Get out your magnifying glass. It’s time to look for a ray of hope in the CU Buffs football program.
Searching … searching … searching … Found it!
The Buffs aren’t playing this Saturday — which means we all (players included) get a temporary reprieve from having to endure this train wreck in real time.
Karl Dorrell era — D+
Yes, that’s where we’re at less than two years into the Karl Dorrell era.
CU football has become unsightly, the bloom is off the Dorrell rose, and the Grading the Week staff is starting to wonder if the Buffs head coach is in over his head. Ever since rallying the Buffs to a 4-0 start to begin the bizarre COVID-shortened 2020 season, things have gone from bad, to worse, to bleak over the past 10 months.
The bad: CU getting slobber-knocked by Texas in the Alamo Bowl — then barring players from speaking to reporters.
The worse: Squandering a golden opportunity for a program-changing win victory Texas A&M — then calling out a member of the CU football press corps for having the gall to predict a 5-7 season for the Buffs.
The bleak: The A&M loss opening the floodgates to three straight blowout losses — a run that included just three touchdowns combined — culminating with a frustrated Dorrell pushing aside the camera of a 9News reporter in the wake of last Saturday’s 37-14 de-pantsing at the hands of the USC Trojans.
That the camera incident came just two weeks after Dorrell declined his postgame interview with KOA in the wake of the 30-0 Minnesota “beatdown” — a highly unusual move for a standing CU head coach — only added an exclamation point to the idea Dorrell is a poor loser.
As if things weren’t bad enough, one of Dorrell’s players was charged with assault in an incident that allegedly occurred less than 24 hours after his team fell to 1-4.
All we need now is for a quarterback to enter the transfer portal and our “College Football Program in Complete Disarray” bingo card will be a winner. (And given the way Drew Carter has inexplicably been denied snaps as Brendon Lewis struggles, we’re not ruling anything out.)
Of course, Dorrell’s Buffs still have time to turn this thing around.
The Arizona Wildcats, who last won a game Oct. 5, 2019 (against, you guessed it, the CU Buffs), are set to visit Folsom Field next week. Win that, and Dorrell can at least revel in the fact that his team isn’t the worst of a very bad Pac-12 Conference.
Lose it, and he’ll be pining for the days when a reporter covering his team actually thought it could win five games.
Dick Monfort — D-
Speaking of hopeless, how about the latest happenings over in LoDo?
Few things say “dark and depressing” quite like Rockies owner Dick Monfort promoting from within.
It’s not that we think Bill Schmidt is a particularly bad hire as general manager. His signings of slugger C.J. Cron and starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela to sensible contracts earlier this week indicate he might even be a good one.
But if there’s anything that’s become apparent during the past few years with the Rockies, it’s that they could really use a fresh perspective at 20th and Blake. Hiring in-house for the two biggest front office jobs — Schmidt as GM and Greg Feasel as team president — doesn’t exactly accomplish that.
We’re three decades into Mile High baseball, and Colorado still hasn’t won an NL West title.
Call us crazy, but we think that might be an indication the status quo isn’t working.
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