Karl Dorrell = Mr. Irrelevant

by Nestor on Aug 5, 2007 11:39 AM PDT in Football

If you want to get an idea of how irrelevant Karl Dorrell is, you need to take a look at this.

Here is the coaching tree of Bill Walsh which was posted on Niners Nation (via TheSportsGuru at Mile High Report):

You can click on the image to see a larger graphic. But no worries. Karl Dorrell is nowhere to be found in that graphic.

Nope he is not even listed as someone who came out of Shanahan's program even though his resume his hyped with the bullet point of being a "NFL Wide Receiver Coach" with the Denver Broncos.

And its not a surprise that TheSportsGuru, our colleague over at Mile High Report excluded Dorrell from that Walsh coaching tree, which is essentially a coaching tree of credible coaches who run the WCO. He doesn't think much of Dorrell. He sent us this email wrt Dorrell few months ago:

Dorrell really didn’t have a strength, that I saw, as someone in a leadership position. It wasn’t like the Broncos were rolling out Pro Bowlers under Dorrell, and as a matter of fact, every receiver the team acquired or drafted during his time there is no longer with the team. Sure, Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey are solid, but both were good players before and after Dorrell. It’s a well known fact in Bronco Nation that Shanny has a tendancy to hire "yes" men as assistants, made obvious by the fact that there isn’t a "coaching tree" to speak of. Karl Dorrell is among that group, and not someone I saw then, or now, as a coach with a bright head coaching future. Some guys are just better suited to be part of a team, not in charge of it, and Dorrell wasn’t even a great assistant.

If the bruins ever want to be taken seriously in college football, on and off campus, they need to get an established, proven successful head coach. I know Dorrell is an alum, but with no real football strength to speak of the Bruins will continue to win despite Dorrell, which is ok if 8-4 and 9-3 is acceptable every season.

I hope that makes sense….

Sure does. Dorrell was irrelevant in Denver. And after four mediocre years in Westwood and nothing of note (except for a Lavin like aberration win over Southern Cal) Dorrell is still irrelevant in the national scene.

The guy and his supporters hype his offense as the WCO, yet after four years its irrelevant and absent in the national scene.

Nice work KD.

GO BRUINS.

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To be fair,

Pete Carroll didn't make this list either; IIRC didn't he work under Bruce Coslet as DC of the Jets in the early 90s? In fact, I don't believe any of the coaches listed are current collegiate coaches (and maybe that's on purpose).

The e-mail you included, though, certainly speaks volumes about how unqualified KD was when he was hired, and how little he has contributed since then.

"..you've got to abide by the rules sometimes" -Reggie Bush

by godblesstyus95 on Aug 5, 2007 12:05 PM PDT 0 recs

Ooops

Bill Callahan (Nebraska)

"..you've got to abide by the rules sometimes" -Reggie Bush

by godblesstyus95 on Aug 5, 2007 12:07 PM PDT up 0 recs

That's not a germane point

Because PC never ran a WCO when he was in charge as the head coach at NY, New England and at Southern Cal.

The omission of KD's name from this list is glaring because he specifically hyped WCO as the foundation of his offenisve philsophy (on paper) when he came into Westwood.

PC never talked up WCO at any of the places he worked as the head coach.

Also note PC was a DC under Seifert in 1995-95 (and did a great job).

by Nestor on Aug 5, 2007 12:39 PM PDT up 0 recs

TheSportsGuru

This guy hit the nail on the head with his assessment!!!
Bill

BillSouthBay

by BillSouthBay on Aug 5, 2007 2:47 PM PDT 0 recs

Come on, guys, this is not fair

Look, I am with you when it comes to Dorrell not being the guy. I am not even excited about this year because I know that Dorrell is going to blow it with a team that is tailor-made to win a Pac-10 title. But using a chart like this to show that Dorrell is irrelevant is not fair. Why? Every coach listed on the chart is or has been an NFL HEAD COACH. Dorrell's not listed on there because he hasn't been one. That's the only reason. We have enough information on Dorrell's shortcomings that we don't need to pull out an NFL head coaching tree to show he's incapable of leading our team. Similarly, we don't need to massage any statistics because the plain ones do the trick: 29-21, 9-16 on the road/neutral, terrible record against teams with winning records. (I've compiled this before at http://bruinsnation.com/story/2007/6/21/15457/9141.)

Now, if Dorrell puts together a great season this year and gets hired to "lead" an NFL team and then gets omitted from this tree, at that point we'll have something to laugh at (all the way up the NCAA rankings).

by BruinsRule on Aug 5, 2007 3:39 PM PDT 0 recs

UCLA Football HC Training Academy

That is what we have been for the past 4 years. The final question on this one is when is the "learner and grower" getting his diploma and graduating out of the academy?
Bill

BillSouthBay

by BillSouthBay on Aug 5, 2007 4:32 PM PDT 0 recs

Disagree Nes

this map only list head coaches who coached in the NFL, Callahan if you remember had coached the Raiders after Gruden left to Tampa, Gary K is on there because he is now head coach in Houston. It does not list assistants so your point is wrong. Now lets talk about UCLA football and have some fresh takes on the up coming football season without having a slam on KD. Every post that you have you slam KD even if you are giving credit to Ben Holland you take a dig a KD.

by whazup on Aug 5, 2007 6:30 PM PDT 0 recs

Good point

but I will stuck with my argument.

You make a good argument but I am not going to concede on my argument that the chart shows that Dorrell is considered irrelevant when it comes to fraternity of coaches who run the WCO.

Note that the chart lists Steve Mariucci who went from an assistant in the NFL (Holmgren's QB coach at Green Bay) to becoming a head coach at UCB. IMHO Mooch was respected and relevant enough that his work at Cal was noticed and respected and led him to a headcoaching gig in the NFL.

Here we have Dorrell who proclaims himself as a discpile of WCO coming out of Shanahan's program. Yet he is clearly disrespected and considered somewhat of a joke by respected observers who follow the Denver Broncos.

So yes he is irrelevant in the world of coaches who are synonimous with running WCO.

by Nestor on Aug 5, 2007 7:10 PM PDT up 0 recs

Serious question

What has KD done to deserve NOT being slammed?

Obviously, I fall into that side of the world which has seen enough of him (for many reasons).

Why does KD deserve accolades and not insults? I don't ask this rhetorically, although many regular BN readers will take it as so.

by Barnes2JJ on Aug 6, 2007 5:53 AM PDT up 0 recs

Tony Dungy = the new Bill Walsh

In addition to Marinelli, Tomlin and Lovie Smith, the sheet also left out Herm Edwards, who also worked for Dungy as a defensive backs coach in the 1990s. In addition, no matter what you thought of Mike Shula at Alamaba, he also was a Dungy guy. That's no less than 5 head coaches to spring from the Dungy tree, and that tree is just getting started.

It's also kinda' a misnomer to include defensive minded coaches in the Walsh coaching tree. If anything, Dungy's coaching tree really comes from Chuck Noll (Dungy himself considers Noll his protege, not Walsh).

Walsh really had little to do with defensive development, not to take anything away from his brilliant offensive mind.

by CAJason80 on Aug 6, 2007 2:58 PM PDT 0 recs

One Name Stands Out ...

as a bust as a college head coach: Paul Hackett (just ask the Trojans). Anyone on that tree have any success as a head coach with a collge team besides Walsh himself?

by CrouchingBruin on Aug 6, 2007 3:20 PM PDT 0 recs

Hmm...depends on how you define 'success'

Denny Green was head coach at Northwstern in the early 80s. He won a Big Tean coach of the year award in 1982.

Wyche coached at Indiana University in 1982, before becoming head coach for the Bengals.

Jim Fassell was head coach at Utah from 1985-1989, but he had an under .500 record there, from what I recall.

Mooch coached Cal in 1996 before being hired by the 49ers.

Obviously, no one with a ton of success - I'd say the closest would be Green, but note that no one's stayed in the college ranks long.

by CAJason80 on Aug 6, 2007 4:27 PM PDT up 0 recs

college vs. NFL

It is amazing to see that success at the college level just simply does not translate to success in the NFL for coaches. In fact, it seems to be the opposite. It takes two very different skill sets to succeed at each level. The only coaches I know who were able to win at both levels were Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer (interestingly both with the Cowboys). Although both kinda coached pro teams in college...talk about shady!

by tasser10 on Aug 6, 2007 7:47 PM PDT up 0 recs