Bills’ Ken Dorsey went 38-2 as Miami QB, but losses taught him as much as the wins

“38-2,” Josh Allen interjects.

“38-2, baby, yeah!” Matt Barkley said.

“38-2, or something like that, as Josh likes to remind us,” Case Keenum said.

Dorsey, Buffalo’s offensive coordinator, accomplished exactly that during his time at the University of Miami. On Sunday, he’ll return to the city where he found unprecedented success and was a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, as the Bills (2-0) face the Miami Dolphins (2-0) at Hard Rock Stadium.

Allen says Dorsey’s college record comes up often in the quarterback room, and it has spilled out into press conferences.

“38-2, he’ll never let me forget that,” Allen said in January. “He says it all the time.”

“(We’re) talking about a guy that doesn’t want to lose, that hates losing,” Allen said in July. “He absolutely hates it, and that’s why he was 38-2 in college. And he never lets me forget it. 38-2. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I always try to jab at him, like, ‘Coach, what were you? 36-4?’ 38-2.”

Dorsey contends he’s not the one bringing it up.

“He’s exaggerating,” Dorsey said. “He likes to give me a hard time. I’m not one who goes around parading around or anything like that. So, he likes to bring it up more than me.”

Allen acknowledges that he is the instigator.

“Oh, absolutely,” Allen said. “I absolutely do. But he has brought it up before.”

“I remember from when he first got here,” Barkley said of Dorsey, who arrived in 2019 as the Bills’ quarterbacks coach. “I don’t know who first brought it up. Probably Josh. Might have been him. I think it was probably Josh at one point.”

There is considerable evidence to support Barkley’s recollection.

“It’s now to the point where like (Dorsey’s) just sick and tired of hearing me say that,” Allen told The News. “He’s like, ‘Josh, just shut up, please.’

“But that’s something to be super proud of in your football career, to go 38-2 in college and be known as one of the most winningest quarterbacks of all time. That’s pretty special. That’ll never go away.”

Whatever the exact number of times Dorsey’s record is brought up any given week at the facility, the Bills still hold 38-2 in high regard. It’s a testament to Dorsey’s hyper-competitive nature and his deep understanding of what it takes to win. It’s a needed experience, as he helps steadies a team with ballooning pressure as Super Bowl contenders.

Dorsey gleaned plenty as the Hurricanes rattled off win after win, but he learned from the two losses as well. 

As Dorsey takes the reins of the Bills’ offense, he hopes to parlay all those lessons forward. His disdain for losing infiltrates the offense. By cause and effect, the competition makes the defense intensify.

“He wants to win every situation,” defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said. “Our players seem like they feed off of it.”

Twenty-three years after starting as a true freshman, Dorsey is off to a hot start in his first year as offensive coordinator. The Bills lead the league with 72 points through two games and are third in total offense at 413.5 yards per game. 

So much of Dorsey’s success as a coach, the Bills believe, will come from his deep empathy with players, particularly quarterbacks.

“He can read the room well from that standpoint,” head coach Sean McDermott said. “Living a day in the life of a player, he’s done that. So, I think that gives him an advantage that way.”

“His experience in his football career helps in his coaching career,” Allen said. “He knows what guys feel like, he understands the quarterback’s point of view. … So to have that, it’s pretty cool feeling.”

As expectations skyrocket for the Bills, Dorsey knows how to best enable players to handle that pressure. It comes from a resume where winning once seemed automatic. He figured out years ago that all he could do was focus on the next game, but that doesn’t mean the losses fade away.

“Yeah, I’m getting old,” Dorsey, 41, said with a laugh. “But I mean, there’s definitely things you remember.”

‘This is going to be a stepping stone’

The first loss came on Sept. 9, 2000. The fourth-ranked Hurricanes traveled across the country, only to fall 34-29 to No. 15 Washington.

“We started off slow in the first half,” Dorsey said. “And then the second half, we really kind of came on, and really kind of got close to pulling out, we just ran out of time. And so that first half the slow start kind of cost us.”

Miami scored three touchdown in the third quarter and then took advantage of two fourth-quarter interceptions to cut the deficit to five with less than three minutes remaining. A Hurricanes onside kick was recovered by Washington. Miami got the ball back with 20 seconds remaining on their own 20 and was able to run three plays but couldn’t get near the end zone. 

Dorsey finished 15 for 34, throwing for 215 yards and a touchdown.

“It was a long plane ride back,” Dorsey said, “And my center, Brett Romberg came up and was like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go on a run. This isn’t going to define us. This is going to be a stepping stone to something more.’”

Romberg was right. The loss catapulted them forward. The Hurricanes won the next 34, capturing the national title for the 2001 season along the way.

Dorsey’s collegiate finale offered a chance to repeat as champions, with 12-0 Miami meeting 13-0 Ohio State in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. 

“We start off really fast in the first drive,” Dorsey said. “And then, we just kind of got derailed with execution things, turnover things, and those types of different things, that just jump up and get you.”

The Hurricanes fell, 31-24, in double overtime. A controversial pass interference call on fourth down in the first overtime provided the Buckeyes with another opportunity, after a Dorsey touchdown pass to Kellen Winslow had given the Hurricanes the lead.

After Ohio State scored to force the second overtime, Dorsey would complete a 7-yard pass on fourth-and-3 to keep Miami’s hopes alive. A facemask penalty moved the ball to the 6-yard line. Miami reached the 1-yard line on its next three plays and a fourth-down pass was incomplete as Dorsey was hit, ending the game.

Dorsey finished 28 of 43 for 296 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

He left his mark all over Miami record books, but his performance also made an impression on players he would go on to coach.  

“I remember one of those losses being really tough,” Keenum said. “And I remember watching it.”

Keenum, 34, and Barkley, 32, can recall seeing Dorsey play. When Keenum saw the late-game heroics of the Fiesta Bowl, he saw Dorsey’s competitive nature take over.

“I think one of the memories is him just actually getting destroyed, hit, but still trying to throw the ball and make a play happen,” Keenum said. “And I don’t remember if it worked out or not on that particular play, but, man, just like, holy cow, this dude, this dude wants to win bad.”

There was no way for Keenum to know at the time, but Dorsey was telling him exactly who he would be nearly two decades later.

“Just the last drive and him just trying to will that team to win and give it everything he had, it’s just the same drive I see right now,” Keenum said. “I mean, just relentless. Almost like a man on fire, doing whatever it takes to try to win at all costs.”

Whatever fire overcame Dorsey, he learned he must also find ways to tame it, to control it. 

“I think the main (lesson), especially in that second championship game is like, ‘Hey, no matter what happens, it’s not getting too high, not getting too low,’” Dorsey said, echoing a mentality that permeates the Bills nowadays.

“I mean, there were times where people could have said we’re out of the game, and then we kept fighting and stayed level and got the game to overtime. And same thing, we start the drive, we started the game off by going down, boom, boom, boom, scoring, and not getting too high. … Be excited, be enthusiastic, but at the same time, keep playing. Keep a steady mind, and be ready to go out the next series.”

The Bills talk often about the hard lessons that come from losing. Dorsey, during his time at Miami, had nearly nothing to draw on in that particular sense. It’s not to say he hasn’t faced adversity; he did each step along the way. He was underrecruited in high school. Then, despite all he accomplished at Miami, the significance of his role was questioned. He was drafted in the seventh round, and his NFL career did not pan out, playing in only 17 games with the San Francisco 49ers and the Cleveland Browns.

Onlookers saw the star-studded Miami roster and used that to minimize Dorsey’s record. He used it to recognize how every person matters more.

“I appreciate these guys, and every single individual that you play with and every single individual that I coach now,” Dorsey said. “Because when you hear things like ‘Oh, well, you could throw anybody at quarterback on that team, and they’d win,’ it’s not necessarily true. I feel like it takes a group.”

Now, he’s leading a group that can draw on his time at Miami, especially in a situation where success is just assumed. Dorsey understands more than most what it’s like to be the favorite in every game your team plays.  

“I think one of the big things that I’ve learned is when you’re having success, and when you’re doing things well and all that, the expectations kind of always grow and grow,” Dorsey said.

“There’s going to be times where, hey, the expectations are so high that it’s going to be like you don’t even want to try to live up to them, because you throw one incompletion, or you lose one game, or whatever it is – the sky is falling. … That’s something I kind of learned from college, because I think when you have that type of run, the expectation is you’re supposed to win every game by 40 points, or that type of thing.

“Then when you don’t, it’s like, well, what’s wrong? Well, at the end of the day, we’re focused on one thing and getting better and focusing on the opponent, and then everything else will hopefully take care of itself.”

The quieter moments of preaching long-term goals might be outshined by Dorsey’s growing reputation for relentlessness. As players provided more examples of his competitiveness during the preseason, Dorsey felt the need to go so far as to clarify that he does not believe he is “too much of a psychopath.” That is, of course, something a psychopath might say, but the Bills know Dorsey is coming from a good place. For as spirited as Dorsey is, he pivots instantly from fire to warmth when dealing with his players.

“It’s in the flip of a light switch, like he can turn it on and off very quickly,” Allen said. “But he’s never done anything like out of malicious intent or hate – he’s always done it because he cares so much. And he loves the game. He loves these players. He’s just trying to put us in the best positions to be successful.”

The more time Dorsey has spent as a coach than as a player, the more he realizes how much he must preach moving on quickly. Learn what you can, but then use it for the next game. Don’t stay stuck in a win or a loss. 

“I think that’s the mentality you’ve got to take,” Dorsey said. “You can’t look backwards. You can’t look forward. You’ve got to focus on the now. And I think that’s really kind of been our focus. And I think that that helps me out a lot in my position.”

So he hones in on the present. Whether it’s football or basketball or ping pong or anything, Dorsey wants not only to be in that moment, but to win that moment. To win every moment.

“I think having that mindset is good,” Keenum said. “If everything is on the line all the time, then when everything actually is on the line, it’s just like a normal day.”