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The Magic Number = Four

I am not going to the insult the intelligence of all the long time BN bloggers and readers who have been with Odysseus, Ajax, Menelaus, Tydides, Achilles, Meriones and yours truly ever since we launched this tiny blog back in June of 2005, by going over all the coaching screwups from last night. There is no real point to it. I did go ahead and bumped couple of posts earlier this year when one of the worst football coaches in America brought in more retread mediocre assistants scapegoats in a last ditch desperate attempt to inject some life into his worthless, joke offense.

Obviously the convenient excuse for our shameless sleeping beauty and his cultists and moronic supporters (unbelievably there were some Bruin alums still supporting this fraud last night at the bar I was watching the game) is that there is nothing he could do about last night given the injury to his starting QB.:

"What happened in the game is something you don't anticipate happening, and it did," Dorrell said. "Given the circumstances we've had with the quarterbacks and injuries, it's been a difficult, difficult season so far."
Yet, for folks like us who follow this game day to day and are connected to other junkies across the country via the interwebs, the failure of our joke offensive line (which looked like it couldn't "block a soul") was not a surprise.

One more note before I get into the big picture. Apparently our Sleeping Beauty will now consider putting back Osaar Rasshan back at QB:
Rasshan, who moved to receiver in the offseason, said he was told by Dorrell after UCLA's 20-6 loss Saturday to Notre Dame he would return to quarterback during practice and could be the starter when the Bruins return from a bye and host California on Oct. 20.

It became an issue after starter Ben Olson was knocked out in the first quarter, forcing red-shirt freshman walk-on McLeod Bethel-Thompson into action.

"I talked to coach Dorrell and he said he didn't put me in the game because I didn't get any (practice) snaps," Rasshan said. "(Dorrell) said we'll go in and get a blue print and see how everything is going. I think I have the most experience at quarterback, so I definitely think I can help the team there."

Dorrell said the availability of Olson, who has a left knee injury, and Patrick Cowan (knee) will be assessed. Using Bethel-Thompson, true freshman Chris Forcier and Rasshan are also options.

"I don't have all the answers today, so don't ask me today," Dorrell said. "But those are the things we'll have to consider over this weekend and move forward."
Gosh darn it. It's too bad none of us here have a clue about `Football 101'. I am sure none of us here discussed how it might make sense to have an athlete who played QB in high school and who has been in Dorrell's program for 2+ years, as the 3rd/emergency option at QB. I mean shoot. We are all so dumb. How could we have foreseen that a QB like OR would have been the perfect answer in an emergency situation last night, who could have kept a horrible ND rushing defense on their toes, and give our anemic offense a chance in 4th and 1. But then again forgive us.

Yeah, none one us have any idea about this game, and none of us have any clue when it comes to Football 101. Silly us.

Anyways, let's think about the big picture shall we?

We all knew (despite the loud protests from all the cultists who went after us for being so hard on this joker during the off-season) that Dorrell is a fraud.

And last night told us nothing new and honestly I don't care about affirmations from the Simers to feel good about being right.

We have known this for years even during the fraudlent "10 win" season that our program was being short-circuited by an inexperienced, overmatched, coach in name only idiot. The only identity the idiot's team has established in last 4+ years is the one of most inconsistent program in the NCAA, featured by constant underachievement, let down wins, systematic lack of fundamental and discipline (the ultimate anti-Howland in the lexicon of UCLA sports), establishing itself as the Lavin program of college football.

All these humiliations have taken place despite UCLA giving Dorrell every chance to succeed. It has markedly improved all the facilities during his tenure. It has let him liberally hire and fire mediocre assistant coaches (paying them at a handsome level unprecedented in UCLA AD's penny pinching history), and it has even let him get away even after shaming the program by having character with criminal past o the program.

And now deep into his 5th season, we are at a point when it is clear to anyone with a functioning sports brain that Dorrell is a failure.

At this point there is not much point to discuss about strategies, schemes of individual games. It is pointless.

All that is left now is for all of us to go through the motions rest of this season, and find out whether this clown will pull out a Lavin like a miracle by winning 8-9 games heading into the Southern Cal game, and then save his rear end by beating up Pom Pom, who after all these years is himself being exposed as nothing but a glorified sub from South Central.

I think right now if you are a UCLA fan, my hunch is our magic number is 4.

If Dorrell loses 4 more games, he is done, which means this joke needs to go 3-3 with a victory over Southern Cal rest of the way, before getting canned at the end of next season.

That's all there is left to it. Fortunately for the Idiot he gets his toughest opponents - Cal, ASU and Oregon - at home.

I'd caution against celebrating early thinking it is all but a done deal and that our program will just free fall down the stretch.  College football (athletics in general is a crazy game).

I will not be surprised at all is somehow Cowan or Olson gets healthy and we get Markey back heading into the Cal game, and then Dorrell finds a way to win the game against a Tedford coached squad with a suspect defense. It will be an easy narrative for Dorrell and his minions to cast about how their backs are against the wall, and how its them against the world blah blah blah, and get bunch of college kids to come out and play the game of their lives. It got them 13-9 and it could give them another huge win against Cal, only of course to stumble against either Arizona or Wazzu on the road. We have seen that act all too many times.

So what we can do for now is to keep the chatter going?

There is one thing we can do that can be extremely effectively.  And my appeal goes out to the students who read this blog or DumpDorrell.com.  Please consider organizing yourself in a methodical, systematic, and deliberate manner operating within all campus rules and regulations, and start voicing your concerns straight to the Chancellor and the Athletic Director in a way, that is visible to us (so we can amplify it here) and to the traditional media. Again one of the reason Notre Dame officials moved fast on Willingham was when they heard students were organizing demonstrations on campus. It got their attention. And it will get their attention in Westwood.

I will leave you this quote from Shannon Tevaga in the Daily News re the call on 4th and 1:
"I thought we were going to run it there," Tevaga said. "That's the coaches' call."
I can only imagine what some of these kids are thinking inside that they can't share in the MSM. Dorrell and his clowns are destroying the careers of all these kids (costing them millions) right in front of our eyes. The question is just how long the UCLA Administration will sit idle and do nothing about it?

If Dorrell somehow gets lucky that enables the Athletic Department to attempt an argument that he deserves one more year, it will be up to all of us, generate all out pressure on Murphy Hall and Morgan Center, and shame them to make the right decision and save our football program.

However, for now I believe our magic number at this point is 4.

4 more losses and it will probably the clinch the end of Dorrell era in Westwood. I am not saying we have to root for or against our Bruins. I am just telling you what situation the worst coach in the history of UCLA football has put us all in after 4+ miserable years in Westwood.

GO BRUINS.