Karl Dorrell
Karl Dorrell went 43–42 as a head coach, 2003–2022, at UCLA and Colorado. Share
- Record
- 43–42 career
- Seasons
- 8
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Dec 18, 1963
- Alma mater
- UCLA
- Best season
- 2005 10–2, No. 16
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | UCLA | 6–7 | T–5th | Silicon Valley Football Classic L | ||
| 2004 | UCLA | 6–6 | T–5th | Las Vegas Bowl L | ||
| 2005 | UCLA | 10–2 | 3rd | Sun Bowl W | 16 | |
| 2006 | UCLA | 7–6 | 4th | Emerald Bowl L | ||
| 2007 | UCLA | 6–6 | T–4th | Las Vegas (not coached) | ||
| 2008–19: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2020 | Colorado | 4–2 | 2nd (South) | Alamo Bowl L | ||
| 2021 | Colorado | 4–8 | 5th (South) | |||
| 2022 | Colorado coached five of 12 games | 0–5 | ||||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Justin HickmanConsensus All‑American, 2006- Dave BallConsensus All‑American, 2003
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 23 | 6–17 | 26% |
| Against top-10 teams | 15 | 4–11 | 27% |
| Against rivals | 17 | 8–9 | 47% |
| Conference games | 57 | 30–27 | 53% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 5 | 1–4 | 20% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 26 | 15–11 | 58% |
| At home | 42 | 30–12 | 71% |
| On the road | 37 | 12–25 | 32% |
| At neutral sites | 6 | 1–5 | 17% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 44 | 29–15 | 66% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 41 | 14–27 | 34% |
His own 85 games on file, 2003–2022, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Tedford 2003–2007 | 3–2 | California | 5 | |
| Bill Doba 2003–2007 | 1–4 | Washington State | 5 | |
| Pete Carroll 2003–2007 | 1–4 | USC | 5 | |
| Dirk Koetter 2003–2006 | 3–1 | Arizona State | 4 | |
| Mike Bellotti 2003–2007 | 2–2 | Oregon | 4 | |
| Mike Stoops 2004–2007 | 2–2 | Arizona | 4 | |
| Kyle Whittingham 2006–2021 | 1–3 | Utah | 4 | |
| Tom Craft 2003–2005 | 3–0 | San Diego State | 3 | |
| Mike Riley 2005–2007 | 3–0 | Oregon State | 3 | |
| Tyrone Willingham 2005–2007 | 2–1 | Washington | 3 |
Karl Dorrell’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Arizonaseries | 8 | 5–3 |
| Stanfordseries | 6 | 5–1 |
| Washingtonseries | 6 | 5–1 |
| Arizona Stateseries | 6 | 3–3 |
| Californiaseries | 6 | 3–3 |
| USCseries | 6 | 1–5 |
| Oregonseries | 5 | 2–3 |
| Washington Stateseries | 5 | 1–4 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Colorado for the 2020 season; he had been a assistant head coach. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | UCF | Wide receivers coach | |
| 1990–91 | Northern Arizona | Wide receivers coach – promoted to offensive coordinator and wide receivers in 1991 | |
| 1992–93 | Colorado | Wide receivers coach | |
| 1994 | Arizona State | Wide receivers coach | |
| 1995–98 | Colorado | Offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| 1999 | Washington | Offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| 2000–02 | Denver Broncos NFL | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2003–07 | UCLA | Head coach | |
| 2008–10 | Miami Dolphins NFL | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2011 | Miami Dolphins NFL | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2012–13 | Houston Texans NFL | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 2014 | Vanderbilt | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2015–18 | New York Jets NFL | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2019 | Miami Dolphins NFL | Assistant head coach and wide receivers coach | |
| 2020–22 | Colorado | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Gene McDowellUCF
- Steve AxmanNorthern Arizona
- Bill McCartneyColorado
- Bruce SnyderArizona State
- Rick NeuheiselColorado, Washington
- Mike ShanahanDenver Broncos
- Derek MasonVanderbilt
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jon EmbreeColorado
- Steve AxmanNorthern Arizona
- Dino BabersBowling Green, Syracuse, Eastern Illinois
- Jim SvobodaNebraska Wesleyan, Central Missouri
- Tom CableIdaho, Oakland Raiders
- Clark LeaVanderbilt
- DeWayne WalkerUCLA, New Mexico State
- Jim CollettoCal State Fullerton, Purdue
- Jay NorvellNevada, Colorado State
- Brian CabralColorado
- Darrin ChiaveriniChaffey, Northeastern State
- Tyson SummersGeorgia Southern, Colorado State
- and 2 more
Worked under (7)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gene McDowell | UCF | 1989 | Wide receivers coach | |
| Steve Axman | Northern Arizona | 1990–91 | Wide receivers coach – promoted to offensive coordinator and wide receivers in 1991 | |
| Bill McCartney | Colorado | 1992–93 | Wide receivers coach | |
| Bruce Snyder | Arizona State | 1994 | Wide receivers coach | |
| Rick Neuheisel | Colorado | 1995–98 | Offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Rick Neuheisel | Washington | 1999 | Offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Mike Shanahan | Denver Broncos NFL | 2000–02 | Wide receivers coach | |
| Derek Mason | Vanderbilt | 2014 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (14)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jon Embree | UCLA, 2003: assistant head coach and wide receivers coach; 2004–05: assistant head coach and tight ends coach | Colorado | |
| Steve Axman | UCLA, 2003: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Northern Arizona | |
| Dino Babers | UCLA, 2004–05: wide receivers coach; 2006: running backs coach; 2007: assistant head coach and running backs coach | Bowling Green, Syracuse, Eastern Illinois | |
| Jim Svoboda | UCLA, 2004–06: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Nebraska Wesleyan, Central Missouri | |
| Tom Cable | UCLA, 2004–05: offensive coordinator | Idaho, Oakland Raiders | |
| Clark Lea | UCLA, 2006: graduate assistant | Vanderbilt | |
| DeWayne Walker | UCLA, 2006–07: defensive coordinator | UCLA, New Mexico State | |
| Jim Colletto | UCLA, 2006: assistant head coach and offensive line coach | Cal State Fullerton, Purdue | |
| Jay Norvell | UCLA, 2007: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Nevada, Colorado State | |
| Brian Cabral | Colorado, 2020–22: character coach | Colorado | |
| Darrin Chiaverini | Colorado, 2020–21: offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | Chaffey, Northeastern State | |
| Tyson Summers | Colorado, 2020: defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach | Georgia Southern, Colorado State | |
| Clay Patterson | Colorado, 2022: tight ends coach; 2022: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | Northeastern Oklahoma A&M | |
| Mike Sanford Jr. | Colorado, 2022: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Western Kentucky, Colorado |
Other assistants under him (8)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Gary DeLoach | UCLA, 2003–07: assistant coach | |
| Larry Kerr | UCLA, 2003–05: defensive coordinator | |
| Chuck Bullough | UCLA, 2006–07: linebackers coach | |
| Jake Peetz | UCLA, 2007: defensive assistant | |
| Tony White | UCLA, 2007: graduate assistant | |
| Chris Wilson | Colorado, 2020: defensive line coach; 2021–22: defensive coordinator and defensive line coach | |
| Danny Langsdorf | Colorado, 2020–21: passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Gerald Chatman | Colorado, 2022: defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | UCLA | head coachbonuses up to $505,000 | $850,000 USA Today via Leeds | |
| 2006 | UCLA | head coachbonuses up to $505,000 | $881,000 USA Today via Leeds |
The same USA Today database for 2006–16, from Michael Leeds’ replication data on Harvard Dataverse (CC0): the season’s contract pay.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Dorrell’s teams went for it on 14% of fourth downs and on 26% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 47% of plays and took 24.6 seconds a play, 2004–2021.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 12 g | UCLA | 14 of 95 15% | 24% | 46% | 22.3 | +0.01 | |
| 2005 12 g | UCLA | 20 of 91 22% | 35% | 51% | 24.3 | +0.05 | |
| 2006 13 g | UCLA | 11 of 105 10% | 26% | 51% | 25.9 | −0.13 | |
| 2007 13 g | UCLA | 14 of 136 10% | 18% | 47% | 23.7 | −0.24 | |
| 2020 6 g | Colorado | 7 of 51 14% | 25% | 41% | 24.4 | −0.03 | |
| 2021 12 g | Colorado | 18 of 103 17% | 29% | 43% | 27.0 | −0.07 | |
| All 68 g | 84 of 581 14% | 26% | 47% | 24.6 | −0.07 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.