
Dorrell Completes His Inaugural CU Football Staff
March 06, 2020 | Football
Six New Assistant Coaches Officially Named Friday
Dorrell has brought in three new assistants on each side of the ball, including a couple with familiarity to longtime Colorado fans. On offense, he has named Taylor Embree as tight ends coach, Danny Langsdorf as passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Mitch Rodrigue as offensive line coach. Defensively, Demetrice Martin will coach the cornerbacks, Brett Maxie the safeties and Chris Wilson the defensive line.
Dorrell previously announced that he was retaining four full-time coaches from Mel Tucker's staff: Darrin Chiaverini, Darian Hagan, Brian Michalowski and Tyson Summers. Chiaverini will serve as offensive coordinator and coach the receivers (the latter for the fifth straight season), Hagan will coach the running backs for the 10th year on staff, Michalowski the outside linebackers for a second straight season and Summers will return as the defensive coordinator and coach the inside linebackers after tutoring the safeties last fall in his second year CU.
A capsule look at the new CU assistants:
TAYLOR EMBREE, Tight Ends
Embree, 31, spent the last four years in the National Football League. He began his professional coaching career with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016 as a defensive assistant, and was an offensive quality control coach the last three years (2017-19) under Kyle Shanahan for the San Francisco 49ers, the NFC champions last fall.
He prepped at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Kan., where he was an All-District performer in both football and basketball. He is the oldest son of Jon Embree, who lettered four years at tight end for the Buffs (1983-86), was a CU assistant coach for 10 years (1993-2002) and head coach for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The elder Embree is the assistant head coach and tight ends coach for the 49ers.
DORRELL ON EMBREE: "Taylor is a promising young coach. A player I recruited to UCLA, and had a productive career. He was always interested in coaching like his father (Jon), and he's learned the trade via the NFL, first with the Kansas City Chiefs and then with the San Francisco 49ers."
DANNY LANGSDORF, Quarterbacks & Passing Game Coordinator
Langsdorf, 47, joins CU from a brief stop at UNLV, where he was named quarterbacks coach and pass game coordinator on Jan. 8; he spent the 2019 season in both roles for Fresno State after serving an offensive analyst at the University of Oregon. In all, he brings to the Buffalo staff 23 years of experience on the collegiate and professional levels, all on the offensive side of the ball augmented by some extensive special teams coaching. He has 14 years of Power 5 Conference experience, including 12 as an offensive coordinator.
Prior to his time at Oregon, he was Mike Riley's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for nine seasons at Oregon State (2005-13) and then at Nebraska (2015-17). The Beavers earned six bowl berths and the Cornhuskers two in his time with Riley, of which he coached both school's all-time leading quarterbacks, Sean Manning (OSU) and Tommy Armstrong (NU). In-between, he was the quarterbacks coach for the New York Giants, where he worked with Eli Manning, the two-time Super Bowl champion who enjoyed one of his best seasons under Langsdorf's tutelage.
Langsdorf began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at California Lutheran in 1996, and then served two years as a graduate assistant at Oregon State coaching the tight ends in 1997-98. He got his first taste of coaching in the professional ranks for Edmonton in the Canadian Football League, where for the 1999-2001 seasons he was the Eskimos' offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks and receivers coach. From there, he joined the New Orleans Saints for three years (2002-04) as an assistant coach (offense quality control along with assisting with the receivers and special teams).
He played quarterback at Boise State (1991-93) and Linfield (Ore.) College (1994-95), and was also a player/coach in Germany for the Deggendorf Blackhawks.
DORRELL ON LANGSDORF: "I followed Danny's career with my experience in the Pac-10. He's worked with some really good coaches, especially Mike Riley, and enjoyed success at both Oregon State and Nebraska in bringing their passing games to new heights. He's a veteran coach who has great knowledge coaching the quarterback position and has also been a coordinator. He is known for developing quarterbacks – I received a text from Matt Moore, who played for Danny at Oregon State, and he told me 'you've got an outstanding coach and a great person.'" (Moore is Kansas City's backup quarterback who filled in for the Chiefs when Patrick Mahomes was injured last fall.)
DEMETRICE MARTIN, Cornerbacks
Martin, 47, joins Dorrell's staff from the University of Arizona, his latest stop in a coaching career that has been almost entirely in the Pacific 10 and Pac-12 conferences. In addition to having a wealth of experience in developing defensive backs, he has also been long-regarded as one of the top recruiters on the west coast.
He coached the cornerbacks for the Wildcats the last two seasons (2018-19) under head coach Kevin Sumlin, which followed six years on the UCLA staff (2012-17) tutoring the defensive backs for Jim Mora, Jr. At UCLA, he earned the title of assistant head coach in 2014, ahead of his third year on the staff. Bruin defensive backs earned a host of honors during his time there. That followed three years (2009-11) coaching the secondary for Washington after it named Steve Sarkisian as its new head coach. And prior to that, in 2006 and 2007, he was a defensive graduate assistant at Southern California, working with the Trojan secondary; USC won 2006 Pacific 10 title and defeated Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
He began his coaching career at Monrovia (Calif.) High School, where he worked at the school for the 1999 and 2000 seasons; he moved on to his high school alma mater, Pasadena's John Muir, coaching there in 2001, also coaching at Pasadena City College for the 2001 and 2002 seasons. The Lancers went 18-4 those two years and won the Mission Conference title both seasons and appearing in two bowl games. He remained in the junior college ranked the next three years (2003-05), serving as the pass defense coordinator and secondary coach at Mt. San Antonio College, where the Mounties played in the National Bowl in 2003 and 2004.
A native of Los Angeles, Martin starred in football at Pasadena's Muir High School. He played collegiately at Michigan State, lettering four years as a wide receiver and cornerback (1992-95). He earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 1994 when he led the conference with seven interceptions. He had 10 career interceptions and was a member of two Spartan bowl teams (1993 Liberty and 1995 Independence). Martin played professionally as a cornerback for the Scottish Claymores in NFL Europe (1997) and for the Houston Thunderbears (1998-99) in the Arena Football League. He signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Rams in the NFL and spent time on the practice squad.
DORRELL ON MARTIN: "Demetrice is a high energy, passionate coach who gets the most out of his players, both on and off the field. He has a reputation for being a great recruiter, and has outstanding experience. He's a good communicator and teacher of the fundamentals who is also very concerned with the players' welfare. He is very familiar with the footprint of the Pac-12 Conference with 14 years of coaching and recruiting within it."
BRETT MAXIE, Safeties
Maxie, 58, is a veteran secondary coach of 21 combined seasons between the professional and collegiate ranks, which followed 13-year career as a defensive back in the National Football League. Maxie comes to CU from the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he was the defensive coordinator for the 2019 season.
Carolina gave him his start in coaching, as he was the Panthers' quality control coach and worked with the defensive backs his first year after retiring as a player (1998). He then rejoined San Francisco as the 49ers assistant secondary coach for three years (1999-2001) and then took over as the club's defensive backs coach for two years (2002-03). Atlanta then hired his as its defensive backs coach for three seasons (2004-06).
Maxie moved on to the Miami Dolphins for the 2007 season as their secondary coach, with Dallas his next stop, as he was the Cowboys defensive backfield tutor for four years (2008-11). He then served in a similar capacity for the Tennessee Titans for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, remaining in Nashville for the following two years, coaching Vanderbilt's entire secondary in 2014 and specifically the cornerbacks in 2015. He returned to the NFL in 2016 as the secondary coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he would tutor the defensive backs for three seasons (2016-18).
DORRELL ON MAXIE: "I've known Brett to be a really good mentor and teacher with young people. He coached the defensive backs at Vanderbilt while I was there, and I felt he had a great connection with his players and got the most out of them. He enjoyed a long, stellar career in the NFL, and you don't play in the league for that long without becoming a total student of the game. The players will benefit greatly from that knowledge."
MITCH RODRIGUE, Offensive Line
Rodrigue, 55, comes to Colorado after coaching two years in the high school ranks in Alabama, but brings 27 years of full-time experience in college with him to the Buffalo staff.
He coached two years at Spanish Fork High School after a seven-year stint at the University of Louisiana (Lafayette), where served as the Ragin' Cajuns run game coordinator and offensive line coach. In his tenure in Lafayette, Rodrigue was credited with developing an offensive line that ranked among the most efficient groups in the country. In 2014, he had brothers Daniel and Mykhael Quave named to the preseason watch list for Lombardi Award – the first and only set of brothers named to a national watch list at any position.
Prior to his seven-year run at ULL, he was a on the South Alabama staff for three seasons (2008-10), the school's first foray into football. The first year he was heavily involved in the set-up of the program ahead of its inaugural season of competition in 2009; on the field, he was the Jaguars tight end coach. That position played a significant role in helping the offense average 439 yards and just under 46 points per game.
His first full-time coaching position was as an assistant coach at Pearl River (Miss.) Community College (1991-92). From there, he returned to his alma mater, Nicholls State, serving as tight ends and offensive line coach as well as offensive coordinator for six seasons (1993-98). He then was a mainstay at Southern Mississippi, where he spent nine seasons (1999-2007), first coaching the running back for one year, followed by the tight ends (2000-02) and the offensive line (2003-07). A valuable member of the staff in many areas, in 2006, he was named one of Rivals.com Top 10 recruiters from a non-BCS conference.
Rodrigue was an offensive lineman in college at Copiah-Lincoln (Miss.) Junior College for one year and at Nicholls State for three years, where he helped the Colonels win the 1984 Gulf Star Conference title along with advancing to the second round of the 1986 NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. He began his coaching career at Nichols as a student assistant for the 1987-88 seasons before coaching two years (1989-90) as a graduate assistant at Southern Miss.
DORRELL ON RODRIGUE: "What Coach Rod brings to us is a great amount of experience and the ability to be a great mentor to our players. What you will find out about our coaches is that we will get fully involved with our players, both on and off the field. He really is an outstanding man, he has an infectious personality and our players will gravitate to him."
CHRIS WILSON, Defensive Line
Chris Wilson joins Dorrell in a homecoming back to Boulder, where he coached the defensive line under Gary Barnett for five seasons from 2000-04. He spent the 2019 season as a defensive assistant with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.
Wilson, 51, coached All-Big 12 performers Justin Bannan and Tyler Brayton at Colorado, the latter of whom also earned third-team All-America honors, along with other familiar names to CU fans like Marques Harris, Matt McChesney, Brandon Dabdoub, Gabe Nyenhuis and James Garee. He joined Barnett's Colorado staff from Illinois State, where he was the D-line coach the previous two years (1998-99).
From 2016-18, he was the defensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles under head coach Doug Pederson, where in 2017, the team won the NFC East with a 13-3 record and went on to defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
Wilson left the CU staff to join coach Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, his alma mater. He was the defensive ends coach for the Sooners for 2005-06, and added special teams coordinator to his duties there the next three seasons (2007-09). He moved on to Mississippi State, where he was the co-defensive coordinator and line coach in 2010 before taking over the sole coordinator role the next two years (2011-12). He went on to coach the defensive line at Georgia in 2013 and then at Southern California (2014-15) before taking the similar position for the Eagles in the NFL.
He began his coaching career at Indiana State as a graduate assistant in 1993, and was promoted to linebackers coach the following season. He was the outside linebackers coach for Northern Illinois (1995) and the defensive line coach at Northeastern (La.) State in 1996 before returning to Indiana State as its OLB coach in 1997. He then moved on to become the defensive line coach at Illinois State for two seasons (1998-99) before joining Barnett at Colorado.
A four-year letterman at linebacker for Oklahoma from 1988-91, he was a two-time team captain, recorded 303 tackles, was a three-time second-team All-Big Eight Conference performer, a third-team All-American as a junior and was on the watch list for the '91 Butkus Award. He was recruited by and played for Hall of Fame head coach Barry Switzer. He was a 12th round draft pick by the Chicago Bears in the 1992 NFL Draft.
DORRELL ON WILSON: "Chris brings a wealth of experience both on the college and professional levels. He's a well-respected defensive line coach who has also been a coordinator, and with the Philadelphia Eagles, a Super Bowl champion coach. This is a man who deeply cares about his players, and he knows the intricacies of the university having coached here for five seasons. He's excited to return to Boulder."
Dorrell indicated he will soon identify which staff member or members will coordinate the various special teams.
Others members remaining on staff include director of strength and conditioning Drew Wilson, quality control for the defense, Bryan Cook, character coach Brian Cabral, director of football operations Bryan McGinnis, director of player engagement Cymone George and operations assistant Scott Unrein.
Spring football is on schedule to begin on Monday, March 16 with the annual Black & Gold spring game set for April 25 at 1:00 p.m.