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News Brief

Aug. 7, 2019ABILENE, Texas

Dorrel has ACU trending up

Adam Dorrel, Abilene Christian Head Coach (Photo by Jeremy Enlow)

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Adam Dorrel is entering his third year as the head football coach at Abilene Christian University, and the Maryville native has a good thing going with the Wildcats.

How good?

Dorrel signed a multi-year extension Wednesday that will keep him at ACU through the 2023 season.

It hasn't been easy, though, as he builds a Division 1 program from scratch. The Wildcats won just two games in his first year, but rebounded for a six-win campaign in 2018, including ACU's first victory over a ranked team as a D-1 school.
Dorrel says after a rough start, he feels the program trending in the right direction.

"It's been really challenging at times, but that's what I definitely wanted. I wanted a new challenge. The first year, to be real candid with you, was extremely difficult just trying to change the culture and the perspective of everything in the program, whether it was academics, community involvement, how we practice, how we train. Jump into last year, year number two, again got started on a really, really slow start. And midway through the season last year it just finally clicked. We did some really good things, finally won some close football games. It's just been really rewarding, and we are super excited about the upcoming season."

Fall camp got underway for Abilene Christian last week. The Wildcats open the season August 31st at North Texas.