Before I start, a quick question that maybe you could briefly answer in the comments: I figured that at least early on, it might be preferable for all of you if I list word for word everything Karl Dorrell says and every question he takes following practices.
But if I am wrong in that line of thinking — if you'd rather just see snippets but combined with other quotes from players — please let me know.
Point is, I don't want to come off lazy in just presenting a manuscript of Q+As with Dorrell. I do this, and transcribe all of this, because in my view it is the best way to fully bring to you guys everything that was uttered after practice and everything that was discussed by Dorrell.
This is just me requesting some feedback. Ultimately at some point a combination of what I mentioned above will likely be the result but again, since we're so early on, I figured you'd all want to hear everything Dorrell talked about.
Let me know!
1. Dorrell's opening statement after his first practice with the Buffs:
“The first practice was a good first day. I wasn’t a perfect first day but I liked the energy and I liked how guys were communicating. I liked the competitiveness of this group. I think it was a good start to our 25 days. I think that obviously we have a lot of work to do. I know that and the team knows that but it was a good, solid start. These guys did a good job of performing the information — it wasn’t perfect but they had an idea of what it was. At least from a meeting standpoint we were able to communicate and do things well and get things started and executed."
"Now it’s time to, as we go through each day, try to time it up to where it’s high level execution.”
2. Dorrell on how it felt being out there for the first time:
“It felt really good. I felt that (the players) had a pretty good idea in terms of the things we were trying to achieve in practice. The emphasis and the things that we put them through today, from a game situation standpoint, we did a lot of things just kind of breaking the seal on a number of different processes for a game. Their attitude has been strong all along. Just as excited as I was to watch my first practice, they had the same excitement wanting to show me how good they were. It was a good thing and it’s a good feeling. We’re trying to create more depth."
"As you can imagine, the veteran players that are our starters, they looked good today. The ones that are backing up or freshmen trying to get a chance to help us this year, those guys are still swimming a little bit in terms of knowledge. All in all, it was a really good day."
3. Dorrell on the daily morning COVID testing protocol and how it was today:
“The testing makes it different in terms of you can’t get started on anything until you get everybody cleared to start meetings. We had everybody cleared with all the testing we had today. It took us exactly two hours to do it. We allotted for the right amount of time, everybody was in the first meeting at 8 o’clock and everybody was cleared and ready to go.
That’s going to be the process every day — everyone’s going to have to go through a clearance mechanism to make sure that they’re able to go to meetings and practice. It was off to a really good start on the first day.”
Note: Zero Buffs tested positive today.
4. What are your thoughts on the players being able to maintain discipline in this quasi bubble living environment?
(For context, beginning tonight and for the next two weeks, the entire team will be living in a hotel in Boulder and following strict guidelines of staying to themselves and essentially staying either on campus, at the Champions Center or the hotel. In two weeks time, CU will meet with Boulder County Health to decide on how to proceed.)
“I think it our players have seen, with the NBA and NHL bubbling and that’s why they’re able to complete a season, I think they get that and get why we’re doing it. We try to keep everybody as healthy as we can and still are operating under the Boulder ordinance in terms of things that are really specific for us to do. They understand and they get it. They understand why it’s important to do things within the protocol that we’re doing it so that it can give us a chance to be healthy at the start of the season.”
5. What are your concerns with increased amounts of soft tissue injuries this year due to a lack of completely being able to practice, workout and prepare for fall camp, of which in similar fashion we are seeing in the NFL?
“That’s the biggest concern I have on my mind — the time that we have to train and get ready to play, knowing that there were incomplete segments of our summer and leading into this camp where the team wasn’t able to train. So yes, those are concerns. We are being very cautious on how we’re starting this camp. It is going to be twofold in a way, trying to maximize our systems, both offensive and defensive, to do the things as well as we can do it."
"But the second part of it is actually getting your team in shape to be able to play on (Nov.) 7. It’s a two-part process that we’re dealing with and it’s very important that I keep that in the front of my mind because of the health and safety issues from where we are from a conditioning standpoint.”
6. Were your seniors visible out there today as leaders and stabilizers?
“You could definitely see the comfort level with the seniors. I mentioned Nate Landman — I haven’t seen him in a month and he came back and he was Nate, typical Nate that we would expect. Same thing with Mustafa (Johnson) and all of our veteran players I thought today looked well. They looked like they were conditioned and ready to go."
"We have a young underbelly on this team — this ‘20 class that came in this summer, those are guys that I think have a good skill set and are going to help us play (but) we have to get them caught up to what we’re going to do offensively and defensively so we can maximize their talents and catch up to the veteran players. There’s no question that our senior players — Akil Jones and Nate — those guys know our system, can operate very well and have been doing a really nice coaching the younger players, knowing that we’re going to need those younger players to get caught up and play with us.”
7. You have decided to re-retire the formerly four retired numbers that Mel Tucker was going to make available this year. Why did you do that?
“Because that’s the way it should be.”
FIN
...
Regarding answer No. 7 — love it! No one should ever wear those #s ever again.
But all in all, as Dorrell alluded to, looks like a to-be-expected first day. Some rust to shake off, work yet to be done but ultimately, I did not anticipate any mind blowing or earth shattering news after one measly day of camp. I assume it's going to be a steady flow of getting these guys back in the swing of things for the next week or so and then the position battles (QB, RG, RCB in particular) begin heating up.
Happy for Dorrell — he's gone through a hell of a lot since hired, more so than arguably any other FBS head coach — and I am excited to see how he manages this team and gets them ready to play. If anything, where the bar is right now with program expectations, I hope he's in the driver's seat to overachieve.
But if I am wrong in that line of thinking — if you'd rather just see snippets but combined with other quotes from players — please let me know.
Point is, I don't want to come off lazy in just presenting a manuscript of Q+As with Dorrell. I do this, and transcribe all of this, because in my view it is the best way to fully bring to you guys everything that was uttered after practice and everything that was discussed by Dorrell.
This is just me requesting some feedback. Ultimately at some point a combination of what I mentioned above will likely be the result but again, since we're so early on, I figured you'd all want to hear everything Dorrell talked about.
Let me know!
1. Dorrell's opening statement after his first practice with the Buffs:
“The first practice was a good first day. I wasn’t a perfect first day but I liked the energy and I liked how guys were communicating. I liked the competitiveness of this group. I think it was a good start to our 25 days. I think that obviously we have a lot of work to do. I know that and the team knows that but it was a good, solid start. These guys did a good job of performing the information — it wasn’t perfect but they had an idea of what it was. At least from a meeting standpoint we were able to communicate and do things well and get things started and executed."
"Now it’s time to, as we go through each day, try to time it up to where it’s high level execution.”
2. Dorrell on how it felt being out there for the first time:
“It felt really good. I felt that (the players) had a pretty good idea in terms of the things we were trying to achieve in practice. The emphasis and the things that we put them through today, from a game situation standpoint, we did a lot of things just kind of breaking the seal on a number of different processes for a game. Their attitude has been strong all along. Just as excited as I was to watch my first practice, they had the same excitement wanting to show me how good they were. It was a good thing and it’s a good feeling. We’re trying to create more depth."
"As you can imagine, the veteran players that are our starters, they looked good today. The ones that are backing up or freshmen trying to get a chance to help us this year, those guys are still swimming a little bit in terms of knowledge. All in all, it was a really good day."
3. Dorrell on the daily morning COVID testing protocol and how it was today:
“The testing makes it different in terms of you can’t get started on anything until you get everybody cleared to start meetings. We had everybody cleared with all the testing we had today. It took us exactly two hours to do it. We allotted for the right amount of time, everybody was in the first meeting at 8 o’clock and everybody was cleared and ready to go.
That’s going to be the process every day — everyone’s going to have to go through a clearance mechanism to make sure that they’re able to go to meetings and practice. It was off to a really good start on the first day.”
Note: Zero Buffs tested positive today.
4. What are your thoughts on the players being able to maintain discipline in this quasi bubble living environment?
(For context, beginning tonight and for the next two weeks, the entire team will be living in a hotel in Boulder and following strict guidelines of staying to themselves and essentially staying either on campus, at the Champions Center or the hotel. In two weeks time, CU will meet with Boulder County Health to decide on how to proceed.)
“I think it our players have seen, with the NBA and NHL bubbling and that’s why they’re able to complete a season, I think they get that and get why we’re doing it. We try to keep everybody as healthy as we can and still are operating under the Boulder ordinance in terms of things that are really specific for us to do. They understand and they get it. They understand why it’s important to do things within the protocol that we’re doing it so that it can give us a chance to be healthy at the start of the season.”
5. What are your concerns with increased amounts of soft tissue injuries this year due to a lack of completely being able to practice, workout and prepare for fall camp, of which in similar fashion we are seeing in the NFL?
“That’s the biggest concern I have on my mind — the time that we have to train and get ready to play, knowing that there were incomplete segments of our summer and leading into this camp where the team wasn’t able to train. So yes, those are concerns. We are being very cautious on how we’re starting this camp. It is going to be twofold in a way, trying to maximize our systems, both offensive and defensive, to do the things as well as we can do it."
"But the second part of it is actually getting your team in shape to be able to play on (Nov.) 7. It’s a two-part process that we’re dealing with and it’s very important that I keep that in the front of my mind because of the health and safety issues from where we are from a conditioning standpoint.”
6. Were your seniors visible out there today as leaders and stabilizers?
“You could definitely see the comfort level with the seniors. I mentioned Nate Landman — I haven’t seen him in a month and he came back and he was Nate, typical Nate that we would expect. Same thing with Mustafa (Johnson) and all of our veteran players I thought today looked well. They looked like they were conditioned and ready to go."
"We have a young underbelly on this team — this ‘20 class that came in this summer, those are guys that I think have a good skill set and are going to help us play (but) we have to get them caught up to what we’re going to do offensively and defensively so we can maximize their talents and catch up to the veteran players. There’s no question that our senior players — Akil Jones and Nate — those guys know our system, can operate very well and have been doing a really nice coaching the younger players, knowing that we’re going to need those younger players to get caught up and play with us.”
7. You have decided to re-retire the formerly four retired numbers that Mel Tucker was going to make available this year. Why did you do that?
“Because that’s the way it should be.”
FIN
...
Regarding answer No. 7 — love it! No one should ever wear those #s ever again.
But all in all, as Dorrell alluded to, looks like a to-be-expected first day. Some rust to shake off, work yet to be done but ultimately, I did not anticipate any mind blowing or earth shattering news after one measly day of camp. I assume it's going to be a steady flow of getting these guys back in the swing of things for the next week or so and then the position battles (QB, RG, RCB in particular) begin heating up.
Happy for Dorrell — he's gone through a hell of a lot since hired, more so than arguably any other FBS head coach — and I am excited to see how he manages this team and gets them ready to play. If anything, where the bar is right now with program expectations, I hope he's in the driver's seat to overachieve.
