Colorado set to hire Karl Dorrell to replace Mel Tucker

Colorado’s unexpected late coaching search has ended, with reports Karl Dorrell will replace Mel Tucker.

Mel Tucker left Colorado for Michigan State earlier this month, and a couple notable candidates (Eric Bieniemy, Steve Sarkisian) have dropped from consideration to replace him as the school has embarked on a late coaching search. But after Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports reported Karl Dorrell was the trending favorite for the job on Saturday, Dan Wolken of USA TODAY reported Colorado is working toward a deal to hire him.

Dorrell spent last season as the Miami Dolphins’ wide receivers coach, and he had just been elevated to assistant head coach under Brian Flores. Prior to that, Dorrell was wide receivers coach for the New York Jets from 2015-2018.

Dorrell has been a head coach in the Pac-12 before though, as he spent five seasons as head coach at UCLA (his alma mater) from 2003-2007. He led the Bruins to a bowl game in all five seasons, but a middling 35-27 record (with a high point of 10-2 and a third place conference finish in 2005) led to his dismissal. Since being fired after the 2007 season, he has been an assistant coach in the NFL with the Dolphins, Jets and Houston Texans outside of the 2014 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Vanderbilt.

Dorrell had two previous stints coaching at Colorado earlier in his career, as wide receivers coach (1992-1993) and offensive coordinator (1995-1998).

Tucker’s sudden departure after National Signing Day put Colorado in quite a lurch. Bieniemy and Sarkisian were joined by Bret Bielema and Troy Calhoun as notable names in rumors attached to the opening. But ultimately, a mid-tier Pac-12 school with a late job opening had to go pretty well down their list of candidates to find their guy.

If Dorrell comes in and eventually wins a lot of games, no one will remember or care how far down the list of candidates to replace Tucker he was.