Thursday News & Notes

by Nestor on Jul 5, 2007 4:37 AM PDT in News

Let’s go over some news and notes to get us collectively out of the Holiday hangover. And the best way to cure a Holiday hangover is to take a look at another Holiday video. Check out this Holiday update video from Rivals. Uh WOW. That should wake you up.

Now let’s get to football. As some of you already noted after a little heave of desperation former Dorrell scapegoat John Wristen was finally able to secure he HCing job at Colorado State University – Pueblo. CSU Pueblo is a D-II program that recently reinstated its football program. And the press release it sent out in announcing the Wristen hiring gives us a little hint about how serious they are about having a football program:

During the 2006 season, Wristen served as the special teams and tight ends coach at UCLA. He coached all-American tight end Justin Medlock and worked closely with the offensive coordinator in play calling.

HT to Dump Dorrell. Wristen went head to head against coaches from high school to land this job, and as has been mentioned here he even brought in his parents during the interview. A little weird. But hey it worked for him. We wish him best of luck. And hopefully he won’t find himself in a situation in which he is passing the buck (like his former boss) by firing/pushing out his assistant coaches.

Speaking of his former boss, Rivals.com is rolling out its top-25 for this upcoming football season. It has UCLA at number 25. The Rival guys are not so impressed with Karl Dorrell:

Head coach: B-: Dorrell has taken the Bruins to bowl games each year he has been at the UCLA helm. However, UCLA is just 1-3 in those bowl games.

And those guys are not very bullish on this upcoming season either (emphasis Rival’s):

The volume of returning starters fosters feelings of great optimism in Westwood. So does a schedule which brings opponents BYU, Washington, Notre Dame, California, Arizona State and Oregon to the Rose Bowl. The Bruins expect to have one of the best defenses in the Pac-10. If injuries are avoided and quarterback Ben Olson plays to his ability, UCLA could duplicate its 10-victory season of 2005. However, with a trying non-conference schedule and an improving Pac-10, eight victories would seem a better bet.

About that "trying non-conference schedule" meme. It seems like a meme that is being peddled by the national media. ESPN’s Schlabach tried to sneak in the same nonsense about UCLA’s upcoming season schedule in a piece on teams with tough schedules. However, DD did some quick work in disposing of that argument:

Schlabach clearly recognizes that our conference schedule is as easy as we could ever hope to get, with home games coming against the toughest teams except SuC. The problem is that he must be looking at last year’s records and teams to assess our OOC schedule. BYU, a good team last year, lost a ton of starters and players to graduation - the exact opposite of our situation. This is a rebuilding year for them. And we play them in the Rose Bowl. We manhandled Utah last year with most of the same team we have this year, even with our coaching staff. How is that supposed to be a tough game? And Notre Dame is rich in tradition but not in talent, not yet anyway. We all saw how we should have beaten them AT South Bend last year, and they are losing key players in key positions. Sure, their recruiting class is tops but that isn’t going to help them when they come to Pasadena. Notre Dame will be no patsie, but we should win that game.

The schedule is set up for a Pac-10 championship and BCS bowl bid. Dorrell and UCLA will not see this kind of perfect storm of returning starters, seniors, and easy schedule for another 10 years if that. Schlabach got this one wrong.

Not only do we expect UCLA to beat Notre Dame at the Rose Bowl. We expect Bruins to win that game by a comfortable margin. We should handle the Irish if our program plays up to our talent level.

However, we do understand why people are not confident in Dorrell’s ability to meet the reasonable expectations for this upcoming season. As this piece in the Seattle Press Intelligence shows, Dorrell is not exactly confident in himself:

Never mind a four-game losing streak in the middle of the season, a 7-6 season and a bowl implosion in a 44-27 loss to Florida State. UCLA beat its crosstown rivals for the first time since 1998 and knocked the No. 2 Trojans out of the BCS Championship game. "I didn't believe it until the clock hit zero," coach Karl Dorrell said after the season's biggest upset.

LOL Now that’s what I call Dorrellian. Coach Karl giving us the ultimate sense of a confident and secure leader as the head coach of UCLA football.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

To be fair to KD

i also didn't believe UCLA had lost to Notre Dame until the clock hit zero.

My young son asked me a question I could not answer regarding that game. What if the Bruin players had prematurely drenched KD with Gatorade prior to the ND miracle comeback, and KD still had to conduct postgame interviews...

by bluegold on Jul 5, 2007 6:59 AM PDT reply actions

Last season

As good as our defense played compared to the year before, I will never forget DW comment after, I believe, the Oregon game when he was surprised at something called the "spread offense". Didn't this guy look at film before the game at all?? And then FSU having their way in the bowl game..... It better be good this time out, and enough with the excuses!!!!
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Jul 5, 2007 8:53 AM PDT reply actions

That game against Oregon

It was complete coaching f*&K up. From Dohn:

Coaching: Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker took the blame for being out-schemed in the first quarter, when the Ducks went ahead 20-3. Meanwhile, UCLA's decision not to go no-huddle in the closing minutes was strange, although it likely would not have mattered.
Grade: F

You are right.

The excuse for being out schemed is not going to work our "genius" DC who got his a$$ kicked by Bobby Bowden's dumbest son (and that is saying something).

by bluestreet on Jul 5, 2007 9:00 AM PDT up reply actions

no wonder we had trouble in the red zone...

we had a kicker playing tight end. Medlock didn't have the size to block or get open. How did we miss that in our criticism of Dorrell?

by isodore on Jul 5, 2007 10:35 AM PDT reply actions

Dorrel Gets a B-?

Well, at least that's better than he ever did in school! Yes, this was a vague reference to Don Carney, as played by Casey Siemaszko, in the film version of "Biloxi Blues".

by charnaw on Jul 5, 2007 12:19 PM PDT reply actions

Wow, that is embarassing

It's pretty clear no that Dorrell was resting on his "corner turning" win over Southern Cal when he should have been prepping his team for FSU.

by Ajax on Jul 5, 2007 12:38 PM PDT reply actions

Win over SC, his job safe

Beating FSU no longer critical. Not a championship mentality, but then, who equates KD with championship?

by bluegold on Jul 5, 2007 1:21 PM PDT up reply actions

TD mentality and KD

If you all remember that at the end of the TD reign, he had more 5-6 or 5-5 teams that beat SC, and the alums were happy. So, who do you think campaigned for KD to be hired? TD of course, the "mentor". So the trick is to beat SC, and phone in most of the rest of the season, take the accelerated retirment benefits UCLA offers, and relax.....
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Jul 5, 2007 1:32 PM PDT reply actions

I don't think

alums were really happy during the later years of the TD era.

TD gathered some capital with a Rose Bowl run in 1993 but he completely screwed it up by having the team unprepared for Wisconsin and then stabbing Neuhisel in the back.

There were lot of grumblings among alums. Back then they (along w students) didn't have a platform like BN or other sites to voice their displeasure.

But at least TD did leave w/ a winning streak against SuC and won that Pac-10 title in 1993 before retiring in 95.

KD has done nothing like that.

by bluestreet on Jul 5, 2007 1:35 PM PDT up reply actions

This time I agree with Blue

Bill, where could you voice your concerns when we were at school other than to the guy sitting next to you? I think it's different with this forum available. I remember once when Stanford lead 28-24, we had no time outs (I know, I know, it's "times out" but I think that sounds goofy) left, and Coach Terry sent Theotis Brown up the middle on first and ten with about 25 seconds to go. He got 9.5 yards, but we never got off another play. He said after the game that he thought Theotis could get a first down and that would stop the clock.

Had there been a BN then, there would have been a lynch mob being organized.

by Fox 71 on Jul 5, 2007 1:40 PM PDT up reply actions

This Donahue bashing only shows

that KD is not being singled out. This is not an anti-KD site; it is an anti-mediocrity site.

by bluegold on Jul 5, 2007 2:26 PM PDT reply actions

Re Donahue

I actually thought Coach Terry was pretty good for a while. He always seemed to get one or two really really good guys (generally strong safety type guys.) And with some exceptions, we generally won the games we should have won. (These two factors probably cannot be backed up with solid data, but that's just the way I remember it being now.) We also upset a number one team in (I think) Coach Terry's debut game.

I don't seem to recall associating any of these factors with Mr. Dorrell.

But we also lost games we never should have lost. And he was just as "NFL conservative" as Mr. Dorrell (again that's just my recollection.

by Fox 71 on Jul 5, 2007 3:06 PM PDT up reply actions

Donahue

I was never impressed with Typhoid Terry. To me he is still kind of a big joke.

by Nestor on Jul 5, 2007 3:10 PM PDT up reply actions

I agree . . .

Terry had an amazing record of come-from-ahead losses that KD would aspire to if he ever had enough offense to take an early lead. I know Toledo's reign ended miserably and left the program in murky waters, but you cannot deny that the 20-game win streak behind Lord McNown was about as good as it gets . . . and yes, he did it with Cade, Skip and a bunch of TD's players. Go figga.

by charnaw on Jul 5, 2007 3:21 PM PDT up reply actions

Well, Toledo wasn't a bad recruiter

We got screwed by the JP Losman fiasco as well. Imagine if we add a good quarterback to those teams with Freddie Mitchell, Danny Farmer, Deshaun Foster... I mean, we had talent everywhere but behind center. And our defense in '03 was pretty damn good. I mean, Koleman, Ware, Marques (that how you spell it?) Anderson, Robert Thomas, Ricky Manning Jr... That squad rattled a few bones, and almost knocked off the Joey Harrington Oregon team that should have gone to (and won) the national title (without Deshaun, too). We really should have been a contender for a while after the Hurricane misfortunes, but Cory Paus sank us back into mediocrity.

The Foster suspension screwed the '03 season. That one had some serious potential that was destroyed by the NCAA and a bad quarterback.

Duke and North Carolina called: They want Steve Lavin back. GO BRUINS!!

by Allofmybros on Jul 5, 2007 4:34 PM PDT up reply actions

you are thinking of '01

the 01 season was the Deshawn suspension year where we started 6-0. What killed that season was our defense getting fuul of itself and giving up 30 to Stanford and starting the 4 game losing streak that year. Paus was part of the problem and the suspension only came after the WSU game and we still nearly beat Oregon without him. I could be wrong on some of the order, but that was esentially it.

'03 had a good Defense too, but that was KD's first year and that was all the good we had.

by isodore on Jul 5, 2007 5:36 PM PDT up reply actions

Huskies defeat Donahue's Bruins

Years ago. UCLA was up 21-0 at the Rose Bowl. Donahue went into his not-to-lose mode and began playing a very conservative offense. We lost that frickin' game. I wanted him gone that very day.

by bluegold on Jul 5, 2007 3:24 PM PDT up reply actions

I remember it well

He kicked two field goals and we came from ahead to lose 28-27 . . . good times!

by charnaw on Jul 5, 2007 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions

You remind me of

a 41-21 lead over Oregon that became a 42-41 loss (at home at the Coliseum, as I recall.) I was ready for him to depart at that point, too.

by Fox 71 on Jul 5, 2007 4:28 PM PDT up reply actions

TD Rewind

As one who studied the TD era to some extent, here is the reprise.
First year..his best decision was to move Jerry Robinson from never on the field receiver to LB. Jerry became a three time AA. That team set the stage... win a lot of games and tank against SC.
Run, run, run, punt.
Homer Smith era. When Homer the former HC at Army, came to Westwood, the offense came to life. He didn't want the HC job, so TD could live with his brilliance. We started beating SC and going to the Rose Bowl.
1987 (?). Homer retires and Aikman becomes eligible. Axman makes his first of more than enough trips to Westwood. The king of all the way across the field and up for 3 yards. What a joke. I attended the UN game at Lincoln and watched the team implode in the 4th quarter.
Two year later (after Aikman is gone and that is ironic)... Axman was fired (will he ever be gone for good?). Homer comes back and the magic is instilled back in the offense. Once again, we are a good team. At the end Homer did retire again and TD did beat SC without Homer, and SC had Tollner. However, those teams were for the most part mediocre. The Rose Bowl 1993 (which we attended), had Jamir Miller all over the field, and at the end, the team could win but our QB (name is gone) ran rather than throw the ball away and the game gracefully went in the tank (see any similarity to KD?). In that game Alvarez came out and gave a Tommy Prothro "I am in charge" demeanor right off the bat, and TD spent time looking for his headphones.
TD was better that mediocre but all on the defensive side of the ball, and he was insecure so would not tolerate any ambitions on the part of his assistants other than Homer, a spiritual person who convinced TD he did not want the HC job.
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Jul 5, 2007 6:16 PM PDT reply actions

If Homer is still alive

I would spend what had to be spent to bring him in as the Special Assistant to the OC or whatever you want to call it,. But Mr. Dorrell would never let Homer onto the staff. Homer would replace the inept offence that is coming around the bend or curve or corner or whatever.

I'm sorry - that was a rant. Homer Smith was a football coach and a football innovater. Mr. Dorrell is neither.

by Fox 71 on Jul 5, 2007 7:19 PM PDT up reply actions

QB

was Wayne Cook. (Spike the ball, Wayne!)

by godblesstyus95 on Jul 5, 2007 8:16 PM PDT up reply actions

USC- Contenders?

According to Rivals (via Yahoo), USC would be a National Championship contender even without Mayo, and Love will only be UCLA's third or fourth scoring option. Do they pay any attention at all?

by SuperBruinMan on Jul 5, 2007 10:33 PM PDT reply actions

And for those interested

Rivals has Florida St ranked 23rd (two spots ahead of UCLA) in their preseason Top 50. Their offense (which they probably expect to improve from last season) is rated B-/C+ when averaged- not really the type of team that should be putting up 44 points against any decent defense.

by SuperBruinMan on Jul 5, 2007 10:39 PM PDT up reply actions