With Staff in Place, Dorrell Resurfaces

Like a fairy-tale kiss that broke a spell, the little-noticed announcement that Brian Schneider was hired to coach outside linebackers and nickel backs at UCLA roused Coach Karl Dorrell from six weeks of self-imposed silence.

Dorrell had not talked to the media since the day he was hired to replace Bob Toledo. The explanation from the school was that he wanted to fill his staff in peace and focus on recruiting.

For the first time, he said so himself.

“I wasn’t trying to put anybody off,” he said. “I was just taking my time with it. I was hiring a staff right in the middle of recruiting, and those are hard jobs to do at the same time.”

His actions, of course, spoke louder than the absence of words, and the staff he assembled validates what those who know him said all along.

Dorrell, 39, is methodical, meticulous and precise.

He was unafraid of hiring assistants older and more experienced than himself.

He sought to balance his taciturn nature by hiring several coaches with exuberant personalities.

He put a premium on strong communicators and strategists who will buy into his NFL-tinged philosophies.

There are three holdovers from Toledo’s staff -- Gary Bernardi, 48, Don Johnson, 48, and Mark Weber, 45.

Otherwise, Dorrell went with familiarity.

Offensive coordinator Steve Axman, 54, was head coach at Northern Arizona when Dorrell was receiver coach in 1990 and 1991. Defensive coordinator Larry Kerr, 50, was an assistant on the same staff and at Colorado State.

“On the offensive side, it came down to who could run the system I wanted to run and who was a strong fundamental quarterback coach, knowing the situation we have with young quarterbacks,” Dorrell said.

“Defensively, I really struck gold.”

Dorrell hired Gary DeLoach, 48, the defensive coordinator at North Texas, which ranked No. 9 in the nation in defense, to coach defensive backs.

Colorado State and North Texas each ran schemes that Dorrell likened to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’.

“That’s what we are patterning ourselves after, [Tampa Bay’s] system of defense,” he said.

Offensively, the blueprint will be the Denver Broncos. Dorrell was the Bronco receiver coach the last three years and considers Mike Shanahan a mentor.

Receiver coach Jon Embree, 37, and running back coach Eric Bieniemy, 33, were assistants at Colorado. Schneider, 31, is from Colorado State. Dorrell was offensive coordinator at Colorado from 1995 to 1998.

Bieniemy, a former Colorado and NFL running back, has a reputation as an excellent recruiter and already has been instrumental in getting commitments from highly sought players such as running back Maurice Drew of Concord De La Salle High.

Bringing in Bieniemy raised questions because he has three misdemeanor convictions for fighting and one for drunk driving. Dorrell acknowledged that neither he nor Athletic Director Dan Guerrero was aware of the extent of the problems at the time of the hire.

“To me, I thought he had more positives than negatives, and obviously he’s already exhibited the positives in a short time,” Dorrell said.