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The End In Sight

It is an absolute treat these days to wake up Sunday morning and read post after posts and comments after comments articulating much better than I can on what I am feeling the day after another Dorrell coached UCLA football game.

I am with godblesstyus95. Although I think the end is in sight, I don't believe the nightmare is totally over yet. I can see the dreaded scenario he laid out in his post coming into fruition, given what we had to endure through those surreal Lavin years. And, I can also symphatize with the argument Class of 66 laid out in his diary, making a strong case why we should all pressure on Dan Guerrero to act now, so that he doesn't have any room to maneuver out of the right decision to get rid of the most incompetent coach in college football by December 3rd.


Photo Credit: Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times

However, all that said, I have to tell you I am starting to sense a calm over me. I can feel the end in sight.  Let me start with some clips before I share more of my thoughts.

It looks like Dohn has finally caught up with reality and admit that may be the Doofus is in the final throes of his "career" at UCLA:

UCLA's season, which began with so much promise and so many promises, is teetering on being a crumbling wreck.

And Karl Dorrell, the coach who returned to his alma mater to clean up the program and return it to a competitive level in the Pacfic-10 Conference, could be in the final throes of his career.

Such is the state of UCLA's football program, which responded to athletic director Dan Guerrero's statement that he would be "very interested" in watching the final month of the season by producing another discouraging outing.

Then again when I hear any phrase that rhymes with "the last throes" it gives me the creeps (no worries I will end that reference here).

But yeah staying on that theme, yesterday's game should effectively end any talk or fantasy of DeWayne Walker coaching at UCLA. This over hyped, over rated garbage is now getting exposed as a laughing stock just like his Doofus boss:

Against one of the worst running games in the nation, UCLA's defense allowed 145 yards, including Nicolas Grigsby's 124. The Wildcats (4-6, 3-4) were averaging 77 per game. In yielding 27 first-half points, The Bruins gave up 345 yards, including 96 during a three-play drive that also featured a sack.

"They have a hard-hitting secondary, but they were overpursuing so much that when I bounced back (outside), they were sucked inside," Grigsby said. "I kept looking at that the whole game."

The Wildcats scored on plays of 60and 48 yards in building a 27-14 lead at the half.

Quarterback Willie Tuitama finished with 341 yards and three touchdowns while completing 21 of 36 passes, including a 27-yard score to wide-open tight end Rob Gronkowski on the first possession of the second half to make it 34-14.

"Defensively, we had a tough day," Dorrell said. "We got hit over top of us again. They made some plays on us in the first half, and again made some plays a couple times in the third quarter. In the end, it was too much to overcome in the fourth quarter."

Actually Walker's stale Donahuesque bend-don't-and always break (unless we are taking on Notre Dame or another college team with predictable "pro" schemes) defensive schemes have been too much to overcome whenever our team has taken on any college team that doesn't use the predictable NFL offensive schemes during last two years. It should be crystal clear now (no matter what kind of "effort" we get from our defense in next three games in LA) that Walker has no clue how to handle college/spread offenses, and he hasn't learned anything from the asskicking he got last season.

More from the hapless DC:

"That was the game," defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. "Too many big plays."

Walker called it a "shocker" for a unit laden with upperclassmen who came into the season expecting to dominate.

Instead, the defense statistically ranks about the middle of the Pacific 10 Conference. Early on, it gave up too many yards against Stanford, Brigham Young and Utah.

But Walker felt his players had hit their stride recently. Even in the loss to Notre Dame, they gave up only 140 yards. And he felt they played well in spurts against Washington State last week, despite surrendering 545 yards.

It is just comedy to hear these clowns hype up that defensive performance against Notre Dame. Just absolutely comedy.

Speaking of comedy, lets end with couple zingers from the Doofus himself. On how we won the fourth quarter!:

"I'm encouraged how we played in the fourth quarter," Dorrell said. "They didn't score any points in the fourth quarter. We did. We still came up short."

The good ol' college try, though, will do little at this point to pacify fans or, probably, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.

And then what will definitely be go into the lore of all that is Dorrellian, how our losses are not mounting yet!

"It's two losses in a row, so I won't say the losses are starting to mount right now," Dorrell said. "We have a chance to get back on our feet. We're in Los Angeles the rest of our schedule, and that's encouraging for us."

Of course when you read or hear comments like that, I know it is hard not feel like you want to reach for the razor blades. But seriously, let him be at this point.

Let him continue to sound like a total buffoon infront of the whole world. Let him continue to humiliate and disgrace himself and anyone who wants to associate himself or herself with his joke tenure as the worst college football coach in America at UCLA.

For our part right now, I do believe we have to exercise a little patience. I know I would love nothing more than to have DG can this joker tonight or tomorrow and have Kezerian take over for rest of the season.  However, that is not practicable. Unless DG can convince Dorrell to resign or Dorrell has the grace and dignity to read the writing on the wall, and decides to negotiate his way out now so that he can leave with some dignity intact, we have to go through this mess next few weeks, like we did during last few weeks of Lavin.

But unlike godblesstyus95, I believe no matter what happens rest of this season, Dorrell is done. I still think DG knows better than to bring Dorrell back based on some miraculous run in the next three games. He knows that if he decides to bring Dorrell back because somehow the team puts together 2 wins against overrated ASU and Southern Cal teams, it will pretty much destroy any good will left towards him from the fanbase. If he decides to go that route, he will probably have to kiss goodbye to fundraising not just for the football program, but for the entire athletic program including raising resources for renovation of Pauley.

So what can we do for next few weeks? Well we need to keep talking to each other, speaking out, and keep the all out pressure on DG and rest of UCLA administration, that keeping Dorrell (even if beat Southern Cal) will not be an option.

If I were the DumpDorrell.com guys, I intensify the effort to get the word out. In case the money hasn't been raised for bill board, use it to buy ads in the Daily Bruin. Make it crystal clear Dorrell is toxic, and we want him gone even if we go "three and oh" rest of this season.

We just have to keep the pressure on. And I believe we will. As DD notes today Dorrell has already lost the Bruin Nation

:

It is pretty clear from the responses today and yesterday across the boards and in the papers and on radio that Dorrell has lost Bruin Nation. UCLA Bruin fans have lost interest in UCLA football and that will affect more than just our football program for years to come. This is as big a problem that Dan Guerrero will face as AD. Football is the main revenue source for our athletic department as we all know. Profits from football pay for the excellence all our other sports teams exhibit on the national scene. Without those revenues and profits we wont be a school of "Champions Made Here."

As Tracy Peterson of BruinOnlineReport notes (membership required), fan interest in sports like college football carries a lag effect. That is, it takes a few years for success to bring in fans and it takes a few years for failure to lose fans. Dorrell is already losing fans that won’t pay attention to UCLA football again for several years, and THAT will affect more than just our football program for the next few years. Next year we all know that we lose 17 senior starters, 25 seniors total, and have a brutal schedule. Next year will be a bad year no matter who is coach.

If Dorrell is our coach next year Bruin fans will lose interest period. And it will take years to bring them back no matter how successful we are. Guerrero has to have that in mind. We already experienced it with basketball … Howland - in his 5th year and after 2 Final Fours in a row - is only now getting our attendance back to where it should be. That illuminates the extent to which Lavin hurt our program. Lavin cost us millions even years after we fired him and Howland began winning again because fans needed to be convinced again that they weren’t going to be wasting their time and money again. Dorrell is doing the same thing with our football program. In some sense, it may be too late.

I do believe if not for our collective efforts (BN, DD et al), we wouldn't be where we are today.

Remember all the arrogant comments from Dohn et al. earlier in the season about "what hot seat?" Well give yourself a huge pat in the back for all the effort you have poured in to date. The momentum is definitely on our side.

The end is in sight. We just need to "finish."  And we don't need any stinking bracelets to make it happen.

We just need to keep speaking the truth.

Carry on my friends.

GO BRUINS.