Classing the Full Week: Waiting on CU Buffs' Karl Dorrell to build wall structure around Colorado

There’s an old cliche in college football recruiting oft repeated by coaches when they first arrive at Big State U: “We’re going to build a wall around (fill in state name here).”

It always sounds nice — the top in-state university prioritizing bringing in the best in-state high school recruits.

And the staff at the Grading the Week offices give it a firm stamp of approval whenever we hear it.

CU’s in-state recruiting — B-

Cliff Grassmick, Boulder Daily CameraCU football coach, Karl Dorrell, seen here at a press conference in Boulder on Feb. 24, 2020.

We’re just waiting on that to happen in Boulder.

On Wednesday, the Buffs missed out on Colorado’s top high school football players yet again on national signing day, with the state’s two four-star recruits in 247Sports.com’s composite rankings signing with out-of-state powers Oregon (Terrance Ferguson, Heritage, TE) and Texas A&M (Trey Zuhn, Fossil Ridge, OT).

It marked the fourth consecutive year the Buffs were unable to reel in one of the state’s four-star recruits in 247Sports’ composite rankings, making them 0-for-7 with such players since Pomona’s Jake Moretti committed to CU in 2017.

Of course, CU has had three different head coaches during that time period, as well as three losing seasons. So it’s probably asking a lot to expect Karl Dorrell to start flipping four stars in his first recruiting cycle in Boulder.

At least Dorrell was able to convince a top-five in-state recruit (Erik Olsen, Heritage, TE) to stick around. That’s something Midnight Mel Tucker failed to do in the previous two recruiting cycles before bolting for Michigan State in February. We’ll count that as progress.

Larry Scott — F

D. Ross Cameron, Associated Press fileIn this Oct. 7, 2019, file photo, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott speaks to reporters during the Pac-12 Conference women’s NCAA college basketball media day in San Francisco.

If the CU Buffs decided to leave the Pac-12, would commissioner Larry Scott even notice?

Given the way he’s treated the Buffs during the past two weeks, the Grading the Week staff is starting to wonder.

It started, of course, with the conference’s ruling that even if CU went unbeaten during the 2020 regular season, it would be denied a chance to compete for the league title if the USC Trojans did the same.

Then came this week’s debacle.

To rehash: After CU’s loss to Utah, the Buffs finished second in the South and were scheduled to play Oregon in Los Angeles.

The idea was that both teams would serve as potential replacement opponents for Friday night’s conference championship should USC (South) or Washington (North) be knocked out by COVID-19.

No plan was made, however, to provide a replacement opponent for the Buffs in the (extremely likely) scenario Oregon had to step in for UW. And, in a not-so-shocking development, the team that was unavailable for its previous game due to COVID (UW) suffered a similar fate for Friday night’s affair.

Who could’ve seen that coming?

Apparently not Scott or the Pac-12, who also put CU in the awkward position of having to send an equipment truck to a point midway between Boulder and Los Angeles late this week on the off chance the Buffs were called in to replace USC for Friday night. At least Larry had the decency to express “empathy” for the Buffs’ plight.

So CU has that going for it, which really isn’t all that nice.

Facundo Campazzo enthusiasts — A

Justin Setterfield, Getty ImagesFacundo Campazzo of Real Madrid in action during the 2019-2020 Tukish Airlines Regular Season Round 7 game between Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade and Real Madrid at Stark Arena on Nov. 7, 2019 in Belgrade, Serbia.

We’re one week into the 2020-21 NBA preseason, and Nuggets Twitter already has itself a new Bae.

His name is Facundo Campazzo, and he’s a 5-foot-11 Argentinian passing virtuoso also blessed with the ability to perpetually give a darn — no matter the setting.

Needless to say, Nuggets Nation is swooning.

Keeler: Thank you, Karl Dorrell. You, too, Jarek Broussard. CU Buffs produced a football season to remember during a 2020 we’d rather forget. CU football regular season over, Pac-12 says; Buffs likely to accept bowl bid Larry Scott has “empathy” for CU football, says Buffs not scheduling CSU Rams is Buffs’ problem, not Pac-12’s Karl Dorrell: CU Buffs aren’t done shopping after initial national signing day haul Replacing Nate Landman a collective effort for CU Buffs

While the Grading the Week staff reserve the right to be skeptical of an undersized international becoming a long-term NBA contributor, we share in the excitement.

Tweet out all of the passes, Nuggets Twitter. We shall bathe in them.

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Tyler Tysdal - Private Equity Fund Manager and Entrepreneur

Saturday, December 19, 2020