The traditional media in Southern California is already pulling out the old story line of how once again Southern Cal and UCLA are squaring off with Rose Bowl on the line. And of course all of this works conveniently for these hacks because the matchup fits their little narrative of an overwhelming favorite Trojan squad taking on the gutty little Bruins.
It’s pretty original stuff, that has been shoved down our throats during the mediocre years of Donahue, when his perennial underachieving UCLA teams would try to salvage their disappointing season by making a stand in the last game.
Our players are eating it all up, working overtime to put lipstick on the pig:
"The fact that we still got life right now, even though we don't control our own destiny, is great," Davis said. "We're going to do our best to handle our end of the deal, then wait to see if some other stuff works out.
"If we make it to the Rose Bowl, so be it. I'll love every second of it."
So would Dorrell, who has endured a season of diminishing returns until now, leaving his future murky. The Bruins talked about national-title possibilities when the season began. That stopped in Salt Lake City, after Utah pasted them, 44-6. The players continued to carry "Pac-10 Champions: finish" wristbands, cutting them off after losing to Arizona on Nov. 3.
With the nonconference gaffes against Utah and Notre Dame, and a rash of injuries that sent them on a three-game losing streak in conference play, the Bruins were scrambling just to be bowl-eligible.
Then came UCLA's shutout victory over a similarly depleted Oregon team.
"This season hasn't turned out the way we wanted it to, but this gives us hope," Davis said. "This gives us a chance."
Now a victory and a little help could make the Bruins the first team to reach the Rose Bowl with five losses.
"It's amazing," tailback Chris Markey said. "With the ups and downs, all the injuries, to know that we can still make it to the Rose Bowl, play in our home, is a wonderful feeling."
Uh yes, the injury excuse, which is now a full blown campaign to save an incompetent football coach. I am not going to go into detail in rebutting the ludicrous excuse. We have collectively done that already here and here."If we make it to the Rose Bowl, so be it. I'll love every second of it."
So would Dorrell, who has endured a season of diminishing returns until now, leaving his future murky. The Bruins talked about national-title possibilities when the season began. That stopped in Salt Lake City, after Utah pasted them, 44-6. The players continued to carry "Pac-10 Champions: finish" wristbands, cutting them off after losing to Arizona on Nov. 3.
With the nonconference gaffes against Utah and Notre Dame, and a rash of injuries that sent them on a three-game losing streak in conference play, the Bruins were scrambling just to be bowl-eligible.
Then came UCLA's shutout victory over a similarly depleted Oregon team.
"This season hasn't turned out the way we wanted it to, but this gives us hope," Davis said. "This gives us a chance."
Now a victory and a little help could make the Bruins the first team to reach the Rose Bowl with five losses.
"It's amazing," tailback Chris Markey said. "With the ups and downs, all the injuries, to know that we can still make it to the Rose Bowl, play in our home, is a wonderful feeling."
But what is just so pathetic is to hear a kid like Chris Markey feeling "wonderful" about a 6-5 football team, which is going into it’s last game as almost a 3 TD underdog, looking to pull off an "upset" for a shot at the Rose Bowl in a very mediocre conference. Listening and reading these guys it is clear, these kids have no idea about being winners and no clue on what it is like to be part of an elite championship caliber athletic programs, unlike their peers in other athletic programs at UCLA.
Fortunately though not everyone is falling for the lipstick on pig routine. Steve Dilbeck from the DN quoted Dan Guerrero over the weekend and wrote about how UCLA will be judging the Doofus based on the body of his work. Apparently Steve wasn’t the only one to exhibit a modicum of sanity. Jeff Miller from the OC Register, (a Trojan of all people, who we have previously taken to task for taking ridiculous dig at our 100 titles), was able to see through the meaningless win against Oregon:
Now, want to consider something really crazy? How about UCLA's 16-0 victory over Oregon saving Karl Dorrell's job?
Yeah right, no season is that bizarre. The guess here is, baring an unlikely Rose Bowl bid, the coach already is fired every way but formally, which is the right move. After Dorrell's nearly five seasons, it's tough to identify the program's improvement.
It would have been difficult to dismiss him following triumphs over Oregon and USC, had the victory Saturday been more believable.
But the Bruins didn't beat the team that was first in the Pac-10 entering this weekend; they beat what little remains of that team.
The Ducks were without a 100-percent Jonathan Stewart and minus their quarterback, Dennis Dixon, which is sort of like a car minus its keys. The thing can be pushed along, but it's not capable of actually running.
So Dixon's absence helped the Bruins on Saturday but, ultimately, probably hurt their coach.
It’s too bad though that Jeff’s colleague – Mark Whicker – is intent on shilling for our incompetent football coach. Apparently Mark took the time to answer our brushback on a column he wrote trotting out all the injury excuses for Karl Dorrell. Mark made this pitch on behalf of the Doofus:
Yeah right, no season is that bizarre. The guess here is, baring an unlikely Rose Bowl bid, the coach already is fired every way but formally, which is the right move. After Dorrell's nearly five seasons, it's tough to identify the program's improvement.
It would have been difficult to dismiss him following triumphs over Oregon and USC, had the victory Saturday been more believable.
But the Bruins didn't beat the team that was first in the Pac-10 entering this weekend; they beat what little remains of that team.
The Ducks were without a 100-percent Jonathan Stewart and minus their quarterback, Dennis Dixon, which is sort of like a car minus its keys. The thing can be pushed along, but it's not capable of actually running.
So Dixon's absence helped the Bruins on Saturday but, ultimately, probably hurt their coach.
I think Karl is a great representative of UCLA who has cleaned up a lot of things there. You're right, the loss to Utah was inexplicable. Just like the win over USC was last year. Obviously Karl would be better off if the administration and the fan base supported him instead of writing him off basically after one season. But such loyalty is too much to ask of UCLA people.
Mark didn’t bother to mention the Notre Dame debacle. Neither did he mention the embarrassment against Washington State or Arizona State or Florida State or Notre Dame from last year or Washington State from last year or Oregon or Fresno State or Wyoming, you get the picture. Mark didn’t have time to mention how preceding to this season – you know what was supposed to be the "show me" season – the Doofus was 1-10 on the road against teams with a winning record, 3-11 against ranked teams, 2-7 against top 10 teams, 8-17 against teams with a winning record, and 10 losses to unranked teams. Again that was before this season’s debacle. But Mark didn’t have time to go into those facts and instead take a broad swipe at the loyalty of Bruin Nation.But Mark inadvertently slipped out this in his latest column celebrating Eric McPick. Here is Mark on what has happened since that play:
And what has changed, really?
UCLA followed up its USC high with a nasty fall at the Emerald Bowl, losing to Florida State. It comes into Saturday's rematch with a 6-5 record and a chance to make the Rose Bowl game ….
Mark goes on to mention how this year is different, because the TrOJies are at home and they are playing for revenge, and they are OMG awesome. Whatever. We have heard that nonsense before too.UCLA followed up its USC high with a nasty fall at the Emerald Bowl, losing to Florida State. It comes into Saturday's rematch with a 6-5 record and a chance to make the Rose Bowl game ….
But Mark really slipped out how nothing has changed since last year’s game despite all the BS about this year being the show me season.
And we still have morons in the local traditional media trying to do their best to shill and make excuses for incompetent UCLA head coaches, who have no business holding on to their jobs. Like I said putting lipstick on a pig.
GO BRUINS.