David,

I guess I’m a bit more willing to cut you a bit of slack because (i) I didn’t know you were a DB staff writer, (ii) I wasn’t around before for your other comments (whether shortsighted or not), and (iii) despite my personal major misgivings about DB staffers and their general sense of self-importance and arrogance, I’m willing to cut you a break.

I understand what you’re saying. Basically, it’s “BN used to rip the MSM for it’s low expectations of KD and now BN is relying on the MSM to support its low expectations of CRN this season…something is amiss.”

I get what you’re saying; really, I do. I just disagree. I don’t speak for BN. I’m just some guy who comes here and talks about all things Bruins because (i) I love UCLA, (ii) this is a pretty vibrant community with a good, interesting dialogue, and (iii) it’s the only way to stay sane during breaks studying for the bar.

That said, regardless of the MSM and what it says, my expectations would be the same. I understand KD is not the coach that CRN is. That’s a given. But, when KD became coach (and when I was still a student at UCLA), my feeling was, let’s give this young guy a few years., let him set up his system and get his guys. We had that 10-2 season and at that point, I figured his system had finally took and the program had turned the corner. From that, I expected things to continue progressing. I expected at least 9 wins and no regression, even with the significant losses. At the time, I figured, this is going into KD’s fifth season. By now, even though we’re losing Olson and MJD, KD has been at the helm long enough to plan for such a contingency and bring in new guys and have new guys step into Olson and MJD’s shoes.

In Markey and Ben Olson, those were the heirs to Drew and MJD. That’s what KD would have had us believe. It was his system, he had come off a great season, I expected he knew these kids would be capable and that things would continue to progress.

What I did not expect is that KD had no sense of forward planning. That he got lucky one season and basically staked his tenure on a couple of guys, rather than planning on building a consistent winner by bringing in year after year of quality recruits (like Ol’ Cheaty Peety is doing across town). Let’s face it: Carroll didn’t stake his tenure on the shoulders of Carson Palmer or Matt Leinart alone. He brought in new guys every year who are expected to step into the role and perform (like how Booty was expected to step in and get it done, although he certainly doesn’t have the tools that Palmer had; how McKnight is supposed to step into the shoes of Bush and get it done, etc.).

Yes, had KD remained in charge, I would have predicted only 6 wins, if not fewer. However, for a guy entering his sixth year in charge at UCLA, I would have expected at least 9 wins. Perhaps you’ll disagree (and that’s fine with me), but in my mind, there’s a major difference between what I predict will happen and what my expectations are for a program.

I think what maybe isn’t making my point really clear is that my expectations for KD’s sixth season were not made at the beginning of that sixth season, but rather at the beginning of his tenure in Westwood. Predictions come year-in and year-out, but for me at least, expectations are established at the beginning. I expected that by year six, KD would be make us a perenial contender for at least the Pac-10 and Rose Bowl.

Yes, I would have still predicted six wins or less had KD remained in charge. But he would have been failing what my expectations of him and his program by this point in time.

CRN, on the other hand, I expect the same of him by his sixth year. I expect a 10 win season in year six of the CRN era. In a few years, if we’re devestated by injuries, I may predict fewer than 10 wins, but that won’t change what my expectation of the man and his program will be.

That being said, I don’t think my expectations were inflated or unreasonable. I expected steady progress year in and year out. I think the major problem we’re having is that what I actually predict will happen this season and what I expected from this program at this point in time under KD are different.

I hope that clears it up.

Woods argument about the loss of Drew Olson. While we lost Olson, we were gaining the more heralded and more intensely recruited NPOY Ben Olson. BO was supposed to be KD’s savior and he was billed as such. So it was on KD for failure to develop BO. In addition when BO went down we had PC ready to step up who was proven to be a good option. He certainly had the tools to be a Wayne Cook like QB who could have been developed as an effective game manager. And he showed his potential in 13-9. Yet it was KD and his coaching staff’s inept game calling that cost us sure wins against Washington, Notre Dame and Florida State as mentioned above. So once again our 9 win expectations looked more than reasonable (if not conservative) in KD’s 4th season at UCLA.

that can influence expectations for the upcoming year. For instance, after the 2005 season Dorrell talked about how the program was on the right track, and that the 2006 squad would be his “best team yet” (sorry, I can’t find a link).

Now, I can’t speak for Nestor and others, but for myself, it seems reasonable that after a 10-2 season and all this talk from KD about going in the right direction and 2006 being his best team yet, that predictions for wins/losses and expectations of KD would be fairly high going into 2006.