On Feb. 4, Mark Dantonio was entrenched as Michigan State's head coach and Karl Dorrell was far, far away from the college football radar. As we all know, things can change quickly in this business.
Dantonio retired, Michigan State made a Godfather offer to Mel Tucker, and all of a sudden Colorado was looking for a new head coach in the middle of February. Tucker's Feb. 12 departure was so late in the process that in sort of had a cooling effect on the urgency of the Buffs' search: Wake up 20 minutes before school starts and you're rushing to beat the bell; wake up 20 minutes after the bell and you might as well take your time because you're already late.
Colorado predictably cast a wide net of familiar names close to the program, up-and-coming Group of 5 head coaches and established Power 5 coaches looking to get back in. Then, on Feb. 23, Colorado surprised the industry by hiring former UCLA head coach and then-Miami Dolphins assistant head coach Karl Dorrell.
Dorrell was a (somewhat) familiar and (somewhat) recent name, having coached at UCLA from 2003-07 -- Colorado was in the Big 12 at that time -- who served as a CU offensive assistant under Bill McCartney and Rick Neuheisel, which the school's stakeholders liked.
Understandably given the timing, Dorrell retained four assistants Tucker did not bring with him to East Lansing, including assistant head coach and candidate for the full-time gig in Darrin Chiaverini. That left six outside hires, which CU has announced, setting Dorrell's first coaching staff.