BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado Buffaloes head football coach Karl Dorrell has been named the Football Writers Association of America’s (FWAA) “First Year” Coach of the Year.
Each year, the FWAA bestows the honor on a head coach in his first season at a school.
Dorrell is the 19th recipient of the award, joining a recipient list that includes Steve Spurrier, Chris Pederson, Chip Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, Urban Meyer, Lincoln Riley, Ryan Day and more.
Dorrell was previously named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year by both the Associated Press and the league coaches.
Dorrell was named CU’s 27th head coach on Feb. 23, the last head coach hired following the 2019 season. Between then and when spring football was scheduled to begin on March 16, Dorrell had to interview current assistant coaches and put together a staff, meet individually with all the players, get to know the support staff as well as he could, and devise his plan for spring practices, which were later called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CU also had three games canceled due to COVID issues with other schools.
Dorrell and the Buffaloes finished 4-2 in the 2020 season. Colorado earned a bowl invitation for the first time since the 2016 season, losing to Texas in the Alamo Bowl.
FWAA First Year Coach of the Year
- 2002 Tyrone Willingham, Notre Dame
- 2003 Steve Kragthorpe, Tulsa
- 2004 Mike Price, UTEP
- 2005 Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
- 2006 Chris Petersen, Boise State
- 2007 Jeff Jagodzinski, Boston College
- 2008 Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
- 2009 Chip Kelly, Oregon
- 2010 Jimbo Fisher, Florida State
- 2011 Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia
- 2012 Urban Meyer, Ohio State
- 2013 Gus Malzahn, Auburn
- 2014 Bryan Harsin, Boise State
- 2015 Tom Herman, Houston
- 2016 Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech; Clay Helton, USC
- 2017 Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma
- 2018 Josh Heupel, UCF
- 2019 Ryan Day, Ohio State
- 2020 Karl Dorrell, Colorado
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