We are no 25! And we are celebrating like we are in the top-10. Apparently Dorrell is still celebrating Saturday's win over the hapless Sooners, which got us into the top-25 for the first time in more than three years. Here is Dohn on the euphoria over a no. 25 ranking in Westwood:
UCLA is basking in the glow of Saturday's 41-24 whipping of then-No. 21 Oklahoma, and the euphoria hasn't fully subsided from the Bruins' biggest win in five years.
UCLA is 3-0 for the first time since 2001, when the Bruins opened with six straight wins, and third-year coach Karl Dorrell said everyone within the program is ready for more.
"It feels great," Dorrell said during his Monday news conference. "I know our players are geeked about it, and we've worked hard to get to this point. Now that we've got the door open, we want to get through the door."
The win against the Sooners catapulted UCLA into the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since late in the 2002 season, and now the task is staying there. The Bruins, who are No. 25, lost the past six times they played as a ranked team.
You'd think for a program, which has a tradition of being a perennial Rose Bowl contender, garnered tons of top-10 finishes, huge bowl wins, the coaching staff would be a little more composed and low key about Saturday's win over a pathetic opponent. No instead they are celebrating like those clueless teenagers who used to rush the court after every single one of Steve Lavin's "big win," totally losing perspective on the overall status of the program.UCLA is 3-0 for the first time since 2001, when the Bruins opened with six straight wins, and third-year coach Karl Dorrell said everyone within the program is ready for more.
"It feels great," Dorrell said during his Monday news conference. "I know our players are geeked about it, and we've worked hard to get to this point. Now that we've got the door open, we want to get through the door."
The win against the Sooners catapulted UCLA into the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since late in the 2002 season, and now the task is staying there. The Bruins, who are No. 25, lost the past six times they played as a ranked team.
Again, we are encouraged by the way we have started 3-0 this season, but then again we were also encouraged back in 01 when we started 6-0, before pissing the entire season away reading our gaudy (Bill Plaschke's idiotic) press clips. So coaches ... PLEASE FOCUS on Washington, and think about how you are going to use that game as set up/preparation for the first real challenge of the season, coming via Tedford's bunch the following week.
Because right now it is pretty obvious from the talent in our team and our cream puff schedule there should be no reasonable excuse for not being 10-0 going into the SC game. And it looks like Dorrell's supporters (i.e. former Bruin QB/TV "analyst") like Matt Stevens agree with those expectations of going 10-0 (emphasis mine):
"During the season, it really adds a lot of excitement when both teams are good," said Matt Stevens, the former Bruins quarterback (1983-86) from Fountain Valley who is a member of UCLA's radio broadcast team. "Now all over town, Bruins are calling Trojans and telling them we can hardly wait until Dec. 3. I've already made all those phone calls this morning, as a matter of fact.
"I'm just telling my USC friends, 'I hope you're still undefeated by then, because we will be.'"
[...]
In Westwood, especially, they can hardly contain their joy this week after enduring the first two difficult years of the Karl Dorrell era. To be 3-0 now and coming off that poll-rattling, 41-24 victory against Oklahoma makes them think they might actually run the table the rest of the way, or at least until that Dec. 3 match up with No.1 USC.
"I think we can do it," Stevens said. "Have you seen our schedule? It's the easiest we've had in years."
Like I said above lets see it happen for real. We have heard this talk before, but our expectations are to see actual results, before we can deduce there has been discernable progress under the current 15-13 coach who is still 1-10 against team with winning records. Before the season started we expected 9 regular season wins, but now that the opponents on our schedule are turning out to be even more pathetic than we expected them to be, we can now reasonably expect this UCLA team to go 10-0."I'm just telling my USC friends, 'I hope you're still undefeated by then, because we will be.'"
[...]
In Westwood, especially, they can hardly contain their joy this week after enduring the first two difficult years of the Karl Dorrell era. To be 3-0 now and coming off that poll-rattling, 41-24 victory against Oklahoma makes them think they might actually run the table the rest of the way, or at least until that Dec. 3 match up with No.1 USC.
"I think we can do it," Stevens said. "Have you seen our schedule? It's the easiest we've had in years."
In other (some unfortunate) news Lonnie White reports Junior is officially out for the season