UCLA Coaching Hot Stove: No to Bellotti and No to Johnson

A Terry Donahue buddy who were are supposedly looking at closely now, may even be offering — an NFL retread whose hire would follow the most failed formula for finding a great college coach. (Carroll is the only example of a lifelong NFL coach who succeeded, and he required a cheat-fueled recruiting maching.)

Let’s make our stance on Mora known.

Right now we should be down to two tiers:

1. star head coaches a la Petrino, Stoops, Dantonio, Patterson who might be seeking a change of scenery (and even a pay upgrade with the money we have to offer)…who absolutely must be approached.

2. A risiing star…like Dan Mullen.

Can we ever pry this guy loose from us? Geez

aside from being a northwestern alum and growing up near there, he inked a 10 yr extension not too long ago and the administration has made a commitment to serious facility upgrades for football.

there are still a lot of really good coaches out there that we have a viable shot at, but dg needs to get off his butt and maybe whatever his instincts are, do the compete opposite.
names i like and have been mentioned a lot on here are mullens, fedora, and rhoads. names i like that haven’t been mentioned much on here and likely to get shot down are the bowden bros.

A reply to the Mike Bellotti comments that became too large to post here. I’ll fix the links as soon as possible, but I have to run right now.

I understand he is a bit radioactive, but he is available and in a year or two after being in the booth some one is going to come in a scoop him up. He knows what great facilities are and what a rivalry means. He has run a big time program and would be able to recruit and has sent tons of players on to the NFL.

I think he skipped the class on negotiating and hiring.

I am fully in support of ousting Guerrero, and I think that he has failed heavily twice already this offseason (not even contacting Leach, getting denied by Petersen). But I feel like we’re really reaching in this “epic failure by not getting Golden” deal. For one thing, it’s not like Golden is coaching at a tiny mid-major program with no chance of ever really reaching prominence; he’s coaching for freaking Miami, a formerly dynastic program that’s on the rise thanks to him. Additionally, he’s been there ONE YEAR; he’s really going to bail on the first big program that gave him a chance that quickly? What kind of precedent would that set if his hypothetical UCLA gig didn’t worked out; who would want to hire him knowing that he would just bail the instant a slightly better offer came out? And to be honest…I’m not really seeing the Golden miss as, in of itself, a failure on the levels of Leach or Petersen. Leach is a decorated college coach who’s made three January bowl games in the last decade despite coaching in one of the most consistently competitive conferences in college football, and Petersen might be the best mid-major program coach of all time (he has fewer losses in six seasons than Rick had in 2011, and has beaten no less than five top-15 ranked teams during that span). I respect Golden’s achievements in raising Temple’s program from the dead, and already helping to turn Miami back around, but I still feel as though those accomplishments pale in comparison to Leach’s and Petersen’s. Therefore, while it’s definitely a setback for Chianti Dan to miss out on Golden, I think you REALLY have to want it to be an “epic fail” in order to consider it so.

1) Guerrero is fired.
2) Johnson is given the interim job for a year.
3) a new AD with BCS conference football experience is hired.
4) Said directod develops a plan to bring UCLA to the top 10 through facilities upgrades, salaries, more academic support for student athletes, high asst. salaries, etc.
5) New AD goes out a grabs a home run hire for 2013.

I would not recommend him. First he runs a Zone Blitz Scheme which is limited and only effective with certain personnel , and he has had no success as a head coach at either the college or NFL level. He is very gruff and would not come off well in some recruits living rooms. He is a players coach and well liked, but his play calling was weak and his overall management was disjointed. Cable is best at O-line where is currently working.

He will undoubtedly cheat and or piss off everyone that every talked to him. Expect Jeff Fisher to be coaching the Trojans before long. Kiffin makes sh#t smell good.

He proved it with Al. Leach would challenge DG for all the failures to improve the facilities and for all the lack of attention the football program was getting. Leech would do it publicly and often until it was fixed. No way DG would take him on.

Comments above mention the professional search committee, vs the AD running around offering various candidates.

Are there hiring procedures at UCLA that he has to follow?

e.g. needs to hire a search committee, but isn’t allowed to until there is officially a job opening?

Not trying to justify, trying to understand – if he does have these constraints, that would be double damage done by not firing Rick midseason – I don’t understand even within his own twisted logic how the deliberative search for the next great coach of UCLA has turned into a mad scramble to lock down anyone who’ll have us.

He also is a bit untested, I too live in Austin. He has one, not so great year under his belt. He already is highly payed and the Longhorns are the ONLY game in town. So I don’t know why on earth he would want to leave to go to LA.

…another example of the idiocy surrounding this coaching search. Johnson was uninspired (defenses were literally predicting and calling out the play calls at the line of scrimmage before they were run for both Raye and Johnson), not a leader (nobody on the team seemed to believe in him), and perhaps most damning of all, did nothing to improve the “bust” Alex Smith (who Harbaugh has turned into a slightly above average QB by actually coaching him). Johnson was QB coach before he was the interim OC and did nothing for Smith. In short, he’s not experienced, not a dynamic play caller or innovator, and not a teacher. What part of hiring him makes sense to anybody but him?

As for Belotti – my answer would simply be “not yet”. Meaning there are still interesting names – innovators, leaders, teachers – who might be able to elevate UCLA to a team that actually seems to be playing in the 21st century. BUT – if/when The Dunce completely misses on every truly interesting candidate, and we’re down to Mora Jr (who is chasing this job hard), or Tom Cable (who is too heavy to chase anything) I’d take Belotti over either. Again, I am not advocating hiring him now, so save the hate – I’m saying that the way this is going, the obvious names are gone, and I don’t believe The Dunce knows where the up and comers are, and is chasing perceived safe hire names at this point – so if/when he whiffs, and UCLA has to hire somebody or give the team to Johnson, I’d take Belotti over Johnson (just not talented), Mora Jr. (when has he succeeded?) or Cable (probably the scariest of them all and an epic fail the minute it’s announced). At the very least Belotti would have a shot at restoring competency to the program. That said, I hope we don’t get there – it’ll mean we’ve completely struck out.

The choices for me at this point are Briles or Mullen – I’ve been very consistent in my posts, southern california breeds great fast athletes, and UCLA should adopt the spread. both of those guys would excel, though I don’t know Briles contract status and he probably wouldn’t come here anyway.

This coaching search could not possibly get any worse. Unbelievable. Guerreror better pull something out of his arse or there’s gonna be a scorched earth in Westwood.

I called this morning and said I am willing to donate $ to fire DG and the secretary seemed very flustered. It seemed like she had a bunch of calls already this morning. Keep calling and ask Block to make the change.

We WILL end up with a worse coach than Belotti, suffer through another 4-5 years of mediocrity, and be back to the exact same place we are now (unless Block gets rid of DG NOW!).

Also, if we hire Belotti I predict we’ll be a pac-12 champion within 5 years. If I’m wrong (and I’ve been wrong before, as we all have) I’ll be sure to eat my words. But I think BN is underestimating Belotti and I hope he becomes out next HC (assuming Petersen is out of the picture).

Those are just my 2 cents.

Johnson would be a Band-Aid.

Cable or Walker would be akin to tourniquets around the head.

M

Time to change directions – Belotti, Mora, Cable do nothing and really will not have any impact on the kids being recruited.

If we go Top Coordinator, we can make some noise. There are three guys poised for a big jump:
Brent Venables – Oklahoma D Coordinator
Kirby Smart – Alabama D Coordinator
Bud Foster – Va Tech – D Coordinator

$1.5 to $1.7MM can grab these guys and we have money for a big time staff. Venables is a mean ass recruiter from what I have heard.

deserve to be amongst the top 5 of 10 highest paid coaches in college football? We need to set our sights higher.

We have been putting the heat on Chancellor Block to get rid of DG. He has done nothing.
I interpret this as he doesn’t care about sports. But it could be that he doesn’t want to make a move until a head football coach is hired (through DG), because he got so much heat when it looked like RN would be sticking around.
Seems like the message should be that we want DG gone NOW, even if it means starting from scratch on head football coach. If DG picks the coach, we have 2-4 more years of abysmal results, and probably an empty cupboard when his next hire is shown the door.
I would rather get somebody competent in the AD chair NOW. It would take time to get a new AD, who in turn would need to then conduct the head coach search (unless we went the select committee route, which I would prefer but that seems too logical for Block).
Do people agree that the message for Block should be fire DG now, and that he should immediately be removed from the head coach process, even though that delays getting said head coach?

I have been reading for a while, but have never commented here until now. There has been a lot of talk of who the next head coach should be with lots of names being thrown around. I was thinking about Bill Cowher or John Gruden? I am not sure if there is any interest in former NFL head coaches to take over at UCLA or even if they would have any interest in the UCLA position. Both have made lots of money so that may not be an issue and both are INTENSE and LOVE to win more than anything else. Just a thought.

We should put a little fear into his heart.

….the last time an area college took a twice failed pro coach was wasn’t their first choice (or even fourth) choice, it worked out ok for them….anyone remember Pete Carroll ?

….Mora had some good moments in the ATL, but was ultimately “Vick-teimized” by his QB; at the time people wondered why Mora couldn’t get the mercurial Vick to reach his potential, and now we know why……Mora also had some temper episodes, and really paved his way out of town with his “I’d love the UW job” comments, but I’m guessing he’s learned to zip it when needed….

Not that he’s my first choice, but when name like DeWayne Walker & Tom Cable begin to bubble up, he looks like Lombardi…..

Article “depressing bowls”

And the national laughing stock continues!!!

Leach & Rodriguez were unemployed and immediately available and the major reason why the were hired so quickly. Hypothetical, what if Petersen did become our next coach but it took 4 weeks of negotiating to pry him out of Idaho which to me is a rational scenario. This coaching position is going to pay roughly $60K per WEEK and regardless of DG’s flawed methodology not something to rush into for the coach or the school. The A+ candidates are currently employed by colleges or in the NFL and many of them have obligations contractually or ethically that keep them from committing until their seasons are over. That said being that we didn’t hit a home run immediately I say that we now take our sweet time finding the right fit.

MoJo is tearing up the Charges D.

But if we’re wrong, Guerreror hires him, and he miraculously turns around the football program, you realize we’re all going to have to put “Jim Mora, Jr. made us look like asses” in our signatures and tattoo’d on our backs, right?

I think it should be amply clear to anyone who pays attention to ucla athletics that Guerrero is THE MAIN problem with ucla athletics for the last decade. The bungling of this coaching search is his equivalent to Ricks desert debacle. If Guerrero got lucky and bagged a big name coach, it would have saved his job for a few more years. I don’t see how that complacent, incompetent, clueless bureaucrat keeps his job after this. I hope prominent alumni donors are calling for his head. We can’t have excellence in athletics as long as we have mediocrity in our leadership. Since it is clear that everyone who was worth getting is “gotten”, we should sign Johnson to a one year deal, FIRE DAN IMMEDIATELY, and let our new AD hire the next coach. After three decades of miserable football and no hoops NC banners, you don’t get to F up this bad.

One decade

Although our team is falling apart, Chip Kelly just took action to improve our defense. Cliff Harris will now be available to transfer and I am sure he would like the temperature at UCLA these days. No one would notice all the mess he creates, as the AD takes away all the heat