Brandon Dorlus ready for breakout season

When Mario Cristobal and his staff began recruiting Brandon Dorlus out of Deerfield Beach High School in Florida, the former 3-star prospect didn’t necessarily think his future as a college athlete would come on the football field. 

As Cristobal describes it, Dorlus was a basketball player learning to play football. 

“I played the three — played small forward,” Dorlus said Tuesday. “Played shooting guard. I could shoot the ball… I still go to the rec and get some buckets up.”

Even back then, though, his potential along the defensive line was obvious to anybody who was watching — in large part because of the physical skill set that made him such a good high school basketball player. 

“You saw the athleticism. You saw the twitch. You saw the ability to move,” Cristobal said. “You saw the ability to bend.”

In the four years since, Dorlus has transformed into one of the more pivotal players on Oregon’s defense. 

The 6-3 junior defensive tackle made his first career start for the Ducks last winter in the Pac-12 championship against USC and delivered a standout performance. A few weeks later in the Fiesta Bowl against Iowa State, he added another stellar showing. 

Now, he’s ready to build on his strong finish to the 2020 campaign and make that same type of impact on a game-to-game basis for an entire season. 

“Last year was a good opportunity for me to learn every position on the d-line behind (Austin Faoliu) and (Jordon Scott),” Dorlus said. “It was good to learn from those guys and just know what to do to be successful.”

Cristobal is encouraging Dorlus to be more of a vocal leader this season, and he has accepted the challenge. Along with that, Dorlus is aiming to be more consistent, and he made nutrition a priority during the spring. 

“I’m Hatian,” Dorlus said. “My mom was here during the spring and made a lot of Hatian food. So I was able to get some good food and good nutrition in to get my weight up.”

Dorlus is now up to 290 pounds of what Cristobal describes as “good weight” and still athletic and versatile enough to do everything the Ducks require of him along the defensive front. 

“Really good work ethic,” Cristobal said of Dorlus. “Athletic, strong, powerful. He’s what you want in a three-technique. He can do it all. He can be a first and second-down run stop guy. He’s an every-down guy.

“What we’ve seen out of him now is just better work ethic, better leadership, a guy that’s mature and growing.”

With Faoliu and Scott both having departed the program, Dorlus and Popo Aumavae will be the veteran leaders along a talented, albeit young, defensive line. 

Cristobal pointed out that at a lot of schools, Dorlus would be a redshirt sophomore. But he contributed early for Oregon as a true freshman in 2019 and gained valuable experience. 

In particular, the snaps he played against Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl helped instill a belief that he would be able to thrive throughout the rest of his career. 

“I went against one of the best centers in the country my freshman year,” Dorlus said. “That was a great opportunity; going against him and doing what I did in the Rose Bowl, I looked at that game and said, ‘This is for you. This is your future.’”