The Morning After, Part 13: Oregon

Saw the press conferences, been reading the articles on BN and the online newspapers… As an outsider to UCLA stuff, even I can see how ridiculous it is. Guerrero looks to have the charisma of a paperweight, and not getting a jump on the coaching search while Rich Rod and the Pirate are snatched up is inexcusable. I was surprised Neuheisel was retained past the Arizona game. Aren’t the best leaders supposed to be proactive? It’s as if he doesn’t want to make big decisions unless his hand is forced, and now UCLA is left to play head-coach musical chairs.

Maybe it’s inappropriate for me to take a shot at your AD, but after following along and seeing how much you guys care – and seeing how the AD clearly doesn’t, I’m kind of upset, too. Out-of-touch bureaucrats annoy me, and the Pac hasn’t been done any favors by this ordeal, either.

. . . was metaphorical for what I expected back in September. I harbored no illusions about 10-2 or a top 10 finish for this bunch, but when asked here in one of those fan polls how many wins, I picked 8. 8-4 would have been decent as a record , provided that the 4 were respectable. Last night, despite the score, I saw a defense play with intensity, hit hard, a line which though it didn’t sack the QB, applied pressure, and made several RB tackles for loss, on what is probably the best stable of backs in the Conference. I saw a coach engaged and animated in the game in a way that didn’t involve angered contortions with his QB. I saw innovative play calling that didn’t always work, but still helped make an offense interesting, and on occasion dramatically successful. I saw more reps for the best RB on our team, a bruising, punishing runner who despite his size and style is not without a bit of his own speed. I saw a receiver, highly touted as an incoming Freshman, have the kind of game he was expected to deliver weekly, topped off with a highlight reel catch down the stretch. I saw a tired defense still trying at the end. In short, there were lots of things about last night’s game that proved, by their very occurrence, that our roster is full of capable athletes, very much deserving of the opportunity to be mentioned in the same breath as the Conference champion. Oh, what could have been . . .

He says that despite the money being thrown around, UCLA just isn’t serious about football.

Or SOME coaching candidate to say that.

It might help move things along if someone from the inner circle of college football coaches (but from outside the sphere of UCLA) were to actually air out in public the dysfunction that is UCLA athletics. Simers saying it is one thing; it’s another if it’s Petersen or Leach or Golden or whoever else turns us down. Maybe that’s what Petersen was doing when he rejected us last time by saying he didn’t want to coach at “that place.”

Bureaucrats can always find a simpleton way of blowing us the fans and alumni off, but they’d have a hard time facing it if some external coach broke from etiquette and said something in public, rather than the typical “I respectfully decline” platitudes we usually hear when a coach says no to the job.

Who hires the coach? Do you wait until you have a new AD in place? I can imagine Block has started thinking about putting a list together…hmm, it was here someplace.

nm

Can you imagine what the next 4-5 years will be like? With Guerrero picking a 3rd football coach another 4 to 5 years of depressing years coming up. I don’t know the UCLA brand as strong as it is can go through more of this s%@t and survive. Who could sit through watching the team be embarrassed week after week for the next few years. I really think if Chianti stays and the culture doesn’t change now, UCLA will be damaged forever.

Since the late ’90s

Read: Dan Guerro’s tenure

Herb may be a d-bag, but he’s right

Either fire DG and set this mess straight or leave Pac-12 and join a mid-major conference to compete with the like of CSUN, Cal state San Bernardino and UC Davis. Because we need to be competitive with the conference foes. You chose; we can’t be the conference doormat every year.

the entire “search” was a scam. Doughnut Dan was never going to spend $4M on a coach.

His financing and donantions for the Pauley Fiasco has been a total disaster and he wants to uses the T.V. deal money to cover his shortfalls.

Doughnut knows that he smooth over poor on the field performance with Blockhead… It is much tougher to smooth over being $30M short on your $100M renovation project.

afraid resistance to mediocrity is futile..We have a better chance of defeating the Borg..

getting the BRO premium…Tracy will send you into orbit (please delete if this reference is inappropriate)..

The Chancellor is as much to blame as anyone else in this mess. His faith in DG has perpetuated this dire situation. History has proven DG’s inability to run this program with lack of foresight and any type of contingency or succession planning. Hell there is no plan and never was on his part. As usual the rest of the FBS schools are blowing by us laughing as we continue to languish in our own vomit out here. I would suggest we’re downright helpless except for the fact BN has picked up the flag and is really starting to impose it’s will. This is awesome to see how the alumni are really starting to come together to force positive change and a job well done by all here in BN. I’m not an alumnus just a passionate fan for over 40 years and it’s great to see the push everyone is providing here. Please keep up the good work and pressure.

where we offer jobs to coaches who will turn around and leverage the offer for substantial raises from their current employer…Under DanG, this is the real Bruin tradition…

Checked by coach Larry fedora. Maybe he should consider him if he was considering sumlin

We DO have the talents to compete well, despite the overwhelming odds against us last night. Our players fought with everything they got, even with the kitchen sinks, if it was needed just to vindicate their coach that recruited them on his very last game.

On a frigid cold night, they showed their efforts from their hearts. UCLA put Rick in a no win situation from the moment they hired him for expedient reasons BN commented well here.

The culprit IS Dan Guerrero, make no mistake about it. And the person who hired Dan Guerrero IS the accomplice to UCLA’s stellar image being dragged through the muds these days.

and they were Mike Leach, Chris Petersen, and Pat Fitzgerald. Well, not suprisingly two of them are gone and now only Fitzgerald remains. I have not heard his name ever mentioned so to me their probably isn’t even a chance at this happening. Also, with DG heading the search, the chance for a great hire is extremely low. That being said, I will say it again. Pat Fitzgerald is a legit, top tier coach.

First, he is young…….36 years old. He loves college football and has no NFL ties or NFL lineage. He is a college coach. If successful, he is the type of guy who will stay at a program for 20 years. For all his youth, he has been a Division 1 coach for 6 years at his alma mater, Northwestern University. He was the youngest head coach in the NCAA when he was hired. He took over for Randy Walker, who died, so at his young age he was able to deal with college guys whose coach had just died. That shows character and an ability to lead. I cannot think of a harder transition to make as a coach, with more pressure, and he handled it incredibly well. He has a 40-35 career record at Northwestern, a school known for its academics and tough admissions standards. Sound familiar? His offenses are wide open and exciting. He does more with less better than any coach in the country. Sumlin’s resume cannot compare to Fitzgerald’s. He has gone to three bowl games in a row. He………as well all like to say……….is always bringing a knife to a gunfight, against teams that are alot bigger, faster, stronger, and more talented…….yet, he always does well. He has to know that his ceiling is not very high at Northwestern and that if he really wants to test himself he will have to do somewhere else. I am telling you, if we don’t get this guy or at least show interest, a big school will swallow him up and he’ll be coaching their for years and years……and having success. Lastly, his teams play by the rules. Their has never been a hint of cheating in his program, as it is as clean as a whistle. He is a member of the American Football Coaches Associations Ethics Committee, and is known as a tireless worker and good recruiter.

What is their not to like? How are we at least not talking to this guy? He meets absolutely every single criteria that we are looking for in a head coach. He is enthusiastic, tough, energetic, young and bright, and has all the successful experience in a big time conference that we are looking for. This guy is the real deal, not a fake who is living off a 6th year senior to get a big time contract. Fitzgerald has earned the right to be considered, and I would be honored to have him as our next head coach.

Unfortunately, it makes too much sense for DG and he would never be able to make such a great hire for our great university.

to bring me to an image of the eye of Sauron. Maybe I’m just reading BN too much to distinguish incompetence from evil in DG. But it does fit the whole “I can only focus my thoughts on one candidate at a time” thing…distract DG with a desperate attempt at Petersen, and he won’t stop Wazzu from destroying the ring.

Or maybe I should just change my name to BruinNerd.