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Hump Day Roundup

It's not a big secret to anyone (except to delusional Dorrell apologists who have their collective heads in the sand) that Trojans from cross town are in love with Dorrell. Well, those clowns are doing everything in their power to keep Dorrell at UCLA. From the Wizard (emphasis mine):

Who owns the domain, Fire Karl Dorrell? We found out, but have agreed to not reveal his identity. But what we can tell you is this: He claims to be a graduate of USC and would like to pass the following message to UCLA fans: "I am the registered owner of firekarldorrell.com. At this time, I do not wish to reveal my plan for the site. I would like to see UCLA keeps its current head football coach for many more years. Mr. Karl Dorrell has always been a calm gentleman whether his team loses by three points or six touchdowns."
We have said this number of times already. One of the biggest indictments on Dorrell is to see who is rooting for him to stay in Westwood. There are not any reality-based UCLA fans left who still think Dorrell has been a successful coach in Westwood and that he is the long term answer. But, what is clear is that UCLA's main rival and its Pac-10 opponents looove Karl Dorrell, just like how Steve Lavin was loved and adored by everyone else except UCLA basketball fans. It's telling.

For now, though, Dorrell is still the coach and he continues to sound like an idiot in the press. Here he is on how the team is preparing mentally for Washington State:
On Tuesday, UCLA, which lost to the Irish, 20-17, in the final seconds, was happy to get back to practice.

"You really overcome it by getting on to the next one," Dorrell said, referring to the Bruins' game against Washington State Saturday at the Rose Bowl. "We reflected on it, talked about it on Sunday with the team and the staff. We flushed it down the toilet."
lol. The only thing Dorrell has been flushing down the toilet is a team that once used to beat Southern Cal and win the Pac-10 conference.

In any event, the big news from practice continues to be the health of Ben Olson. Olson will not be back for the game this weekend. He is not taking reps with the first team, however, he is having his own rehab workouts this week. From the OC Register:
Patrick Cowan was taking repetitions in practice with UCLA's first-team offense Tuesday, while off to the side Ben Olson was working his way back from a tear in the medial collateral ligament in his left knee, running and taking drops.

The Bruins starting quarterback hoped to be back Saturday against Washington State, but with lingering soreness in his knee he has put off putting any timetable on a return and is focusing on returning to health.

"I wanted to play this week and get back out there, but it's just not cooperating. Hopefully, it will be better next week. I can't say if that's going to be the case or not, but I hope so," Olson said.

"It's kind of a touchy thing because you can't do too much because it's scarring down, it's healing, but yet you can't let it get too loose. So you have to push it, but not push it too far."

The Bruins play at Cal next week then come back to the Rose Bowl on Nov.11 for a game against Oregon State.

"We need to see how he responds (today)," Coach Karl Dorrell said. "If there's going to be any new swelling, any new inflammation or things like that after the workout he did, which was not very much. He's trying to get back on the field, to practice again, and I think that's his goal right now. And that's our goal, to get him back healthy, and we'll just take it from there."
Again, given that PC has done a decent (not spectacular) job as a starter, no need to rush BO back. Let him get completely healthy and healed before he is allowed to resume his starting role as the Bruin QB.

Lastly I mentioned last night how the Wazzu defense has been decimated by injuries. Dohn has more on the Cougar defense:
Injuries have decimated Washington State's defensive line, which is forcing the defense to play with varied looks up front. At times, the Cougars will play a 4-3 (four lineman and three linebackers), but will often switch to a 3-4.

"We have to prepare for both," Dorrell said. "Because they played both structures in every game this season, we have to (prepare) for both. Whether they decide to (play) one or the other, that remains to be seen." [...]

The injury bug has hit the defensive tackles the hardest. Wazzu's top three defensive tackles Ropati Pitoitua (knee), Feuaea'i Ahmu (foot) and Aaron Johnson (elbow) are out. The Cougars also lost projected starting defensive end Matt Mullennix to a knee injury in training camp.
Sounds like a perfect game for the Bruin offense to finally find its rhythm by overpowering the wounded Cougars. We will see how "prepared" the Bruins are when the teams kick off this weekend at 4:00 pm PST (ABC regional broadcast).  I will say it again - a must win game.

GO BRUINS.