Bruins Need Bolder Type of Approach From Coach

During an afternoon filled with Rocky Mountain high jinx, the first game for UCLA’s brainy new head football coach was fittingly not about a playbook, but a children’s book.

Where’s Karl?

Was that him at midfield, cap on backward, jumping up and down in the referee’s face? Nope, that was an assistant.

Was that him on the 20-yard line, leaping to pat a player on the back? Nope, that was another player.

When Karl Dorrell was finally spotted during UCLA’s 16-14 loss to Colorado on Saturday, he was a full five yards off the sideline, back amid the scrubs, straining to watch the game around other coaches, invisible to the untrained binocular.

From Holy Toledo to Holy Ghost.

“That was strange,” he admitted of his first time on a sideline as a head coach. “I thought I was getting in everybody’s way.”

And thus we offer the quiet new boss a first-game mulligan and some old-fashioned advice.

Karl? Get in everybody’s way. Please.

While the head coach quietly moderated, the Bruins lost a game they should have won because of mistakes, miscommunication and some miserable play-calling.

While Dorrell was calm, his team was erratic, the Bruins’ blue-streaked highlights blanketed in 107 yards of yellow flags.

While Dorrell preaches a balanced attack, his team blew a late lead because it insisted on running the ball even though they gained thismuch per carry.

And while Dorrell is known for his attention to detail, his team’s potential game-winning drive was stopped because the clock never stopped.

Yeah, the new guy is still getting the hang of this timeout thing, having burned his last timeout on Colorado’s game-winning drive, leaving his team empty with 2:15 remaining.

“The defense had been out on the field a long time; I wanted to give the kids a blow,” Dorrell said. “It was a judgment call on my part.”

Throw in a delay-of-game penalty after a timeout. A pass-interference call that led to a Colorado touchdown. A decision not to attempt a 52-yard field goal in altitude.

For Dorrell, it was a honeymoon in Paris.

Paris, Texas.

The growing pains were typified on the Buffaloes’ final kickoff, which hit the chest of freshman Maurice Drew about a yard deep in the end zone. He dropped the ball, picked it up, and ran only to the 10-yard line.

Yes, this was the same Maurice Drew who lost a fumble on his first carry of the game and didn’t carry the ball again for ostensibly that reason. Yet he is charged with running with the most important kickoff of the afternoon?

And, now that we’re rambling about running, where was bulldozer Manuel White? After scoring 10 touchdowns in his first two seasons, with 4.5 yards per carry, White didn’t run the ball once.

“We will get better,” Dorrell said. “We will get better.”

And the Bruins will, certainly, seeing how they arrived here with new coaches, a new game plan, and no idea how any of it would fit.

They suffered because Colorado had already played a game. They were hindered by the early loss of quarterback Matt Moore. And certainly, any time the guy most unfamiliar with your sideline is your head coach, things can only improve.

“It’s all about getting into a consistent rhythm, all of us, and we will do that,” Dorrell said.

The rhythm of this team, it is hoped, will eventually be his. On this first afternoon, it was not.

The face of the Bruins on Saturday was not Dorrell, but assistants Jon Embree and Eric Bieniemy, two guys jumping up and down the sidelines with spittle flying and veins popping.

Dorrell stood quietly in the back, occasionally addressing individual players or groups, but usually talking only to his headset.

During important timeouts, sometimes Dorrell stayed out of the sideline huddle. When Moore injured his knee, perhaps seriously, Dorrell uncertainly waited several long minutes before running on the field and joining the trainers in tending to him.

He is clearly still trying to find his place. He will be given time. The honeymoon will continue. With that team across town heading back toward the top of the polls, the Bruins have again been pushed into the deep shadows, a perfect spot for Dorrell to quietly learn the job.

And he will not have to learn it alone.

Mike Shanahan, the Denver Bronco coach, stopped by the team hotel Friday for a visit. Terry Donahue, now in the San Francisco 49er front office, phoned with his best wishes.

The patience and the pedigree are there. Karl Dorrell will be given every chance to become the sturdy, steadfast head coach that UCLA believes he can be.

The quicker he reminds his players, the better.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.