Take Action

This takes very little time and effort, so every Bruin football fan should contribute in order to rid our football program of this idiot of a coach.

Dear Mr. Guerrero,
     While this is not something I would normally do, I am emailing you because I care very deeply about the status of our sports program as a whole.  As you know, we lost to Utah yesterday in what Dorrell even called an "embarrassing loss."  While Mr. Dorrell definitely appears to be a great guy, over the past few years, it has come to our attention that he cannot consistently be a great coach.  I am very grateful that he has helped clean up our program, but at a school like UCLA, many other fans and I feel we deserve head and assistant coaches who can lead us consistently to the top of the PAC 10 and the top of the nation.  I hope you agree with me that UCLA football, basketball, tennis, volleyball, etc, all deserve nothing but the best that we can give them.  While it is not easy to fire someone, I think it would be in our best interest to replace Mr. Dorrell with a proven head coach.  Until he has been replaced, I feel I will not be able to continue supporting UCLA football by buying tickets.

After reading BruinsNation for over a year, I finally got so frustrated I had to post.  Here's the email I just sent:

Mr. Guerrero,
        I am a 1994 UCLA graduate.  My pride in being a Bruin runs to the degree that my wife is frustrated by the pains I will take to watch any UCLA sporting event, and how I use and wear blue and gold so often.  I am also a teacher.  If I cannot teach my students in a way that allows them to grow and to be successful, I would not be doing my job and would deservedly be fired.  Karl Dorrell has proven himself incapable of teaching his students to grow and be successful.  The recent loss at Utah, while painful, is by no means the first indication of this.  UCLA has earned a reputation for academic and athletic excellence.  Five years have proven that the football team cannot excel with Karl Dorrell as coach.  It is time for new leadership.  I trust that you have already begun the search to find a football coach who can inspire the same confidence in players and fans as the coaches you have hired for other sports.

Merchandise purchased at the games are only a small drop in the bucket for the athletic department because ASUCLA controls it.  It is a seperate entity, and only a small percentage of game day sales go to the Athletic Department.  The whole purpose of ASUCLA is to provide student's jobs, and most of the money goes to them.  Any "profits" made go back to the school in the form of a donation.  Boycotting UCLA merchandise does have a rather large impact on the students and carreer staff at the UCLA store.  Please withhold donations to the AD but please don't hurt our working students in the process as well.

Here's my suggestion.  I can't participate because I live too far away, but I would if I could.  Get as many people as possible to go to the Washington game.  Then just after the first TV time out, everyone should get up and leave the stadium.  If the crowd is low, there will be excuses.  But if the crowd is there, and leaves, and it's shown on TV, that would be sending a message.  (Especially if the cameras get a lot of pictures of "Dump Coach Toledo's sucessor" t-shirts.)

That would be the ultimate boycott.

Maybe UCI felt that at the teacher level, Chem was OK, but not to lead a law school with "out of round" political beliefs. Not sure where that one ended up, as there was talk of trying to rehire him. Whichever way it goes, UCI is not looking good.
Bill

Director Guerrero,

You could say that UCLA is my family school -- my mother, sister, several cousins, and I all graduated from UCLA.  As a result, I am both a lifelong fan of UCLA athletics and an alumnus of the school.  I am proud having graduated from such a fine academic institution, and I also greatly admire the unparralleled excellence of the athletics program.  

Thant being said, I can no longer abide the unmitigated incompetence the current coaching regime has brought to "our" football program.  Incompetence is a strong word, and I do not use it lightly.  The coaching staff -- most especially the head coach Karl Dorell -- has shown time and again that it is unprepared to seriously compete on a Division I stage.

This week's performance is just the latest example of the results of the coaching staff's level of preparation.  The result of the Utah game would be tolerable if it were an anomaly.  Unfortunately, it is not.  It is merely an extreme example of the type of performance I now expect whenever I watch a UCLA football game.  I am not alone in this feeling, and that as much as much as anything else represents the tragedy of the situation.  

The price of Dorell's incompetence is being paid across the board -- players are losing precious years of availability, fans are losing confidence and enthusiasm in the program, the program itself is losing both fans and nationwide respect, and the university is losing a vital link to its alumni base.  

I can only hope that you see fit to rectify the situation as soon as possible using he only means available -- replacing Karl Dorell as head football coach -- for the good of the team, program, fans and university.

Can at least one person add (like I will) the incompetence of our Women's BBall coach?

It will be a side note in my message. Maybe it doesn't belong because it will dilute the football message (input would be nice, I won't send it until tomorrow night).

UCLA is great at all sports. We didn't get to be the best academic athletic school in the nation by accepting mediocrity. All our sports should compete!

What makes it worse is that the assistant who left is now a very successful coach elsewhere.. Does anyone remember who it is?

Lets demonstrate the potential of the active participants and lurkers on Bruinsnation.

Rather than withhold money, lets start a collection for something that is going right...Bruins basketball. I'd like to see a pledge drive coordinated through Bruinsnation to support the Pauley renovation.

HOWEVER, the catch would be that the Morgan center won't ever see a dime of it, unless it takes action to remove Dorrell.

Let Guerrero maintain his accountability for the football program and find the money for a new coach.

Lets put our money where our keyboard fingers are, and continue to support all that is right with UCLA sports.

For each dollar we put up to renew Pauley, that's less effort Guerrero and his team has to find for that project, and more effort they can spend on finding the dollars to replace Dorrell.

Dear Mr. Guerrero,
As a current UCLA student, it gives me great pride to say that UCLA has one of the best
athletics programs in the nation.  Much of the credit for UCLA's excellence in athletics
should be given to you for hiring such coaches as Ben Howland.  However, as great of a
hire as he was originally, Karl Dorrell needs to be fired.  He has been given many
chances, and he has disappointed throughout.  Even as he saw UCLA climb to a 10-2 record
in 2005, his team consistently played down to its opponents.  Such consistently
lackluster performances can only be attributed to the coaching.  Once again this season,
Karl Dorrell's team has struggled against poor opponents such as BYU and Utah, despite
being very talented.  In addition, Dorrell has the lowest winning percentage of any UCLA
football coach in the last four decades, and his loss to Utah is the worst loss UCLA has
suffered to a non-ranked, non-conference opponent in four decades.  Karl Dorrell's
coaching is an embarrassment to the finest athletics program in the nation.  Please send
a message to the team and to the nation that UCLA will not tolerate poor coaching.
Thank you

Dear Mr. Guerrero:

I have been a life-long, loyal UCLA supporter since I was a schoolboy growing up in my native northeast Iowa small town.  While I have never attended UCLA (I'm a graduate of the University of Iowa and do have a soft spot for UI athletics but I'm a Bruin first) I have an unwavering support for the Bruin athletic program.  I have attended UCLA road games here in the midwest (was, in fact, at South Bend last October vs. Notre Dame) and simply LOVE UCLA - period.  The reason for my e-mail to you today is to express my deep disappointment with the current status of the UCLA football program.  Ever since I started watching UCLA football as a kid on TV I knew this was a great program with rich tradition that should be considered as one of the elite programs in the nation.  While I have nothing against Coach Dorrell personally, the shortcomings the program has been experiencing during his five year tenure can no longer be ignored.  The most recent example, of course, was this last Saturday's embarrassment against Utah in Salt Lake City.  While I realize that upsets do happen and that unusual things can and will happen in college football, the lack of discipline and utter unpreparedness was quite evident - even on national TV.

On another front, I'm sure you're quite aware of the expectations that revolve around the UCLA football program.  I, too, want UCLA to be able to consistently compete for conference titles and B.C.S. bowl game appearances - and we should be able to.  However, under the leadership (or lack thereof) under Karl Dorrell we have not yet come close to realizing these goals; save for the 2005 season which was highlighted by improbable comebacks in numerous games but then dashed by humiliating losses to both Arizona and crosstown rival USC.  Perhaps just as disappointing has been our performance in the recent bowl games we have participated in.  I won't bother to mention those as I'm sure you're just as painfully aware of them as I.

I realize that, as strictly a fan of UCLA athletics, I do not have the voice or "pull" of the countless alumni and students of UCLA.  But I think I can state quite confidently that a need for change at the helm of the football program is painfully apparent and necessary if not downright acute.  I sincerely hope that you take a hard, unimpaired look at the total sitaution and I believe that you'll find that change will be necessary as well.

Respectfully yours,
Alex Nagel
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

Dear Mr. Guerrero,

I am writing to express my concern about the direction of the football program.  UCLA is about excellence both on the field and off the field and the football program does not represent the proud Bruin tradition in its current state.  Karl Dorrell has been a failure as a head coach and should not remain as the head coach beyond this season.  I am a season ticket holder and will not be renewing my tickets if he remains beyond this season.

The Utah game was an awful thing to watch but it goes beyond Utah into the mediocrity of this past 5 years.  Karl has been given more than enough time to get his team prepared and ready to play and it is apparent that is not happening.

You have had some great successes as athletic director (Savage, Howland, etc.) and I would like to see that committment to excellence extend to our football program.

Sincerely,

David Martin