After days of unrelenting pressure from Bruins Nation, DumpDorrell.com, and the greater UCLA community, Karl Dorrell issues a statement `to clarify' his remarks in an incendiary column in the LA Times:
"This statement is to clarify issues arising from an article written about me this past Sunday. During the interview, the reporter asked a question regarding the issue of race in today's college coaching environment. I told the reporter that there still exist issues in this profession, with qualified minority candidates not receiving college head coaching opportunities. In college football, six out of 119 Division IA head coaches are African American. This was the context in which the subject was addressed during the interview.
"My comments regarding race issues were expressed in a general sense, and clearly not as an indictment about my experience at UCLA. I have seen a lot of issues in this profession over the last 20 years, but I have not had to deal with any such concerns during my time at UCLA."
(HT to antipimp)This is a step forward I guess. But I'd imagine this was also a product of lot of internal pressure (in response to the outside firestorm in BN and beyond). I don't think Dorrell would take this step if he hadn't felt the pressure."My comments regarding race issues were expressed in a general sense, and clearly not as an indictment about my experience at UCLA. I have seen a lot of issues in this profession over the last 20 years, but I have not had to deal with any such concerns during my time at UCLA."
However, I believe Dorrell still needs to issue a clear apology to the greater Bruin community for providing unclear remarks to a tabloid peddling "columnist" from the LA Times, who by his column and subsequent writings, made it clear to us that he was intent on injecting a totally unnecessary, nongermaine and incendiary issue in discussions related to the state of UCLA football.
What Dorrell did by implicating through his unclear remarks that somehow UCLA had not given him a "fair shake" was utterly reckless and irresponsible. He is responsible for making an already volatile atmosphere around UCLA football even more toxic. And for that he owes us more than a clarification 2 days after the raging controversy in the UCLA community.
Lastly, we still expect UCLA to terminate Karl Dorrell at the end of the regular season, given it is clear by now no matter what happens in next two contests, he has totally failed to live up to the expectations, Dan Guerrero, the Athletic Director and Karl Dorrell set themselves, when he was hired in Westwood.
Dorrell needs to go. Period.
GO BRUINS.