FanPost

Updating Dan's Report Card

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Bumped. GO BRUINS. - BN Eds.

I had put together a report card for Dan's hires after the end of last season in all sports.

Basic ground rules for my report card- no pluses or minuses

The new hire's performance is graded in comparison to the program they inherited. By this standard, John Savage's performance is much more impressive than Inouye-Perez, because Savage built a program from no wins in Omaha ever, while Inouye-Perez simply had to maintain the standard of excellence set by Sue Enquist (which Inouye-Perez has not been able to do).

Dan claims credit on his bio for national titles won by coaches who were already there when he arrived. That is fine, if misleading. But in terms of the report card, it is N/A, because he has not made any decision.

So, without further ado, here are my current grades-

Baseball- A John Savage (hired 2004)- A, as explained above.

Men's Basketball- F Ben Howland (hired 2003), Steve Alford (hired 2013)- Howland was obviously an upgrade from Lavin, and we did have the 3 Final Fours, but Dan retained Howland past his shelf life, and then undid any good from the Howland upgrade by hiring TARA, who does not fit in with what UCLA is supposed to stand for.

Women's Basketball- D Caldwell (hired 2008), Close (hired 2011)- Dan's hires combined have 3 NCAA appearances in 5 seasons, with no hint of a deep postseason run. This is no worse than Olivier, who he kept around for 6 seasons despite only 2 NCAA appearances, but it is also not really better in a meaningful way. We should not be satisfied with simply making the postseason.

Men's Cross Country- F Maynard (hired 2009)- One NCAA qualification in 5 seasons. Maynard has an assistant coach who runs cross country, but this is on his watch, and in turn on Dan's.

Women's Cross Country- F Maynard- same as above, except without the one trip to the championship meet which the men have had under Maynard's tenure.

Men's Track- F Maynard (hired 2009), John Frazier (hired 2013)- Maynard's teams have hit a high water mark of 17th in his 4 seasons. His reward? Promotion to Director of Track & Field, with a new coach hired underneath him.

Women's Track- F John Henry Johnson (hired 2013)- This grade is not for Johnson, who has not had a chance to be evaluated either plus or minus, but the grade is for Dan retaining Bolden through 2012. Her team won a national championship in 2004, but that was the last time UCLA won even a conference title and the Bruins have 5 straight losses to $C as the program has sunk into oblivion. Dan gets an F for not taking action sooner.

Football- F Karl Dorrell (hired 2003), Rich Neuheisel (hired 2008), Jim Mora (hired 2012)- I was going to wait until all fall sports are over for the report card, but winning or losing the Sun Bowl does not change this grade. Dan's coaches combined have 2 wins in meaningless bowl games to show for his oversight- not good enough by any stretch of the imagination.

Men's Golf- A Vincent (hired 2003), Derek Freeman (hired 2007)- A championship for a coach hired by Dan. This is a rare thing of beauty. And Coach Freeman's teams seem to always be in the hunt at the NCAA's, even when they don't bring home the big prize.

Women's Golf- N/A A program with two titles claimed by Dan, which is coached by Carrie Forsyth, who is in her 15th season, which fortunately is longer than we have had to endure Dan.

Women's Gymnastics- N/A Another program which brings in title's for Dan's bio, 3 in this case. The team is coached by Valorie Kondos Field, who has been at UCLA 24 years (long enough that Charles Young was the chancellor when she was hired, and Dan was just a twinkle in Albert Carnesale's eye).

Women's Rowing- F This program is coached by Amy Fuller Kearney, who is in her 13th season, again preceding Dan. But this is an F, because after being promoted from a club sport to an NCAA sport in 2002, the high water mark is one 8th place finish. An AD who could see past the doughnut box would have taken action to upgrade by now.

Men's Soccer- F Jorge Salcedo (hired 2004)- His teams have reached the college cup twice, but have never won, despite having several recruiting classes ranked number 1 in the nation. And his predecessor won a national title which counts on Doughnut's bio, even though Dan did not hire him.

Women's Soccer- A Snow (hired 2011), Amanda Cromwell (hired 2013)- 1st national championship in this sport, in her 1st season. Hats off.

Softball- D Kelly Inouye-Perez (hired 2006)- one national championship, but lean years recently. And her predecessor, Sue Enquist, who was there before Dan, set the gold standard. This program has dropped off big time under Dan's hire.

Women's Swimming- F This program is coached by Cyndi Gallagher, who has been the head coach for 26 seasons. UCLA finished 17th in last year's NCAA championships, which was our best record since finishing 15th in 2007. UCLA has never won the NCAA championship in women's swimming. We won a men's championship in 1982, and have since dropped the sport. Gallagher has had 26 chances. A more active AD may have decided to make a change by now, but not Dan.

Men's Tennis- N/A Billy Martin has coached this team 21 years, and has an NCAA title and 6 other final four teams to his credit. But he obviously was not hired by Dan.

Women's Tennis- N/A Another team which has done well coached by a predecessor to Dan. Stella Sampras Webster's teams have won an NCAA title for Dan's bio, and have been in the final four another 5 times. But this has nothing to do with Dan.

Men's Volleyball- B John Speraw (hired 2012)- This grade will hopefully improve with time. It is obviously tough to succeed Scates. But based on results alone, we did not make the NCAA's last year. So Dan gets a low grade until we see results.

Women's Volleyball- B Michael Sealy (hired 2010). This grade was lowered because of the disarray this season, despite having a previous championship since he was hired by Dan. Hopefully, this year will prove to be a fluke, and we can bump this back up.

Men's Water Polo- B Adam Wright (hired 2009). 3 runner-up teams in his reign, still looking for his 1st title as a coach. But Coach Krikorian only had one championship on Dan's bio, so this is not a big drop off.

Women's Water Polo- F Brandon Brooks (hired 2009). This program had 6 titles under Coach Krikorian which came after Dan was hired. Under Brooks, the team has never finished higher than 3rd. This is a huge drop off.

So, the GPA is a stomach-churning 1.28. OUCH.

Thanks for nothing Dan. Can't wait for your retirement. And enjoy those maxed out objective incentive payments due to the top 10 Director's Cup finishes, which are in turn due to the results of coaches who preceded you to Westwood, as can be seen above.

And, this GPA reflects full credit for the hires of John Savage, Derek Freeman, and Amanda Cromwell. I am happy to acknowledge successful hires by Dan. They are just so few and far between.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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