A couple posts back, Nestor brought up a hugely important tidbit that needs be recognized, rehashed and respected on this great blog:

In the silent, sterile and hermetically sealed vacuum that is Morgan Center's Football coaching (ahem) "search", BruinsNation.com is one of the only credible sources of fresh information (speculation?) and dialog about our football program and the soap opera that is playing out in the main stream media... Not to mention a favorite bookmark (homepage?) of more than a few influential personalities attached to our cause. With all we've been through and with all that is at stake, we are indeed in a precarious position... a fact that should remind everyone here -- newcomers and vets alike -- how important it is to keep it real, keep it factual and Keep It Sane.

Google-News anything "UCLA" and you're bound to see it for yourself; BruinsNation posts, not 10-minutes old are getting crawled and ranked at the tip-top spot on the world's most popular search engine -- often outstripping the major media outlets' "news" releases, op-ed pieces, updates, stories and reporter posts by 2:1 (at worst).

With millions of eyes focused on UCLA's next move in Football, the opinions, analysis and viewpoints put forth here are -- if nothing else -- being seen, read and integrated into the larger debate at UCLA as well as the annual spectacle that is the college coaching carousel.

All the work that went into monitoring, documenting, debating and forming a consensus movement to end the divisive tenure of Karl Dorrell is not done. Many names have been  floated, many theories offered, explanations proferred, tested and debated. But now, with a total lack of information flowing from Morgan Center, there is only one conclusion we can reach:

THEY DON'T WANT US TO KNOW.

Maybe it's because "we" left such a deep and obvious footprint on the Dorrell saga. Maybe because "we" took our support of UCLA Athletics so seriously that we literally moved the earth.  Maybe we ought to do everything possible to maintain our composure and thus help Dan Guerrero do what only HE can at this point. Maybe above all else, since [aside from continuing an informed and common-sense debate on the issue] it is all truly out of our hands at this point, RESPECT is the thing we owe most to the patient we helped put on the table. Maybe the very LAST thing we want to do at this point is undermine the work of the Surgeon we hired and credibility we've earned up to this point by ripping everything to shreds just before sunrise.

Admittedly, it feels like we're being treated like children; like the same level of irreverence our government displays for The People in matters of national security. Well, whatever the case, after 9-days in isolation, the level of available oxygen remaining in our little room here has run dangerously low and is quite clearly going to some peoples' heads.

The same open and heated debate that we had leading up to this juncture is now causing us to eat our own. Veteran posters/moderators now seem to be out for blood, turning what should be a good, viable debate about the many who's, hows and what-if scenarios into more of a group-think session where everyone is expected to either conform, shut up and/or make speed; all while the Nation sits doing time and Joe Public reads on in amusement.

As the initial positions taken by UCLA's Athletic Department (candidate prerequisites, time frame, "getting it right", etc.) suggest, the level of influence an organized and informed supporter forum like this possesses is formidable, to say the very least. UCLA Alumni, fans and supporters can (and should) be heard and respected at PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS such as this one, which is all the more reason to INVITE and RESPECT opinions and debate on the controversy -- not assault people who may have different - albeit irritating - takes on what is a Big Deal for All of Us.

The fact is (ok, it's not a fact), NO ONE here knows who the next coach will be, whether he (or she!) will have that right mix of talent, character and effectiveness to get us to the next level and ultimately where or how far that Coach will end up taking us. All we can really feel good about at this point is that we definitely had a hand in doing what has traditionally been the HARDEST thing to do at UCLA: Affect Change.

The minute the dialog turns one-sided, the moment people lose the will to speak candidly for fear of attack or ridicule or being silenced, the SECOND those imbecilic (see there I go!), Administration bureaucrats can dial us up and point to these posts as proof that decisions as important as this one must not be left to the masses -- we accomplish self-annihilation.

From here, even with "all" the facts, figures, averages, projections, opinions, analysis and rebuttals at our disposal, the only thing we truly "know" is WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW, and that doesn't amount to much.

Cannibalizing otherwise decent, well-meaning fans for what mostly amounts to honest dissent only hurts the cause.

Take it easy, Bruins.