There's no harm in praising DG for what he's done so far.  I don't think anyone would really be satisfied if Bellotti is the only guy DG makes a run at before settling on Rick.

But you got give him some credit for going after him. If your kid comes home with a test that they got an A on you don't withhold praise until they get a 4.0

But I do agree, from what is public, he has yet to do enough, but the longer the search goes on the better I think the chances are we're gong to get someone better, and the better chances DG is doing what he should be, going after the 1st tier candidates.  But we have to at least give him some credit when things are looking in the right direction.

BN spends a lot of time criticizing low fan expectations. And then there's ridiculous excitement over an above average coach, at best, in Bellotti. Perfect irony. His career is essentially 8-4 seasons; is that what we would be satisfied with?

We should not settle with any of the current candidates because none of them are worth our time and money. If you want to be a championship program, you need a championship-caliber coach, and none of the candidates fit that mold. Personally, I think UCLA's history in football is irrelevant to all of this--it doesn't matter whether we are a football school today, it matters whether we will be one in the coming years. And in order to reach the next level, we need to shed our low expectations and find a leader that has proven an ability to win and win big.

we fork over a bag full of money.  The rest of the nation sees us as a primarily a basketball school.  The Pac-10 doesn't get a whole lot of national respect as a conference.  With job openings at Arkansas, Nebraska, and Michigan, do you really think that we have a shot at convincing a big name coach to come to Westwood?  We are simply not a big time program.  Let's not fool ourselves.  Right now our best shot is an ex-alum like Neuheisel unless we want to spend well over 1.5 million to land a big fish.  Spend the money Guerrero and get us back into the game.

Nuehiesel would seem like a good coach but all his brushes with the NCAA in his past kind of make me worry and wonder How do we really know none of what happend before will happen here at UCLA?. If he is hired as our Head Coach DG and Chancellor Block need to put some kind of provision in his contract regarding NCAA infracations

I don't think it's fair to talk about DG as a disappointment based just on this interview process.  Yes, Dorrell was horrible.  Yes, UCLA football should be on the same level as the rest of the athletics program.  And yes, we should demand excellence.  However, there's only so much the guy can do.  I really do feel sorry for him.  He has made an effort to draw big name coaches.  But really, why would a big name football coach want to come to UCLA?  It's a program with very little history, it's currently a poor team, and there are academic standards to deal with.  Calling for DG to be fired over not getting a big name coach, as I've heard some people doing, is hardly fair.  Even if UCLA offers these coaches the same amount of money as schools like Nebraska or Michigan, they're still going to go to Nebraska and Michigan because they have great history and great programs at the moment.  I'm sorry, but I still believe in DG, even if the next coach isn't a star.  This is the man that brought us Ben Howland and John Savage.  As long as our next head coach has some experience, I'll give DG the benefit of the doubt.  He's already turned around two losing programs; he knows what he's doing.

If it is so difficult to recruit in a metropolitan area with 7 million people, in a town with no professional football, where you can put 90k in the most hallowed stadium on the west coast, how does Pete Carroll make it look easy?  SC had many mediocre years before Pom Pom.  We can attract top ten recruiting classes even under the former regime.  UCLA Football is a marketing dream.  LA should be the capitol of college football.  Am I going to to give DG a break if he does not have the vision to see this and get us a coach who can exploit this bonanza?  Hell no!  See what happens to AD's who make bad football hires (Nebraska) they get unemployed.

I'm glad they went after Bellotti, BFD, they should be looking at every successful coach on the West Coast and the Southwest.  Personally, I would accept RN for the job but none of the other names mentioned come close to my expectations.  I would expect us all to have high expectations and the administration to back that up with the cash to make those expectations viable.  If not, don't expect me to be sitting in the Arroyo watching mediocrity on the field.

..if we say "atta boy" for going after Belotti or tell him that we're disappointed in his effort thus far. It's his job and he's the man with the plan. To date, he has been pretty contemplative: only two (count 'em, two) cryptic comments in the last five weeks of the season regarding Dorrell's status and then -- BAM! -- the hammer drops on the old head coach ALMOST TO THE SECOND that Nestor's "Dorrell must go" count down timer ticks off.

Now he's engaged in a search for a replacement and there's been nary a peep out of him except to enunciate the qualifications he's looking for in his replacements. The only things that bubbles up to the surface are the public remnants of his effort; Walker interviewed early on and then ignored, Chow withdrawing, Neuheisel having a second interview, and now Belotti being talked to (not an interview, mind you).

But, when we started this journey, we were obsessing over the nightmare of Chow+Walker and Petersen told us to buzz off.

Now things are looking up: someone had the cojones to talk to Belotti. And, as Steve Herzog observed, Leach's not really out of the picture. I am not sure Petersen is either. I see this Belotti talk as a move to send a message to Petersen that he'd better get used to the blue rug up there in Boise because Belotti's going to be at OU for a long time.

Also, as so many have observed, the serious. eligible coaches are engaged in bowls and can't serously negotiate until their immediate responsibilies are discharged.

I am not saying that bloggers shouldn't stop blogging and MSMers shouldn't stop MSMing, but to paraphrase Dorrellian: "It will be what it will be".

Because this and other threads keep leaning towards legitimizing Streeter's argument several months ago that all us Bruin fans really want is a "juggernaut" of a team at any expense - which I don't think is the case - I offer  two other things to consider before issuing final judgement on DG (IMHO of course).

[1] Pac-10 schools continue to suffer from a geographic time zone disadvantage. Even in this age of HD digital satellite TV with TiVO, satellite radio and PodCasts, West Coast football still does not market well in the East.  Take it from someone who has tried to follow UCLA football since graduating in 1985 while on active duty for the past 21+ years and has lived in Hokie country since 2002.  By the time the West Coast games start fans out here are either driving home from their local game or are footballed-out and switching over to NASCAR.  Even overseas, the time-slots dedicated to college football are focused on East Coast games.  Most folks out this way only care about one team on the West Coast, and only because of the impact they will have on the BCS standings.  With this limitation in mind I suspect it isn't easy to attract tier-1 coaches with higher aspirations to the City of Angels.

[2] Other than spending limitations, do we really know what other restrictions the administration has placed on DG?  There are some circles of thought that major college football programs challenge the notion of the "student-athelete" because of the sport's enormous revenue generation capacity - that in fact players should be considered school employees.  Is that what Morgan Center is concerned about if they hire one of the big names out there?  Has Chancellor Block given DG an "off-limits" list (which I presume would include names like Spurrier)?

For whatever it's worth I think the search thus far has been pretty darned good.  I think the names we've heard were forced on DG to consider; RN and Mariucci from boosters, Chow and Walker from a vocal set of fans/season ticket holders, and Golden from Block himself.  Bellotti seems like the first serious pick by DG - and the resultant excitement was not as much about the man himself but over the fact that DG was able to break out of the politically-correct list.  (by the way I'm not convinced that deal is dead... I still wonder why Dohn was able to scoop the MSM without help, and where BRO came up with the assessment that a deal was very being close to made).

Don't know about anyone else but I'd like to take a break from all this and enjoy a good game today - and hope that while I'm doing so (or finishing XMAS shopping) DG is out beating the pavement somewhere even Dohn and Walker don't know about.

In the past UCLA would NEVER have put themselves out there for a coach they didn't think would accept the job.  I was worried that was the direction we were headed with Golden, Walker, Chow and RN.  

I believe that DG knew it was highly unlikely that Bellotti would come, but made the move to let the world (well the world that follows this stuff) know he was aiming high and to make sure a few other coaches knew we were not sitting around waiting on them.

From a PR standpoint (and I work in PR) this was a home run.  He has also shifted RN's perception in most of our eyes.  Two weeks ago we would have shut the internet down if DG just went out and hired RN.  Now after strategically "leaking" some names and bringing 2nd tier candidates to campus, it appears a majority of us would accept RN as long as we feel we "tried" for the big names.

I still contend that he will wait another 10 days...make an offer to Petersen (that will of course somehow be made public) and potentially Leach and if/when they both pass...we have the ultimate fall back...a (mostly) beloved Alum who WANTS the job and will be passionate about it.  

And believe me...UCLA's PR machine will make sure we hear the  "Carroll was USC's 4th choice" story so many times that we will all want to puke.

Someone in DG's position always has to deal with perception AND reality.  I believe that DG has done a masterful job of manipulating our perceptions.  The reality is we will most likely end up with someone we could have had on December 5th...but won't we FEEL better about it now?

When did Bellotti become a big name coach? He hasn't been big name since 2001, fact is his last six seasons are no better than Dorrell. He isn't respected by anyone in the conference, if anything he is hated for his negative recruiting. I'm still waiting to hear that "big name"...