I really do think he did everything he could.  If he stayed up all night, it would not have done any more good.

that we lost in basketball last year, by two points?  I think it was at Stanford, where Shipp took a 3 pointer at the buzzer and missed, rather than drive and go into OT.  Afterwards, Coach Howland said something to the effect, "It was my decision, and a bad one.  I wanted the win.  I take full responsibility."  

I'd like to commend BN and DD for all the research, quotes, and news we get kept up to date on and please keep up the pressure and continue your work.

BUT, could we begin looking ahead to Ben Howland and his team.  Please give me updates, news, reports and anything so I can start looking forward to the only thing that makes me happy in this miserable life (a little hyperbole b/c of KD), Bruin Basketball with Ben Howland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comparing the two is like comparing Millard Fillmore with Zachary Taylor.  Who cares?  Neither could challenge for a national championship.  One would have the players and play not to lose and lose; the other does not have the players and plays not to lose and loses.

With an exception or two, TD had success when, let's be straight about this, Homer Smith was his OC. Homer, a former HC at Army, and devout religious person, came to UCLA to help out, being paid peanuts and not in it for the $$. His wife lived much of the time in Alabama to save $$. Homer gets passed over for credit as the man making TD any sort of success that he was. Homer was the type of coach who would have the QB's work all day on how to move the feet away from the center, etc. Sounds a bit Woodenish and he was. Great OC. Without him RN would be nobody, IMO, Steve Bono, etc. He made all these QB's.
Bill

I think both the Aikman years featured an offense "coordinated" by Steve Axtman.  Homer bailed after '86 for a time, before coming back at least once more.

Yeah, yeah, I know, Aikman never beat $C - but at least that first game ('87) that was all about atrocious officiating.  1. Rodney Peete's facemask on (the late) Eric Turner's nearly coast to coast INT return at the end of the 1st half and Erik Affholter is STILL out of bounds.

It was ironic that Aikman comes to UCLA because of the offensive flair of Homer. Then when Aikman is eligible to play, Homer leaves for two years and Axman comes in from Stanford. Axman was the king of the across the field pass and 2 yard gain. Aikman had good numbers but Axman kept him down. Don't recall throwing downfield at all during that time except out of desparation. Of course, as soon as Aikman is gone, Homer came right back and made world beating QB's out of 1 star recruits.

As BTW, in the first three years, Bruins who played at that time noted the team ran,ran,ran. The forward pass was hard to come by. I talked to Bruce Davis (senior) about that and he contended the talent was good, but the coaching was all about the run. This was all TD could do.
Bill

First of all, I understand why everyone's upset about Dorrell's sleeping well quote.  However, I would like to echo some earlier comments that it's not the real problem.  Work ethic is important, but even if I stayed up watching Memphis tapes for weeks on end, I couldn't do what Howland did.  The bottom line is the Ben Howland was born to be a coach, and Dorrell was not.  The most important part of all this is that Howland understands people in a way that Dorrell just does not.  I remember a quote from some interview a while back where Dorrell admitted that he had originally thought that all he had to do was show his players the X's and O's of a play, and that there was no explanation involved.  This is also why Howland's teams never seem to lack motivation like Dorrell's, and why Howland takes responsibility regardless of where the blame lies.  The amount of talent on the football team probably demonstrates that Dorrell does in fact work hard.  The trouble is that, no matter how hard he works, he just doesn't have the ability to motivate a team or inspire concentration.  No matter how much time he puts in, we'll always see losses like Arizona, FSU, Utah, and all the others because his teams will always lack concentration against easy opponents.