LA Times' Chris Dufresne joins TJ Simers in becoming one of the first traditional media reporters in Southern California to unload on Karl Dorrell's listless football program:
[T]he lunar eclipse continues.
You wonder whether Dorrell can ever get his 15 minutes as long as USC is hogging 45 minutes of every hour glass.
There would have been a different measuring device had Dorrell taken over UCLA as USC was being shepherded by Paul Hackett or Larry Smith.
Dorrell, as he stands, is any good Clippers' coach in the 1980s standing next to Pat Riley.
(emphasis mine) Chris didn't stop there. He went on all but dismiss last year's fluke 10-2 season and Dorrell's all but meaningless only marquee win over an over-rated, injured Sooners football team:
You wonder whether Dorrell can ever get his 15 minutes as long as USC is hogging 45 minutes of every hour glass.
There would have been a different measuring device had Dorrell taken over UCLA as USC was being shepherded by Paul Hackett or Larry Smith.
Dorrell, as he stands, is any good Clippers' coach in the 1980s standing next to Pat Riley.
UCLA at Notre Dame is important because, if you're UCLA, you have to draw a hash mark in the sand somewhere.
Last year's home win against Oklahoma was a barometer, if only because Oklahoma was vulnerable and, as it turned out, beatable.
That Bruins triumph got lost, though, in the subsequent thunderclap of two terrible defeats and a 10-2 year that became almost invisible.
The alternative to beating Notre Dame is falling to 4-3, which puts the Bruins on a crash-course toward 6-6, a trip to the Lackluster Bowl and more off-season grumbling.
The coach's job is safe as long as Dan Guerrero is athletic director and Dorrell can keep players out of handicap parking spots.
Someday, though, and we don't know when, UCLA will have to step up and win a game like this, across the country, and then win one across the city.
For now, it's off to South Bend, to another fall day, to witness something that promises to fall short.
Of course, Chris is not completely there yet. No one knows what is going on in Dan Guerrero's head right now. When he came to Westwood, he came with a reputation of holding coaches accountable at his former institution. We have written a number of times about how, even though he hired Karl Dorrell, and in public has put forth a supportive front, in the background Dorrell was more a hire pushed by outgoing Chancellor Al Carnesale. The story that went around during the hiring process was that DG's first choice among the final candidates of Greg Robinson, Mike Riley, and Karl Dorrell (these choices were the result of a search of a process led by former Donahue stooge Bob Field, who was a mediocre defensive coordinator under Donahue and then Toledo before being bumped into the athletic department). Anyways the background story from the boards back in 2002 was that DG was never exactly in full control of the search process as he was too focused on getting the right replacement for Steve Lavin at the end of the season. So, by any means, it's not a given that Dorrell has DG's full confidence behind the scenes.Last year's home win against Oklahoma was a barometer, if only because Oklahoma was vulnerable and, as it turned out, beatable.
That Bruins triumph got lost, though, in the subsequent thunderclap of two terrible defeats and a 10-2 year that became almost invisible.
The alternative to beating Notre Dame is falling to 4-3, which puts the Bruins on a crash-course toward 6-6, a trip to the Lackluster Bowl and more off-season grumbling.
The coach's job is safe as long as Dan Guerrero is athletic director and Dorrell can keep players out of handicap parking spots.
Someday, though, and we don't know when, UCLA will have to step up and win a game like this, across the country, and then win one across the city.
For now, it's off to South Bend, to another fall day, to witness something that promises to fall short.
Anyways, as Chris points out right now, Dorrell is nothing but a pathetic figure like those hapless Clippers head coaches from the 1980s. And comments like that from someone else besides TJ Simers is a good indication that pressure is building on Karl Dorrell.
He is going to be under more pressure than ever this coming Saturday.
It's a good thing. And it shows the grumbling that is being generated through forums like ours are being heard. These journalists are not operating in a vacuum and they know exactly how an overwhelming majority of UCLA football fans are feeling about Karl Dorrell's underachieving performance in Westwood.
GO BRUINS.