Butch Davis rode Ken Dorsey to a lot of wins in the early years of this century, and now FIU is hoping the magic can happen again. The Golden Panthers on Monday announced the hiring of Dorsey as an assistant athletics director.
“We are very fortunate to be able to add Ken Dorsey to both the football program and the athletic department staff,” FIU AD Pete Garcia said. “He will work closely with both Butch Davis and myself.”
Dorsey played quarterback at Miami from 1999-02, where in three years as a starter he led the Hurricanes to a 35-2 record with 76 touchdown passes against 26 picks. Dorsey won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top offensive player in 2001, was a two-time Big East Offensive Player of the Year, a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, earned nods on three All-Big East teams, helped the ‘Canes win their fifth national title in 2001, played for another in 2002, and recorded three consecutive seasons in which Miami ranked first or second in the year-end polls.
Davis, however, left Miami after the 2000 season to take over as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Dorsey was a seventh-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers and later played for the Browns (after Davis’s departure) and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. Dorsey’s final season as a player came in 2010, and he immediately moved into coaching as a pro scout for the Carolina Panthers in 2011-12 before a promotion to quarterbacks coach from 2013-17.
“I think extremely highly of Ken Dorsey,’ Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton said. “He is an extremely hard and efficient worker. My challenge was also to beat him to work. He made my life as easy as possible. He’ll bring a newness and spark to FIU. Not only is he a hard worker, but he has a vibrant killer instinct. He’s a known proven winner over the years. I credit a lot of my success to Ken Dorsey.”
Dorsey will start with FIU next month. His specific duties were not revealed.