Karl Dorrell better get used to nonconference schedules like the one he’s had this season. 

During the era of the three nonconference, nine conference games in college football, having one of those three nonconference games come against a fellow Power 5 program has been the norm for teams like Colorado. But college football scheduling is going to be changing drastically in the coming years as conference realignment is beginning to take place with Oklahoma and Texas set to move to the SEC in 2025. 

To counter that power move by the SEC, the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 have formed an alliance that will begin in the coming years, altering the nonconference schedules for all three conferences and creating some different, exciting matchups on the football field.

That means Buffs fans can expect to see more of what they’ve seen so far in 2021, which is back-to-back games against Texas A&M and Minnesota.

“I’m excited about that,” Dorrell said earlier this week. “I want the guys that come here in the future to feel that they’re going to play against a lot of top talent across the country. That’s the beauty of when this alliance thing kicks in.”

While that excitement can quickly turn for programs that struggle with a more difficult schedule, Dorrell is looking forward to the challenge it brings him and his staff as they try to make CU an annual contender.

“We gotta get our program at a level where it’s ready to compete every week against a Power 5 program,” Dorrell said. “That’s the direction we’re heading. There’s a lot of stuff that we have to work really hard at to get this place where it should be.”

The Buffs have tried to quickly put last week’s near upset of No. 5 Texas A&M at Mile High behind them, as they prepare for a Golden Gophers team that plays a style of football that’s equal in physicality to CU. 

“The physicality is there and they’ve got good running backs, and they’re not going to go down,” defensive lineman Na’im Rodman said of Minnesota. “What we’ve been trying to instill is that all hats to the ball, it’s swarm and punish, that’s the mentality our defense has gotta have.”

Stopping the run wasn’t the problem for CU last week as the Buffs held a talented A&M offense to just 10 points in the game. 

Most games this season are going to come down to how efficient the Buffs offense is, and in particular, how prolific Brendon Lewis and the passing game is.

Through two games, the freshman quarterback has attempted just 40 passes and completed just over 57% of them for under 200 total passing yards.

In the season opener against Northern Colorado it didn’t matter too much given how successful the run game was, but that won’t be the case the rest of the season in Pac-12 play.

“I think our passing game looked awesome in camp, and it’s looked good in practice, too, but there’s just been miscues in games,” tight end Brady Russell said. “I still have all the confidence in the world in Brendon and what he can do. We want to be able to control the game with our run, so it might seem like our pass offense is struggling when in reality it’s because we can rely so heavily on the run game as well, which I think is important for a young quarterback.”

Because Lewis has not been forcing the ball downfield with reckless abandon, offensive turnovers have been limited, which certainly makes Dorrell happy. But there will be times where Lewis is going to have to lead the offense down the field in a late game situation, and he’s going to need to be able to throw the ball efficiently in order to do that.

It happened last week against Texas A&M after the Aggies’ late touchdown, and who knows, maybe Lewis will have another chance to lead his team on a game-winning touchdown drive.

“[Lewis] has not been reckless with the football,” Dorrell said. “I know the one interception he had was a missed protection. It really wasn’t his fault. He has been taking care of the football and that’s a really, really great trait for a quarterback. Now, on the other side of it, you want a guy who does take some chances and believes in his receivers and will put the ball in the right spot in the right time. He is definitely doing some of the things very well, but the other part of it is he has to grow and have his anticipation be faster.”