Colorado’s Karl Dorrell receives FWAA first year Coach of the Year honor

Colorado Buffaloes head football coach Karl Dorrell was named the FWAA First Year Coach of the Year this week.

He was previously named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year by the Associated Press after guiding the Buffs to a 4-2 record with a loss to Texas in the Alamo Bowl.

Dorrell returned to Boulder for his third stint with the Buffs and his first as head coach. He was named the program’s newest coach on Feb. 23 with less than a month to prepare for spring football prior a temporary shut down due to COVID-19. The former NFL assistant and UCLA head coach hired his staff and met with players throughout pandemic.

“This is such an honor. I want to thank the Football Writer’s Association (of America) for this recognition on behalf of the University of Colorado,” Dorrell said.

“As we all know as coaches, this has been a heck of a year. It was one doozy of a year. I was hired on Feb. 23. We were supposed to start spring practice on March 16 and (I was) hiring a staff and getting everything ready prior to that date... COVID hits, kicks everybody off of campus. You guys all know the story.

“But it was a blessing to go through that. I think the biggest thing that I tried to do each and every day, literally day after day, is just to maximize what I can do (and focus on) the things that I can control. That is what we did. I ended up hiring a good staff. We tried to communicate with our team throughout the spring, all the way into the summer, through all the ebbs and flows of games being played or canceled, through kids going back home and then coming back.”

CU’s non-conference schedule and the two games in Pac-12 play were canceled due to COVID-19.

Dorrell is the third Pac-12 coach to win the FWAA honor since 2002.