Karl Dorrell Monday Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Football Coach Karl Dorrell
Monday Weekly Press Conference Quotes
 
On Being Ranked In The AP and Coaches Poll
"It is good that we are getting some recognition, but we have a ways to go. We have a great game in front of us right now with Utah. The first day of preparation was put in today. It is a short week. We will get our team ready to play. We know what is in front of us. We have to make sure we are doing the things that are necessary for us to win this Friday night."
 
On Chatter Surrounding The Program
"If we win our game, that is the best thing we can do for ourselves. I know there is chatter about other things and about matchups and stuff like that. Right now, we are scheduled to play Utah and it has been on our schedule from the very beginning. We are preparing for that. We have to take care of Utah. We have to take care of this game on Friday night. We will see where things unfold after the weekend. We are in a good position but the only thing we can do is take advantage of the position and put us in position to be in the championship game. That all starts with this Friday night."
 
On Utah
"They have gotten better. They had a rough start because they had a slow start with Covid and weren't playing early. They had a rough start in their first one. I think they opened up with USC and USC had a couple of games under their belt before them. Right now, they are not the same team you saw in week one or week two. What you are seeing is characteristic of the Utah style and type of team, like you saw last week against Oregon State. They are going to be well coached. Coach (Kyle) Whittingham has done a great job in that program for a number of years. I know that team will probably be one of the best teams, if not the best team, that we will face so far this season on Friday night. We have to be ready to play."
 
On Chance Lytle 
"He has a lower leg injury. He is out for the year. That is really the extent of what I can tell you. He was injured on that goal line drive where we scored. It actually happened on the play we scored. One thing about Chance is I have been very pleased with what he was in the start of training camp. He was the backup for us in the start of the season and ended up starting the last couple of games. He has played really, really well. There are some positive impressions that he made with me in this short season. He is looking forward to next year. It is that kind of situation for him. He is going to have to deal with recovery with his injury and get himself ready to compete next year. I think there has been enough good tape that he has done where he should be confident he can do some really positive things to help this team in the future."
 
On Controlling What They Can
"We have to control what we have in front of us. We have done that so far. We have gotten some recognition and a ranking. All of those things are real positive from the work we have put into this season. It is definitely
stuff that is deserving for them. We still have so much work to do. We still want to compete for the conference championship. The magnitude of the weeks, we are now in week five of the season for us, are vitally important for us to be in that picture. We are in pretty good shape. We need to take advantage of this opportunity that we are in. That is the goal of this week and the preparation in getting ready to play."
 
On The Possibility Of Going Unbeaten And Missing The Pac-12 Championship
"I'll worry about those emotions when we get there. I wouldn't be bitterly disappointed but I would be disappointed for sure because it probably didn't play out the way it could have been planned out. I have to go by what we have done with the opportunities we have had. We have to control this week and not really think about what is going on a week from now. All of that would be for not if we don't play well this week. We have to take care of this week. We know that is going to be a tough task. Utah is a really good team. We are a really good team. We have to play better. This is going to be a great test for us on Friday night."
 
On Building A Foundation
"I am pleased with the foundation we have been able to start and establish this year. We have put a lot of work into it in the offseason prior to training camp in the summertime. We had a lot of Zoom meetings and a lot of different things we were teaching at the time in terms of building our culture and program. Our players have done a nice job of making some great positive steps with creating that foundation. It is not completely done yet but it is progressing. We feel that in the first year we have made great progress, but we do know in future years it is going to be really important to make it a sound foundation from every level. We are very pleased with where we are at. We think recruiting has had a lot of interest with people who have watched us play and young student-athletes that have a great deal of interest in us. They like our style and like what we are doing. We need to use that momentum for future recruiting classes. The foundation has been laid in terms of the first couple of layers. There is still so much work to do. Our players know that. They know we can be much better, even the players that we currently have. They do like the process of why we are having this success. It has been correlating to success the way we have built what we have so far."
 
On Who Steps In For Lytle
"Kanan Ray is kind of the next one. He played for us a little bit last week. He played some guard when Chance went out and also played some tight end for us. He is the next man up in the interior. He is that player for us. We have a tremendous amount of confidence in him. He has done some really positive things already since he has been playing. We feel really confident that he will play well in taking up the slack there. We feel really good about getting the chance of getting Colby Pursell back this week too. He has been out for a while. That is still in progress. We will see. We do think that Kanan is back healthier than he has been and played with that type of production last week. We hope he continues to build that going into this week."
 
On The Status Of Kary Kutsch and Akil Jones
"We are working through both of those things in terms of Covid-19. I am not the medical expert on the timeline there. Akil (who missed the Arizona game to be at the birth of his son) has a chance to play for us this week given his time frame. As with Kary, he was a Covid victim. He actually was positive. He is right on the cusp of when we play the game. I am not sure yet. We will let our medical professionals tell us what the CDC guidelines are. We will know more about that towards the end of the week."
 
On Building Depth On The Lines
"That is the one position, on both O-line and D-line, that gets beat up every snap of a game and practice. They have probably a higher degree of probability of getting injured. I think that the depth we built early was really positive on both sides. That depth needs to continue to get better. You see the depth on defense where some guys are playing. Janaz Jordan is now playing and playing well. Also, Na'im Rodman, and those guys offensively we have already talked about, have come in with some injury and have had to play and play well. We are continuing to bring the depth along. The best thing for gaining that expertise for them to do things in a positive way is to get them some game experience. That is what we have been able to do this season with
some of the guys that probably weren't slated to play and now are playing. They are answering the call and doing a good job."
 
On Being One Of Three Sports In The Athletic Department Playing
"There are a lot of sports that are chomping at the bit right now and wish they were doing something, particularly the sports that are normally fall sports and were suspended until the spring. We are the three sports (Men's and Women's basketball) that are going right now. It does bring some excitement at least in our department with some positive momentum before those sports actually start up this spring. It is a good thing. We are carrying the load, so
to speak, to help this team and this program through athletics in general. We are
trying to get some positive momentum going in the spring. I know basketball still has a ways to go. We are almost winding down. We are in the month of December. There are a lot of things that are at stake which are really good things. There is definitely a positive impression in the department right now."

On Coaching A Covid-19 Season
"It is hard to get a read on the season just because Covid is always something I am concerned about first thing in the morning, every day. Literally every, single day. It is just another layer that could hurt preparation given what those testing results come out to be each and every day. Everybody is dealing with that. It is a challenging year. I have been very impressed with our players and how they have handled it. They have done everything we have asked, everything. That is the reason we have been successful from a health standpoint, with Covid, and what we have been preaching as a foundation for the program. It has definitely been challenging. There is no question. I think we will all be remembering this year. It has been a very unique year that has been unprecedented. No one can really recall having to do what we have been doing to play football this year. I have been very impressed with how resilient the team has been. It has been paying off because of their resiliency."
 
On USC
"The week, in terms of preparation, was very good. We were ready for that opponent and playing. We had a good week of practice. I guess in my mindset, I can't really go with the what-ifs and 'Oh man, this really hurt us", or anything like that. We are trying to prove to each other what type of program we are. We are getting some notice from that just with our play. We are still on task even though there has been a little bit of a change-up. Our method is still to take advantage of the things that we can control. If it works out with us having success this week, and obviously (USC) has a big matchup with their cross-town rival. Anything can happen. We are going to have to take care of the things that we have. Take care of our own backyards and go through all the dust that settles and the things that come from that. We have to live with whatever happens, whether we get a chance to get in or not. It does still come down to this week and not really looking forward to anything beyond this week. I know you guys will ask our players about what-ifs and all of that stuff and I have been telling them that all of that stuff doesn't matter right now. It really doesn't. We have no control over that but we can control how well we play and control whether we are playing prepared and with the right mindset. Those are the things that I'm preaching day in and day out."
 
On Fixing Issues In The Passing Game
"We are working on those things currently and actually every week. We are trying to eliminate a lot of those issues. I do believe our passing game is a really good passing game. I think it has been a little bit off these last couple of weeks. As you know, Sam (Noyer) had a couple of mistakes in the game last week that he hasn't made. It is just really refocusing our attention on the things that got us through those first couple of games and really harping on doing great execution in practice and simulating it the best we can like it is a game setting. The passing game is usually about rhythm, timing, being in the right displacement, reading coverages and the conversions that coverages make you do, and all of those things. It is not just the quarterback. It is the receivers, tight ends, and backs. It is protection. It is a lot of things. We are working on those things and working on being able to get to where it was in the first couple weeks of the year. I know that this week, and the players know it, we have to make sure we have really good balance. We started the season that way. We were probably a little bit heavy on the run side of the ball the last two games. The goal is to get the energy back in our passing game."
 
On If We Have Seen The Best Of RB Jarek Broussard
"I am telling you, you haven't. He is probably 95-percent and he has been that way all of camp. I have asked him many times about the (knee) brace, in serious fashion and in joking fashion. He is quite comfortable wearing it. I am not going to complain because he has been very productive. He is still doing the things that are allowing him to be successful to get the yards. I can't wait for him to end up leaving that (brace) in the garage or the dorm room or wherever that is and say, "I am ready to go." He has comfort in wearing that thing. As long as he can continue to do what he is doing, he can put two new braces on. I don't care. As long as he can continue to do what he is doing I will never complain, as long as he is being productive."