UCLA’s Latest Over the Wall Embarrassment: Is Chancellor Block Paying Attention?
by Achilles on Dec 21, 2011 10:34 AM PST
in Football
Email
PrintTo no one's surprise local writers and beat reporters are having a field day with the latest UCLA football episode of the lame "over the wall" stunt. Scott Reid from the OC Register used the news hook to trash the program. He wrote up a post in which he took some cheap shots to pile on yesterday. It's painful to read.
If you look past some of Reid's cheap shots though there are some important points worth sharing on BN:
One can only imagine [Jim] Mora's reaction when he found out Tuesday that his new team had gone "over the wall." Just guessing that it was something like the response of Bruin quarterback Kevin Prince, who was less than amused that by his teammates antics. While other Bruins were also upset on Tuesday, Mora takes over a team whose sense of entitlement is matched only by its tone deafness, the latter characteristic it shares with the administration. When their per diem checks were withheld because they skipped the conditioning work-outs, several players took to pouting on Twitter and Facebook.
"Genocide in Westwood," one player characterized the mess in a tweet.
The following day interim coach Mike Johnson responded by holding a practice that lasted barely an hour, if that. Hey, it was raining. A few days later the Bruins were given the day off to play paintball. Tuesday the Bruins went AWOL. In less than a week they'll arrive in San Francisco thanks to Guerrero and Chancellor Gene Block. Block's oversight of the athletic department and presence can both be summed up in a single word: underwhelming. When UCLA accepted an invitation to play in the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl despite a 6-6 record, one of Block's predecessors, former UCLA chancellor Charles Young complained to the Register, "UCLA has no business playing in a bowl game with the kind of season they've had."
Young was right then and the four years later the Bruins are even less deserving. But Block and Guerrero are sending the Bruins to a bowl nonetheless.
At least UCLA will finally be part of the national conversation, Neuheisel so longed to be a part of. The Interim Bowl, 6-7 UCLA vs. 6-6 Illinois, a national joke.
The question is will anyone in Westwood care?
That's a question we have been asking relentlessly here on BN. It's fresh in our minds today as we are also discussing a new marketing fail from the Morgan Center as they rolled out another silly poster to promote a new coach. So where is Chancellor Gene Block on all this?
Nestor framed the story as an opportunity for Mora to usher in a new culture of accountability. I certainly hope he will seize this opportunity. It was just last Friday when I was feeling hopeful around Mora thinking that the malaise that infected the football program and the football team is lifting and that there is a new sense of urgency and intensity.
Mora is off to a good start but he cannot do everything by himself though. He is going to need genuine support from the very top. Based on his track record we know that Chianti Dan doesn't care much. He probably hasn't found out yet that our players skipped practice yesterday.
The question Bruin alums, students and season ticket holders will have to ask is where is Chancellor Block in all this? Is he paying attention? If not why? The story may be just about a football practice but that brand that is being damaged impacts the entire school. If Block truly cares about the reputation and appeal of UCLA's brand, he should be putting Chianti Dan on the spot and demand answers on what he has done to foster in a culture of accountability in his department. From what we have seen to date it appears to rest of the world that Chianti Dan is all tuned out, while his major revenue program continues to embarrass the four letters without any consequence.
33 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
That inspires a lot of confidence
that the team can win the Pac-12 next year.
/sarcasm
Christian Ponder: Super Bowl 50 MVP for the Minnesota Vikings
For Basketball Reasons
as the commenters there said
the ‘deal with it’ glasses are actually a redeeming feature…
Just Gives Us A Bad Look
WHERE THE HELL is Chianti Dan wrt all of this? Probably on another wine-tasting trek.
Los Angeles Rams and the UCLA Bruins!!!!!
by Minnesota Bruinfan on Dec 21, 2011 10:47 AM PST reply actions
anyone in Westwood
embarrassed?
sigh
I’m in SEC country. and I’m embarrassed to death. I might cover my bumper sticker.
They should be embarrassed in Westwood
But I wonder… I’m in Texas and this kind of team behavior gets mentioned around the office here. Mack Brown would never accept this kind of ‘tradition’. It’s completely embarrassing to me as an alumnus Maybe Mora can clean up this mess, we’ll see. Chancellor Block looks to be completely AWOL.
by BCAisaBruin on Dec 21, 2011 11:29 AM PST up reply actions
Don't want it to look like a prison
Just make the wall too high to jump
Christian Ponder: Super Bowl 50 MVP for the Minnesota Vikings
For Basketball Reasons
Mora has to be questioning himself just a little.
The rot in the program is both above and below him, in Morgan Center and in the players. Morgan is clueless, tone deaf, incompetent and rewards mediocrity. The players are self-absorbed, undisciplined, clueless and tone-deaf, too.
The administration lives in a fantasy world while the players have no idea that they are living the fantasy that 99% of fans would kill and die for to live just for a day. So you get a moronic, laughable poster pimping a coach who has yet to actually coach a single practice and players who were humiliated 50-0 in their rivalry game taking the day off from a practice for a toilet bowl game the administration never should have pursued.
We are a continuing national joke. Every cheap hit from Scott Reid is on the mark. And we will remain a joke, clearly, as long as Guererror remains in charge. Mora can clean up the players but only Blockhead can clean house.
Welcome Mora. Fire Dan!
by uclahy on Dec 21, 2011 11:14 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Mora Had Nowhere Else to Go -- And, Neither Did CRN
CRN buckled under.
Let’s hope Mora does not. Let’s hope he has the strength to face down both DG and the culture of entitlement amongst our players..
I think there is hope with Mora. Having no where to go or being backed into a corner — knowing that failing will doom a career — may give him the strength to do what is right by the program.
sjh
by Class of 66 on Dec 21, 2011 11:46 AM PST up reply actions
I called the Chancellor's office
I specifically mentioned to the lady the article in the OC Register, i asked her to print it out and put in on the Chancellor’s desk. She pretty much said that wasn’t going to happen. It sounded like a younger lady. I think the gave the older lady a break by having some intern screen the calls.
So…I cut and paste the article to the 2nd email address to Blockhead. Instead of the usual FIRE DAN GUERRERO in the subject line I put the title of the article, maybe that will get his attention…
…but i doubt it
"Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time"
~ John Wooden
Here's the one I just sent to Block
I think I have a better chance of convincing Les Miles to be our head coach than of getting a response to this.
Dear Chancellor Block:
Are you not aware of what has happened in the athletic department? Our athletic director has managed to hire two foorball coaches who have made mediocrity the norm for the past nine years. He has now hired a third coach who is even less qualified than his predecessors, if that is possible. Our new coach has a grand total of four years of head coaching experience, and only one winning season in those four years. He has never held a paid position coaching college athletics. He has never recruited a single player. Ever. His CV boasts one year as a graduate assistant some 27 years ago. You certainly would not have hired a veterinarian to be the head of the Medical School, or a career paralegal to run the Law School. Yet you allowed the highest paid athletid cirector in the Pac 12 to turn over our football program to a man whose record shows nothing but incompetence at the professional level and zero experience at the college level.
I ask again. Are you unaware of the events taking place in the athletic department? Do you even care that UCLA has become the butt of jokes on a national scale? Would you tolerate this sort of ridicule being directed at any other department in the university without taking action?
Please respond. Let me know if you are going to take action to replace Dan Guerrerro as athletic director. Are you going to be part of the solution, or are you part of the problem?
"Let me know if you are going to take action..."
“when” not “if” !
Great letter.
by SeattleUCLAn on Dec 22, 2011 1:38 PM PST up reply actions
use this address...
someone posted it here a while ago. now if only we could get his personal cell phone number…
"Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time"
~ John Wooden
Chianti Dan strikes again
This time, the stupid poster isn’t directed at trogans. It’s directed at all of those who explained in detail, replete with lots of facts, why our current coach should not have been hired. To those critical of the hire (which seems to be everyone in the world other than Chianti Dan and the new guy himself, Chianti Dan explains his reasoning: “Deal with it.”
Thank you, Chianti Dan. Sign me up as a laborer, worker bee, grunt soldier in whatever army has been tasked with getting Chianti Dan not just fired, but humiliatingly fired, tarred and feathered, and ushered to the Westwood city limits on a rail.
Chianti Dan, you are supposed to be the leader of every single solitary thing having anything to do with athletics on the entier campus, from Sunset Boulevard all the way to the airport. Yet you have done nothing to tell the children on our football team, who are representing the students, alumni and fans of UCLA, that cutting practice is unacceptable for a team whose seniors have won a grand total of 21 games. When you guys win that many games in two years instead of four, maybe you can go over the wall. The concept is so insipid that I’m embarrassed.
Fox...I completely agree...especially with the last Paragraph! Over-the-Wall....
Could you imagine if a ‘BUDS’ Class decided to go over the wall during their Seal training? I just do not get ‘it’. Maybe it is good that this group of Seniors will finally matriculate out of Westwood. Any hold-over from previous teams who thought that this was a good idea will now be gone. One would also think that ‘this’ team needs the extra practice. Techniques, discipline on snap counts, holding calls etc., etc., etc., that rack up 75-100yds of penalities per game (mind-blowing negations of great plays, or putting our team in the hole for a 2nd and 20 for a holding call). -I just wish this Bruin football team cared as much as their fan-base and the folks here at BruinNation!
P.S. How much credit is DG taking for #108 Ladies NCAA Volleyball Championship? Does he feel this makes him bullet-proof?
You have them mixed up Fox.
The ‘Deal with it’ and sunglasses thing was added by the good folks at EDSBS for satirical reasons.
This is the one the Moron Center put out:
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Just curious about the women's VB team ...
… Do they have a similar “tradition” of skipping practice?
Maybe the idiot football players on taxpayer-funded scholarships could win a national championship before they skip out. Hell, maybe they could just win a cross-town rivalry game.
Hard to defend
Honestly it gets harder and harder to defend these players. I’ve always maintained that I could understand the frustration of the players, it can’t be fun to play under a “play not to lose” “punting is winning” mentality. It is basically the coaches telling you that I do not think you are talented enough to win the game so let’s just play not to be embarrassed. But I mean honestly where is the leadership on this team to step up and say cut the crap. Why in the world would I buy season tickets to watch a team that doesn’t even want to practice, and to support a team that the school could give a crap about?
Johnson's Xmas Gift to Mora?
Bench the seniors, now. Take the first step toward an accountable program, now.
And, when doing it tell all of the players that with a new regime the days of entitlement are over. Commit 100% or de-commit and go elsewhere.
Coach Johnson, this is not Mora’s mess. And, it’s only partly yours. Please, help out by benching the seniors and sending a message that all Bruins will hear. And, maybe it will be heard in Akron — to your benefit.
sjh
Excellent idea...
…but he has ZERO motivation to do that. HE is not going to be back next year so he wants/needs to go out and win to show that he can.
Then again, he could suspend the Seniors, win the KFH bowl
and make a name for himself in two ways: for not taking shit, and for winning despite the odds.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Mora to Jon Gold
I’m not about making threats, and I’ll keep that between the players and myself, but I can tell you that my general feeling is that if they feel they want to skip out of practice and jump over a wall, then they might as well just keep going. They’re not a part of what I want to be a part of.
It’s completely unacceptable and it will not be part of the program going forward. It’s a right not a privelege to play football for the UCLA Bruins. With the commitment you make when you sign on to play here, comes a commit to do whats asked of you buy your coaches on a daily basis. I can just tell you, in no uncertain terms, that that tradition will no longer be a part of tradition going forward. Dan Guerrero and I have spoken about it, and we both agree that the culture of UCLA football needs to change as part of the interview process. We’re going to do all we can to make sure we change it
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150418029437202&id=132345137201
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150418026877202&id=132345137201
by Westwood Wizard on Dec 21, 2011 12:17 PM PST reply actions
Block has to go
Perhaps hire an attorney to start the process (less violent)
Blockhead
and his wife were at the basketball game last night, sitting with Troy Aikman. No doubt someone had to introduce Blockhead to Troy as I doubt the guy had any idea who Troy was, or that he is one of the greats of Bruin football. I kept hoping Troy was giving him an earful about how how athletics reflects on a university’s “brand”…..which no doubt fell on deaf ears.
I have yet to see Troy give a damn the way Randy Cross did on Nat TV.
Can’t say I believe he would give Block and earful.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
I confess.
I am not an Aikman fan and I really never have been.
First, there is the name. His full name is Troy Kenneth Aikman. He played two years at Oklahoma, and I suppose it was OK to go by his first name. If, however, he had been named Longhorn Kenneth Aikman, do you think Barry Switzer might have suggested that he go by his middle name? Well, I would have liked him a whole lot more if he had come in to Westwood calling himself Kenny Aikman, the next great Bruin QB. But no. He stuck his thumb in the eye of all of us who remember the guy who fumbled in the 65 $c game, Troy Winslow. Note to all those thinking of playing sports for UCLA – if your name is Troy or trogan, change it. No excuses.
Second, he was supposed to be our Heisman candidate and the best QB in the land, but he was 0 for 2 against just$c*. John Barnes and Norm Dow were not going to be Heisman winners, but they beat just$c* in their only starts. Sorry, Mr. Aikman, but when you don’t go by your middle name and you are zero for your lifetime against just$c*, then you are not on my all time favorites list.
Third, and I suppose as much my character flaw as his, he has morphed into a blowhard. His opinions are no more refined than anyone else’s. I have heard him speak several times when I am not allowed to control the volume, and he doesn’t come close to the analysis I get from people like IE and 03rdn9 and others here on the BN.
Fourth, or maybe it should be first, if he’s a Bruin and he has a bully pulpit, he should lace into Chianti Dan and Block the Schlock. He doesn’t. Or to put it another way, he refuses to be part of the solution, making him part of the problem.
I leave off of this list the fact that he played pro ball for the team that I like the least (well, maybe tied with the Raiders and the Patriots for that distinction.)
Agree! I really can't tell how TA feels about the Bruins - he seems so political in his comments.
Professionally distant, or perhaps he doesn’t really care.
Hail to the Hills of Westwood.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bruins Nation
Related FanShots on Bruins Nation
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
