And so Karl Dorrell’s first regular season with the CU Buffs ends as it began. Strangely.
It was announced early Monday afternoon that because of Oregon’s insertion into the Pac-12 conference championship game as a replacement for Washington, the Buffs won’t play the Ducks in Los Angeles this weekend.
But everything else, including a make-up game, remains up in the air.
According to the Pac-12, the Buffs (4-1, 3-1 Pac-12) can schedule a make-up game — which they had to do over Thanksgiving weekend because of USC’s COVID-19 positives — but would have to pull out of that make-up game and represent the league in the championship game if the Trojans (5-0, 5-0) have to pull out of the Pac-12 title contest at the last minute.
Could a Rocky Mountain Showdown be back on the table? CU athletic director Rick George indicated that wouldn’t happen in a statement released late Monday afternoon.
“We are very proud of our football student-athletes’ commitment and resiliency throughout this season,” George said. “Our student-athletes have done all that we have asked of them in following our protocols and procedures to ensure we were able to play every game on our schedule. We are disappointed to have another game canceled. We are not considering any non-conference opponents for this weekend.”
If no game can be scheduled, then CU ends a COVID-shortened debut regular season under Dorrell, who was hired to replace Mel Tucker this past February, with a 4-1 mark. The Buffs are second in the Pac-12’s South division to USC, the program’s highest league finish since winning the South in 2016.
The rest of the Buffs’ campaign also remains in flux as of early Monday afternoon.
Dorrell was slated to meet with his team’s leadership council at 4 p.m. to discuss, among other topics, whether CU plans to accept a bowl bid.
Any Pac-12 team with a .500 record or better is eligible for a postseason game, but several Power 5 schools, including Stanford, have recently announced that they won’t accept bowl bids, if offered.
Neither Dorrell nor offensive lineman Casey Roddick would say with 100% certainty Monday morning whether the Buffs would want to play in a postseason game. CU’s last bowl appearance was a loss in the Alamo at the end of the 2016 season.
“I know that they do miss their families, too,” Dorrell said. “They’ve been here since the summer and haven’t seen anybody, haven’t had their family come to games.”
CU had been scheduled to play Oregon at the Coliseum in Los Angeles on Saturday night. The opponent was anticipated, but the call by the league to play it in Southern California was not.
League officials this past Sunday explained that the Buffs and Ducks would be flown to Los Angeles and either would be on stand-by if the Huskies or Trojans couldn’t play in the title game because of COVID-19 positives.
Those protocols wound up forcing Washington out of the game mid-day Monday, but a conference spokesperson said they didn’t have a replacement opponent lined up for the Buffs.
The Pac-12 earlier this week canceled the Arizona-Cal game because of coronavirus protocols.
