Football News & Notes

by Nestor on Jan 25, 2008 6:45 PM PST in Football

Some football notes for a late Friday night.

Lot of self proclaimed pundits have been trying to jump on our bandwagon. Trev Albert is the latest:

Albert was of course a huge fan of Karl Dorrell, who was officially hired by the Miami Dolphins. The key factor in this hiring:

Dorrell is to be paid a little more than $2 million over the next two years, though his salary from the Dolphins will be deducted from his UCLA buyout.

Well if you are wondering according to the LA Times the Dorrell's buyout clause at UCLA calls for "$2.05 million to be paid over a two-year period."

So yes. This works out very nicely and we of course wish KD the best of luck.

Lastly, I saw the note about Barkley committing to Southern Cal. For those of you who are absolute hard core recruiting junkies here was the key graf in the LA Times' story written up by Eric Sondheimer:

Barkley's private coach, Steve Clarkson, said, "He's had a silent commitment since last October. It was a decision he felt good about but never announced until now."

Consider this if not for CRN and his hiring of Norm Chow, Southern Cal wouldn't be forced to show their hand. Back in the day when we have not so exciting coaching staff leading our program the Trojans would have been able to take their time in this type of situation hold to Barkley as a "silent verbal" and pursue other blue chip QBs to stock up. Now that CRN and Chow is in town they don't have that luxury. So they were forced to show their hands and now CRN and co can go all out on all other blue chippers in Southland and across the country.

Yeah I say the game has changed a little bit. The latest TrOJie recruiting move proves it.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

I'm not sure about that $2M figure...

... as I thought NFL position assistants were getting paid in the $200-$400K range.

I think the wire reports may be confusing KD's UCLA buyout with his Miami salary.

"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008

by Meriones on Jan 25, 2008 9:42 PM PST reply actions

If I recall correctly

I read somewhere that he'd be making somwhere between $250K and $500K. But either way, it'll save at least $500K over 2 years (or 1/4 of the buyout).

by OutOThsWrld on Jan 25, 2008 10:10 PM PST reply actions

Which would be..

..Dewayne Walker's salary each year plus about 50 large off of another assistant's salary figure, if I remember correctly.

It all adds up and is a thoroughly decent thing for Dorrell to seek and get employment. I also wish him the best.

by whp68 on Jan 26, 2008 8:10 AM PST up reply actions

Doubters about Neuheisel Have Gone Underground

Those critical of the decision to hire Coach Rick are nowhere to be found, with the hiring of Norm Chow, following the retention of DeWayne Walker. Think of how we felt when the Bruins dropped Coach Dorrell and then took forever to announce his replacement, after a succession of Coaches turned up their noses at the job. My gut reaction was that DeWayne Walker would surely leave, and Bruin recruiting would be decimated. Instead, DeWayne is retained, keeping what we already had, we got a head coach with national cache and NFL ties, and then pick up the most famous offensive coordinator, QB Guru, possible. (Will Chow be even better than Homer Smith, from back in the day?) Instead of a negative, recruiting has been pumped up at least times three, but more likely 3 factorial. Its hard not to expect overnight success, particularly in a collegiate world where stars go to the pro's early, so teams turnover more quickly. However, we'll be patient at least for the first year, but the future seems unbelievably bright.

by 75NatChamps on Jan 26, 2008 4:19 AM PST reply actions

"..but more likely 3 factorial.."

..more like 3 dB.

by whp68 on Jan 26, 2008 8:22 AM PST up reply actions

If I'm reading this right

The first post says the recruiting would be more likely 3! (times) better. As 3! = 3 x 2 x 1 = 6 times better than it used to be.

From that site explaining decibels,
3 dB = 10 log 2 = 10 log [(recruiting now)/(recruiting then)]
=> (Recruiting now)/(recruiting then) = 2
=> Recruiting now = 2(recruiting then), only twice as good.

I'd like to think recruiting is at at least 5 or 6 dB.

by jaffa on Jan 26, 2008 12:21 PM PST up reply actions

Factorial

Is what I meant. There's synergy because of the three that makes it better than just 3 good additions.

by 75NatChamps on Jan 26, 2008 7:30 PM PST up reply actions

I was mainly going off on the decibels.

I agree.

by jaffa on Jan 26, 2008 10:26 PM PST up reply actions

Patience ?

Why would we be patient "at least for the first year" ? Look at the mess Howland inherited, and a single player can make more impact in basketball than football. Neuheisel is inheriting a similar mess. It will likely take more than one year to overcome the Dorrell legacy- building up a new recruiting pipeline, teaching existing players how to actually play the game, etc etc. "At least one year" is not patience.

by islandbruin on Jan 26, 2008 5:25 AM PST reply actions

Actually I don't think the mess is nearly as bad.

Part of that is due to how insanely bad Lavin destroyed the program. The team he left was soft, 1 to 3 years behind in fundamentals, many players lacked the will of the warrior (so to speak), and few were of the talent level needed to overcome any of that.

While I do recognize that those same labels can be applied to our football team, I do not feel it is to the same degree. There is still a lot of talent on the field, and a lot of passion and desire. His teams did well in school and worked hard on the field. What seemed to be lacking was proper direction. For me, this is epitomized in KD's insistence in using a "West Coast Offense." It doesn't work well in college and KD's poor use of it is part of what held the offense back. That was why there were so many flashes of near brilliance, followed by crap.

KD for all his faults was only mediocre. He didn't destroy the program. That said, I will give Coach Neuheisel at least as long as I gave KD to judge his success, but I do not think he will need it.

by isodore on Jan 26, 2008 11:50 AM PST up reply actions

matt barkley

Stated in OC Register he wanted a great education so he goes to old Trade Tech Annex /Ballromm Prancing- typical of reasoning he deserts Corona del Mar HS for Mater Dei-CDM one of top 3 high schools academically-Mater Dei well they are better than some others but a lot easier for the male jock

by stuin bruin on Jan 26, 2008 5:28 PM PST reply actions

RN

You all might be interested in this series in the Seattle Times that is being published this week, describing the criminality and cover-ups that took place when RN coached the Huskies:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004147443_rboverview27m0.html

I am not being sarcastic. I truly hope Rick has learned from his mistakes and is successful at UCLA. But this series of articles is actually sickening. I know you all are excited about RN, and we were too when he came here. He is very charasmatic. Hopefully, he has changed.

by seattle on Jan 28, 2008 4:34 AM PST reply actions