Pac-12 Football: Karl Dorrell Out at Colorado, OC Mike Sanford Named the Interim Coach

Cal will be facing an interim staff after the bye week in Boulder.

The Colorado Buffaloes have ended the disastrous regime of Karl Dorrell.

Ralphie Report @RalphieReport

0-5 is enough: Karl Dorrell and Chris Wilson have been fired, per report ralphiereport.com/2022/10/2/2338…

Pete Thamel of ESPN was first to report. Defensive coordinator Chris Wilson is also out.

Pete Thamel @PeteThamel

Sources: Karl Dorrell has been dismissed as well. https://t.co/EEIfx4MSNn

Pete Thamel @PeteThamel

Sources: Staff meeting soon at Colorado to reveal staff changes. Defensive coordinator Chris Wilson has been fired. More changes expected.

Colorado offensive coordinator Mike Sanford takes over.

Adam Rittenberg @ESPNRittenberg

#Colorado offensive coordinator Mike Sanford will serve as interim coach, according to a source. He’s the former head coach at Western Kentucky.

Colorado has started 2022 0-5, losing by 25, 31, 42, 28 and 23 points. This is following a 4-8 season in 2021. Dorrell did well during the abbreviated COVID season at 4-2, having been hired late in the cycle in 2020 after Mel Tucker ditched Boulder for East Lansing, so Colorado was in a tough spot to hire, but even then it was considered a rather puzzling decision to get a coach who hadn’t been in the college ranks since his UCLA days in a moustache.

Some of their competition has been fairly good this year—Sonny Dykes’s TCU is ranked, as is Chip Kelly’s UCLA. With things not looking to get any easier (Oregon, USC, Washington, Utah close the schedule) and the horror of a winless season on the horizon, the Buffs felt a change needed to come sooner rather than later.

Cal will have to face Colorado with a new staff, and it can go plenty of ways with a team inspired to play for a new coach or a team that might just pack it in. But it does introduce a new variable.