Karl Dorrell
Dorrell led the UCLA Bruins to five bowl appearances and was the first African American head football coach in their history.
In the 1986 UCLA vs. USC game, Dorrell was on the receiving end of a play that the Los Angeles Times dubbed "Hail Mary, and in your face.
Karl Dorrell was hired as the head coach at UCLA, replacing Bob Toledo, who was released at the end of the 2002 regular season.
Between Toledo and Dorrell, Ed Kezirian, an athletic department official who oversees the academics for the football team, served as interim coach for the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl.
Dorrell's hiring as head coach was announced on December 19, 2002, by UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero.
Dorrell was brought in at UCLA to clean up a program marred by off-the-field problems in the final years of Bob Toledo's tenure.
[2] The UCLA Bruins football team under Dorrell recorded a mark of 6–7 in his first season as head coach in 2003, with an appearance in the Silicon Valley Bowl, and a loss to Fresno State.
On October 1, 2005, head coach Tyrone Willingham and his Washington Huskies came to the Rose Bowl for a Pacific-10 Conference game to play UCLA.
At the time, Sylvester Croom of Mississippi State was the only other black coach heading an NCAA Division I football program.
Three Bruin wins in the 2005 season set new school records for biggest comebacks earning the nickname "The Cardiac Kids."
UCLA played its first game at the University of Notre Dame since the 1960s and was leading 17–13, but the Irish scored a touchdown in the final minute to win.
The Bruins played in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco against a Bobby Bowden-coached Florida State team on December 27, 2006, and lost, 44–27.
11 AP Poll ranking, however, UCLA stumbled against an injured, winless, and unranked Utah Utes team, 44–6.
[6] Four weeks later, Dorrell's Bruins fell again; this time 20–6 to an unranked, winless Notre Dame team.
Heading into the final game of the regular season against crosstown-rival USC, the Bruins still had an outside chance at a Rose Bowl berth that might have saved Dorrell's job; with a victory over USC and some help from Arizona (with a win over ASU), the Bruins could have been the first-ever five-loss team to play in the Rose Bowl.
It wasn't to be, however, and the Bruins finished the 2007 Regular season with a miserable offensive performance in a 24–7 loss to USC and a record of 6–6.
Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker served as interim coach for the game, where UCLA lost to BYU.
Dorrell interviewed at Duke University and was a finalist along with eventual hire David Cutcliffe for the head coaching position vacated by Ted Roof.
Dorrell was reunited with newly hired Vanderbilt University head coach Derek Mason, joining his staff as the offensive coordinator in January 2014.
Chris Foster of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Dorrell's West Coast offense did not fare much better in the East than it did in Westwood.
Undrafted rookie wide receiver Robby Anderson also had a good season, with 42 receptions, 587 yards and 2 touchdowns.
[22] Dorrell was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year after the Buffaloes finished the 2020 COVID-shortened season with a winning record (4–1) for the first time at Colorado since 2016.
[23] Following a blowout loss at home to USC in October 2021, a frustrated Dorrell shoved a photojournalist's camera while trotting off the field.
