario in terms of getting the preparation done and things that were missing along the way, but it is an opportunity to play. We have an opportunity in front of us to get 25 practices in and play out first game on Nov. 7. There’s plenty of time for us to get this team ready to go.
Will we be perfect? No. But I think we’re showing great promise early on and I think we’re building to get better each week. Our team is excited about putting their hat in for a chance to go to the championship. That’s what we’re shooting for. I know the expectations are probably not there on the outside of this building, but we feel that we can put something together with a good staff and good players and good attention to detail in getting yourself ready to go. Next month, we feel like we can be a pretty good program and that might surprise some people.
We’re going to ride that momentum. Our team, for example, has been resilient throughout the whole process of not having spring practice, we had some work in the summer — not much — that stopped, we made the announcement not to play and we reconvened later. So as you can imagine, like all of us, it seems like the programs and schedules changed week to week, day to day and hour by hour but for the most part, I’m very excited about this team because they're resilient, they’ve kept a positive attitude — they wanted a shot to play and we have that shot to play, so we’re excited."
2. In similar fashion to how injuries can make players appreciate the game of football a lot more than before they had to miss time, does the COVID ordeal have that same mental impact?
“Yes. I would say you’re absolutely correct. You can see in the games that have been played both on the professional level and the guys who have been playing in college — you can tell that there’s a level of appreciation that probably went by the wayside in normal circumstances. You saw that was much more prevalent in the games we’re seeing and that’s on both levels, professionally and in college.
That’s the one thing that tells us this great game we have is part of the fabric (or our lives). We can’t take this game for granted. It’s a blessing to play, it’s a blessing to play at a high level like in college or as a professional level — we need to take advantage of those things. Given this year and how difficult it’s been for everybody in all walks of life, there is a level of appreciation that’s probably higher than it ever has before.
That’s definitely how we feel. It was almost a fall season for me not coaching the game of football in the last 33 years. It was a missing element in my life. There’s no question that there’s a different level of appreciation both from a coaching standpoint and for our players.”
3. How optimistic that Boulder County will grant you a COVID health exemption to begin practicing by Friday?
“We’re hopeful that it’s going to work out. We’ve operated the last two and a half, three weeks, under the new ordinance that was made by our county for particularly the age group of 18-22-years-old young people.
We’ve been doing individual workouts for the last week and a held. This week, on Monday, we still had to partner up for workouts with just two guys, but we could go in pockets of 10s in a group. We’ve been operating under the guidelines of what Boulder County wants us to do.
We want to do what’s right for our community and our university. And obviously, the health and safety of our student-athletes. So we’ve been progressing for the last few days and we’re hopeful that we’ll be cleared to have practice on Friday but we don’t know for sure.”
4. How is the team right now on the overall health front?
“We’re in pretty good health. Most of the issues that we have from a training aspect have been soft issue stuff — no broken bones or anything like that, it’s guys with a tweaked hamstring or groin...we’re in pretty good health for the most part.
We had some guys that had surgeries way, way back in the spring but (those) are guys that have already been put on the long term (injured) list. But since then, we’ve been in pretty good health, other than some soft issue stuff.”
5. What update can you provide us on Antonio Alfano, his status with the team and also his eligibility?
“We are currently working with that (eligibility) case right now. We did have him reinstated in our program. He did some great work over the summer, getting himself eligible and taking care of business from a school standpoint. He did miss some time in the spring dealing with some medical issues, so that’s really the hangup right now — getting him cleared medically given his condition, which we’re trying to get a handle on.
He has not been cleared as of today but he is reinstated as being part of our football program and training. He’s been in limited fashion because of some of the things he’s been dealing with, but it’s a process right now. As of today, right now, he’s not eligible.”
6. What are fair expectations for this team and have you had to alter your own expectations of what this team can do because of your late hire, COVID and a lack of any practice time until now?
“Unusual is an understatement — I still have great aspirations for this team. I know that we haven't had a lot of time together and we haven’t practiced together. Hopefully that starts for us on Friday. But we’ve done enough work off the field — everybody’s a Zoom expert, right. We have had a lot of time in that aspect in terms of the information that could be taught. Now we’re at that point where we have to put it together in this camp and in 25 practices. We’re going to have to get it tuned up and ready to go to create a great product when we line up on Nov. 7.
I think we can do it, I really do, just because of how quickly our guys have digested information. They know it, so it’s just a matter of getting some practice and some reps for us to perform at a high level. That’s the challenge — I didn't have enough field time to forecast that. But I feel good about the mental aspect of our team and that gives us a chance because I know that our mindset is in the right place, I know that (players) understand that every practice is critically important as it relates to the season and we feel that we can come out there, play well, compete and win some games.
One thing I told this team is that we’re not concerned about missing spring practice or things like that...I think there’s a lot of programs in our conference and around the country that have had shortcomings because of this pandemic We’re one of 100 or so D1 programs that have dealt with this. You can see that there’s still pretty food football being played and we anticipate that we’re going to be one of those teams, as well.”
7. What is your evaluation, despite the real lack of opportunities to effectively do so, of your QBs room?
“We have to determine and find that starter for us for Nov. 7. Normally, when you’re in this scenario, you go through a battle in the spring, you kind of have an idea, you have summer work, go into training camp and evaluate from there. We’re just going to have to do that all in one time and to be honest with you, it is something I haven’t done before in my career but it is what it is, given our circumstances. We’re going to make the best assessment we can in these 25 practices and that’s the best we can do.
I feel like we have really good coaches, particularly our QBs coach in Danny Langsdorf, that’s a veteran coach whose coached multiple players, some of whom are paying in the League...I believe we’ll get someone out there who can manage our team, manage or offense and do some good things — probably getting better as the season progresses. We just have to do all of our evaluation process in this one month of time.”
8. We've heard about how Brendon Lewis is killing it in the weight room, but where is he in terms of his knowledge of the playbook and understanding of offensive terminology?
“Brendon is, for a guy at his age being a freshman, basically has written up most of the records that are in our weight room in terms of a strength perspective. He’s done a really nice job of transitioning here and getting comfortable with our staff and doing those things. I’ve been very, very impressed with him. He’s an extremely talented kid, a tremendous athlete and has a really good arm.
His challenge, like most people in their first year, is picking up our system, being able to perform in a timely manner and understanding how to navigate it. For any freshman, that’s always a challenge. He’s been very impressive — I think he acts a little bit older than his age, which is a good thing for his position.
I’m curious to see how he does, I know we had a chance to watch him in the summer with some field instruction drills that we had, so he was throwing (which allowed us) to let us make some comparisons with he and Sam and Tyler.
He’s got just as good arm talent as anyone that we have, so it’s just a matter of him really digesting our information to be able to perform with great timing and anticipation — which I think most freshmen struggle with, not getting a lot of reps, but he just hasn’t gotten a chance to do that year.”
9. With yourself, Darrin Chiaverini and Danny Langsdorf all being offensive-minded coaches with playcalling experience, how have you all bounced ideas off of each other and shared your own thoughts about the offense will look like?
“That’s always a dangerous proposition — because I’ve been a coordinator a number of years in my career, there’s a lot of offenses that I know, a lot of offenses that Danny knows because he’s a great experienced coach, as well. Darrin has some experience in other systems, too, so there’s a wealth of information and no shortage of information, for sure.
I think the challenge we all have to deal with — and this is something that I often remind (Chiaverini) about, being head coach, is that whatever we decide idea-wise pf what to do, it has to fit the skill set of our quarterback and the people that we operate with. It’s not really so much about what we know but what (the QBs) can do and do it at a high level. That’s what the blessing of having a lot of offensive experience is — you have more information to see what fits those particular players.
We’ve been really guard about not putting in too much just because we haven’t had a lot of field time but I see as soon as we get someone established and starting and playing, we can continue to add more to that player’s plate. As long as he can digest it and as long as it fits what he does best. That’s been our mindset with the three of us. I’m more on that side of it — really stepping back and seeing the process from the background as Darrin calls the plays.
I get a chance to make a really good assessment about if this is good, if it’s not — that kind of thing. That’s how we’ll treat these next 25 practices, just really try to cut it down to things that are important for that (QB) to feel confident that he can be successful.”
10. Have you given any thought as to the possibility and feasibility of conducting practices outside of Boulder County if necessary?
“We’ve had some discussion about that but we haven't done anything concrete about that. What we’re really trying to do, in a nutshell, is operate completely under the ordinance of what Boulder County health people want us to do and showing our support for that and acting in good faith with that. And then gradually, hopefully getting to the next step. But other than discussion, we haven’t really planned to move off(campus) or do any of those things.
We’ve been working each and every day with Boulder County, giving them all the reports and all the things we’ve been doing. They have been very pleased with us and how our student-athletes are operating under their guidelines. We’re going to continue to do that because we want to do what’s right here in Boulder County and do it in a way that’s going to give us a chance to line up and play this next month.
I haven’t been told officially, but we’re hopeful that it’s going to give us a chance to have an exemption so that we can go and practice on Friday.”
11. What position groups stick out the most to you as strengths on this team?
“I’m really pleased and excited about — probably our deepest group and most experienced group has been our offensive and defensive lines. They have some returners with great starting experience and they have some production on defense under their belts. I think from my perspective, as a new coach, if any place you want some experience, it’s up front.
I would say we have a number of guys that are back offensively that have some great experience playing that really are going to be solid for us. We have all three starters returning on the defensive (line) in Mustafa Johnson and Terrance Lang and Jalen Sami. We feel that those position (groups) are pretty solid for us and I couldn’t ask for anything better.
I like our backfield, with Alex Fontenot leading that group — there’s depth there and there is depth at receiver, even though we lost Laviska (Shenault). K.D. Nixon is back and a couple other helmets that played last year. Those are solid elements for us. Our linebacker group — three starters are back with Carson (Wells), Nate (Landman) and Akil (Jones).
And with the secondary, we’ve got a good, young influx of talent coming in this summer that’s here and trying to establish themselves as depth. We’ve got some guys that have played last year for the first time — I know Mel Tucker converted some receivers into corners, so they played a season and ended on a positive note and had some progress from making some steps into this year, along with the freshman depth.
We feel like there’s some things that could work in our favor, but the most important thing that I’d say I am really pleased with on both sides of the ball is that we have some experience.”
FIN
Regarding the Boulder County health situation — I get the sense that CU is optimistic they will get an exemption and be good to go. Fingers crossed:
I asked Dorrell about Brendon Lewis to get more context on how exactly far along he is and Dorrell did provide some more snippets on him; ultimately, it appears there is still some work to be done, as is the case with the vast majority of freshman QBs. Right now, I say advantage to Lytle in terms of who opening day starter is.
Alfano's situation remains up in the air. Dorrell gave some details on him but was a bit cryptic in the waiver process / getting him medically cleared to go.
As for the offense, it definitely seems like a lot of the playbook and how the offense will be run is still TDB. Obviously, the blueprint is there, but Dorrell seems to fully understand the differences in skill sets amongst his three QB contestants and I imagine it'll take a few weeks of camp for the coaches to get a clearer picture on who's going to start, at which point they'll go from there in formalizing the playbook.
