Colorado football hires Karl Dorrell, NCAA transfer policy: A Blitz Podcast

The Blitz Podcast crew discusses Colorado football’s surprising decision to hire Karl Dorrell as head coach as well as the NCAA’s transfer policy proposal.

The coaching carousel appears to finally be at a halt barring anything unexpected with Colorado’s decision to hire former UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell to replace Mel Tucker, who departed Boulder for East Lansing.

Dorrell wasn’t a name that was being tossed around by prognosticators when the open Buffaloes job was being discussed. It’s been 13-years since Dorrell was last a head coach at any level, when he was let go by UCLA following the 2013 season.

Aside from one unsuccessful season spent as Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator, Dorrell had spent the years since as a position coach in the NFL, most recently serving as the wide receivers coach for the Miami Dolphins.

In the first segment of this week’s podcast, John and Zach discuss Colorado’s decision to hire Dorrell and whether he might find more success more than a decade after his last head coaching stint. The gap between Dorrell’s head coaching job also further beckons how minority coaches often have shorter leashes and have a tougher time finding a second-chance job than white coaches do.

Dorrell was far from an abject disaster in Westwood, leading the Bruins to a 35-27 record in five seasons on the sidelines, and yet it took this long for him to find a spot back leading a program.

In our second segment this week, we discuss a new proposed transfer rule by the NCAA that would allow a one-time transfer for all student athletes in any sport where they would be immediately eligible instead of having to graduate first or hold out hope for the NCAA’s governing body to subjectively decide which players deserve a waiver for that immediate eligibility.

As good as that sounds, it could ultimately have a negative impact on the current graduate transfer rule, which would be a shame. The thought of a college football free agency excites both of our podcast hosts, who, like many other fans, crave the content as they wander the wilderness that is the college football offseason.

The Saturday Blitz Podcast is part of the FanSided Radio Network at Spreaker. The show goes live every Wednesday morning. You can reach John Mitchell at @jlmitchell93 and Zach Bigalke at @zbigalke on Twitter.