BOULDER — We don’t know if Karl Dor­rell was the Buffs’ sec­ond choice. Or their fifth. Does it mat­ter? The whole thing feels like a stroke of pure genius now.

Your club­house leader for Pac-12 Foot­ball Coach of the Year pulled anoth­er rab­bit out of his hat in the frigid moun­tain air Sat­ur­day, this time on short notice. In a game that didn’t exist until Thanks­giv­ing Day.

Even the audi­bles are com­ing up ros­es in Ral­phieville. The Buffs’ 20–10 win over San Diego State, a make-up con­test arranged when USC’s COVID-19 pos­i­tives nixed a trip to the Col­i­se­um, made Dor­rell the first CU coach to open his ledger at 3–0 since Rick Neuheisel in 1995.

Dor­rell was here for that one, iron­i­cal­ly and inti­mate­ly, hav­ing served as Neuheisel’s offen­sive coor­di­na­tor 25 years ear­li­er. The Buffs and Dor­rell went their sep­a­rate ways after 1998. It’s been some­thing of an odyssey for both par­ties in the two decades since.

Yet here they are. Togeth­er. Bowl-eli­gi­ble in Year 1. A feat that’s elud­ed every oth­er new Buffs coach since Gary Bar­nett fin­ished 7–5 dur­ing his debut sea­son of 1999.

Hold the phone, you say. After three games? In a fall that’s seen Utah and Ari­zona State man­age to get only one tilt in, each, before Thanks­giv­ing? In a sea­son with more aster­isks than a Richard Pry­or concert?

Amen. For exact­ly those reasons.

Why Dor­rell?

Because no one’s dealt with more chaos, more garbage out of his con­trol, and kept on plug­ging the way the Buffs’ first-year coach has. Because none of this should be hap­pen­ing, let alone working.

Why Dor­rell?

Because his quar­ter­back, Sam Noy­er, was play­ing safe­ty a year ago at this time and had opened 2020 by walk­ing away from CU entire­ly. Sat­ur­day, Noy­er ran for a score and threw for anoth­er. The Ore­gon native’s only the sev­enth Buffs quar­ter­back since 1959 to win his first three tilts as a starter.

Why Dor­rell?

Because his tail­back, Jarek Brous­sard, a year ago had just blown out his left knee for the sec­ond time, won­der­ing what calami­ty the Lord had in store next. Brous­sard ram­bled for 124 yards on the ground against a salty Aztecs defense Sat­ur­day, becom­ing the sec­ond run­ner in Buffs his­to­ry to rush for more than 100 yards in each of his first three contests.

“Every time I step on the field,” Brous­sard said, “I just try to make the most of every oppor­tu­ni­ty I get.”

Why Dor­rell?

Because every time fate opened a door, it slammed a win­dow down on his fin­gers. Because he was hired this past Feb. 23, jump­ing onto a 2020 train that had already left the sta­tion. Because COVID-19 wiped out his spring prac­tice. And his sum­mer camps.

Why Dor­rell?

Because nobody had more signs from the foot­ball gods that this was lin­ing up to be a dump­ster fire on wheels. Because nobody in this league has done more with less. Because Dor­rell had to fig­ure out a way to replace a four-year starter behind cen­ter (Steven Mon­tez) and an NFL draft pick at wide receiv­er (Laviska Shenault). Because he found him­self prepar­ing for a fall foot­ball slate that was on, then off, then back on again.

Why Dor­rell?

Because nobody saw this com­ing. Not Cae­sars Palace, which in April set the over-under for Buffs wins at 3.0 for a 12-game slate. Not the gang at BetOnline.ag, who in Octo­ber — with the Pac-12 scram­bling back to join the rest of the Pow­er 5 leagues — fixed the over-under for CU vic­to­ries at 1.5.

The Buffs are play­ing with house mon­ey now.

“I think that we went into this sea­son with a chip on our shoul­ders,” said safe­ty Der­rion Rakestraw, who racked up sev­en tack­les against the Aztecs. “We knew, going into the sea­son, that a lot of peo­ple were not going to be talk­ing about us. And a lot of peo­ple were going to be doubt­ing us.

“That was our edge: We knew that we had to go out there and prove something.”

Throw them a chal­lenge, and instead of mak­ing excus­es, they rise to meet it. New oppo­nent? Forty hours notice? Fine. Bring it on. A shootout ver­sus Chip Kel­ly? Great. A gut-check against Stan­ford out on The Farm? Groovy. A slugfest against a San Diego State crew that came to Fol­som Field ranked No. 9 nation­al­ly in defen­sive scor­ing effi­cien­cy? Sweet.

“Good teams find ways to win, right?” Dor­rell said Sat­ur­day night.

This is a good team, kids. Pan­dem­ic or no pan­dem­ic. Aster­isk or no asterisk.

Why Dor­rell?

The team tagged for 1.5 wins has three of ’em now, with at least three tilts — we hope — yet to play. Giv­en the chaos of the moment, that would be impres­sive enough on its own.

“It’s great to be bowl-eli­gi­ble,” said senior line­backer Nate Land­man, who added to his leg­end with three sacks and 11 stops against the Aztecs. “But we have a lot to do.”

Why Dor­rell?

Because you can’t shake the feel­ing that the mad­der the foot­ball world gets, the san­er Dor­rell looks. Or the feel­ing that he’s not done yet.