Over the past month, the Colorado football team hasn’t been able to get together and the coaches have been forced to work remotely.
While itap not an ideal situation, first-year head coach Karl Dorrell and his staff have been able to develop the offensive and defensive schemes they hope to employ.
“We’ve got the core of what we want,” Dorrell told BuffZone.
Worldwide concerns about the spread of the coronavirus have shut down sports and prevented CU – and other schools – from holding spring practices. Yet, for a coaching staff that just recently came together, they’ve made the most of the time. Dorrell was hired on Feb. 23 and his staff of 10 assistants was hired in the next few weeks.
Offensively, Dorrell, coordinator Darrin Chiaverini and other assistants have put together what they hope is a versatile attack.
“We want to be multiple,” Dorrell said. “I want to be able to speed it up and slow it down and have the productivity in both cases.”
Dorrell has 32 years of experience coaching on offense, working in the West Coast offense, the New England Patriots-style system and the Mike Shanahan/Gary Kubiak offense. Chiaverini has some roots in the Texas Tech air raid, as well as four previous years at CU. Between Dorrell, Chiaverini and the rest of the offensive staff, there’s more than 110 years of experience on board, and there will be evidence of several different schemes in what CU does on offense.
“There’s a lot of offensive football that we have on our staff in terms of knowledge, and we just have to do a really good job of putting the guys in the right positions to be productive,” Dorrell said. “Thatap really what it comes down to.”
Defensively, the Buffs return coordinator Tyson Summers and Dorrell said he was pleased with the progress CU made during the 2019 season.
“They really started to come around and I think we found something about ourselves, in talking with Tyson and our defensive coaches,” Dorrell said. “We do have a core system of defense thatap very similar to last year’s that we will definitely keep. But I think with the transition and the new influx of talent this summer, we have some guys that we feel that are on the team that can give us a little more flexibility. We want to be multiple, even on that side of the ball.”
CU used a lot of three-man fronts on defense last year, but will use some four-man fronts, as well.
“I think itap always easier on the defensive side when you’re going into your second year and itap the same coordinator and itap the same verbiage,” Dorrell said. “You can start to add now to your package. Your defense is a year older, they understand the system, so you can start to bridge and do a few more things.”
While CU has a base plan on offense and defense, Dorrell said the staff will be ready to adjust the plan once they get players on the field.
“You can’t ever really go into a camp thinking, ‘OK, whatap in the playbook is what you’re going to run during the season,’” he said. “Thatap not necessarily the case. The playbook gives you the blueprint of your system, but then you tweak it to your players as you find out where your strengths are and who are the productive guys. You tend to do what you think leads our best players to be successful.”