It is not shaping up to be a good Monday for the worst coach in the history of UCLA football. Reporters for once swarmed over Dorrell yesterday. Chris Foster in the LA Times this morning has a tough article this morning reporting how Dorrell was caught "unprepared for disaster" wrt to emergency situation at QB:
Rasshan was ready. Coach Karl Dorrell wasn't. The Bruins offense, he said, could not call that audible.
Rasshan was recruited as a quarterback and trained two seasons to be a UCLA quarterback before moving to wide receiver over the summer. Yet, when the offense failed to re-boot under Bethel-Thompson during Saturday's 20-6 loss to previously winless Notre Dame, Rasshan was considered user unfriendly for reasons beyond his control.
"It wasn't an option," Dorrell said in a conference call Sunday night. "He hasn't had any reps in quite some time at quarterback."
The question some might ask is, "Why?"
The Bruins' top two quarterbacks have not been healthy in the same game this season. Olson missed one game because of a concussion and Cowan missed the first three because of a partially torn hamstring and the last two because of a partially torn knee ligament. Yet, the Bruins seemed unprepared for disaster, with Bethel-Thompson and freshman Chris Forcier, who they hope to redshirt, as the only backups to Olson on Saturday night.
Dorrell had considered resorting to the Rasshan option going into the season opener at Stanford, when Cowan was out because of a hamstring injury. Dorrell said they had a "package" ready for Rasshan in case of emergency. When an emergency came Saturday, the expiration date on that package had passed.
"We haven't practiced that package since the early portion of the season," Dorrell said. "We thought the injuries our quarterbacks had were not long term. We thought that Pat would be back soon. . . . We felt in pretty good shape."
They weren't. Bethel-Thompson showed he was not nearly ready, with four passes intercepted.
What makes this whole clusterf*ck on the part of Karl Dorrell even more inexcusable is the pure, raw athletic talent he had available in Rasshan. From Foster again:
Rasshan was recruited as a quarterback and trained two seasons to be a UCLA quarterback before moving to wide receiver over the summer. Yet, when the offense failed to re-boot under Bethel-Thompson during Saturday's 20-6 loss to previously winless Notre Dame, Rasshan was considered user unfriendly for reasons beyond his control.
"It wasn't an option," Dorrell said in a conference call Sunday night. "He hasn't had any reps in quite some time at quarterback."
The question some might ask is, "Why?"
The Bruins' top two quarterbacks have not been healthy in the same game this season. Olson missed one game because of a concussion and Cowan missed the first three because of a partially torn hamstring and the last two because of a partially torn knee ligament. Yet, the Bruins seemed unprepared for disaster, with Bethel-Thompson and freshman Chris Forcier, who they hope to redshirt, as the only backups to Olson on Saturday night.
Dorrell had considered resorting to the Rasshan option going into the season opener at Stanford, when Cowan was out because of a hamstring injury. Dorrell said they had a "package" ready for Rasshan in case of emergency. When an emergency came Saturday, the expiration date on that package had passed.
"We haven't practiced that package since the early portion of the season," Dorrell said. "We thought the injuries our quarterbacks had were not long term. We thought that Pat would be back soon. . . . We felt in pretty good shape."
They weren't. Bethel-Thompson showed he was not nearly ready, with four passes intercepted.
Rasshan's immense athletic abilities seem suited for a basic spread formation -- he had 1,716 yards passing and 860 yards rushing as a senior at Pomona Garey High. Against a slowish Irish defense, such a formation in his hands might have succeeded. It almost certainly wouldn't have resulted in the interceptions Bethel-Thompson put on his resume Saturday.
Other teams have used such a limited offense to take advantage of multi-dimensional quarterbacks. Florida spotted Tim Tebow effectively in its national championship run last season. The Bruins had seen it up close, when Utah used freshman Corbin Louks in opportune situations during the Utes' 44-6 win Sept. 15.
Again its said even average Joes like us who has no clue when it comes to "Football 101" saw a mile away how it might have been a good idea to get Rasshan ready for emergency situation at QB, given the immense athletic talent he had and his experience in running basic spread formation (something I'd imagine any college coach at a high profile program getting paid a million dollars a year with purported expertise in offense could teach), it would have made him sense to keep him prepared for situations like last Saturday night. And as Foster noted its not like Rasshan was excelling at WR, as he wasn't getting any time at the rotation. Anyways, Dorrell is done. So at this point all of this is moot.Other teams have used such a limited offense to take advantage of multi-dimensional quarterbacks. Florida spotted Tim Tebow effectively in its national championship run last season. The Bruins had seen it up close, when Utah used freshman Corbin Louks in opportune situations during the Utes' 44-6 win Sept. 15.
Dohn has more on the pathetic situation at QB, as he notes Cowan is coming back to practice this week.
Elsewhere, from Dohn's blog something that may echo the speculation about Dorrell "losing" his team:
In my five seasons of covering UCLA, this was the most dead I can remember the locker room after a loss. Many of the usual players around after games were hard to find.
Anyway, I asked WR Brandon Breazell how difficult it was to muster an offense with third-string quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson in the game.
"To me, it's no different,'' Breazell said. "Obviously, he's a freshman quarterback, but you would think he would have a good feel for the game.''
So not only players are demoralized, they are also openly taking shots at each other. Nice work Karl.Anyway, I asked WR Brandon Breazell how difficult it was to muster an offense with third-string quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson in the game.
"To me, it's no different,'' Breazell said. "Obviously, he's a freshman quarterback, but you would think he would have a good feel for the game.''
Speaking of shots, Coach Weiss launched this stinger at number 44:
``Number 44 (Davis) helped them out,'' Weis said. ``You don't think they noticed when someone says you're a pile of crap?''
Now to be fair to Davis (and I came down on him hard), he did back up his individual talk by registering 3 sacks. However, it was still moronic on his part to mouth off like that. It certainly fired up the Irish, who did what they had to do in crucial situations (i.e. overpowering our DL at the goal line), and it made Davis, Brown and everyone else who had disrespected the tradition of the Irish program and their team like total fools. All of this of course goes to back their moronic head coach, who seems to have no control over the hapless and embarrassing UCLA football program.Lastly, on the note of "embarrassing," just like his HC, DeWayne Walker also likes talking about sleeping:
Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said he was excited to put this loss behind him. I asked him if this coming bye week would serve more as a healing week, than one of big-time preparation, even with the bye coming up. [...]
"To be honest with you, I can't wait to go to sleep so I can get in the office (Sunday) and start game-planning. They're going to be a helluva challenge for us. I can't really focus too much on this one. We have to get ready for Cal."
I know some people will still say how the defense played great and all that. But again don't look for any credit for this unit from this page, given how their leaders were shooting their mouth off the entire week. Moreover, they did what they were supposed to do, which is shutting down a horrific ND offense, which was dead last or near close to it in so many offensive categories. If these guys are looking for little gold stars, after being part of a team, which yet embarrassed the name of UCLA under their sh!tty head coach, this will not be the place for it."To be honest with you, I can't wait to go to sleep so I can get in the office (Sunday) and start game-planning. They're going to be a helluva challenge for us. I can't really focus too much on this one. We have to get ready for Cal."
Oh, and I hope they can keep their collective yap shut for two weeks and not treat us the with the same BS about putting losses behind, focus, and winning the Pac-10 championship. This entire program deserves nothing until it actually walks the walk (which is to win the Pac-10 championship) or goes through immediate house cleaning starting at the very top.
We are sick of being embarrassed by these clowns week after week. And the only thing that remains exciting about this season is the new DumpDorrell.com campaign, which just launched today. We are excited to see how this plays out and will do everything we can to help the good guys over at DumpDorrell.com to amplify their efforts.
GO BRUINS.