It is heartening to see fairly overwhelming majority of this community is expecting Dan Guerrero to hire a football coach with head coaching experience.
On this point DumpDorrell.com has a great post on Morgan Center's track record from last 40 years:
The culture of mediocrity that dominates our football program is deeply ingrained and institutionalized (Bob Fields, Don Morrison, Peter Blackman, Terry Donahue). If you look back at all our head coaching hires over the last almost 40 years (!) you can see it plain as day. Let's take a look
Great question.- Karl Dorrell (2003-2007): No previous HC experience, was a WR coach in NFL at time of hire, had OC experience in name only.
- Bob Toledo (1996-2002): Minor HC experience (3 years at tiny Pacific years earlier (76-78) and signficant OC experience at UCLA, Texas A&M and Oregon.
- Terry Donanue (1976-1995): Insignificant asst HC experience under Pepper Rodgers for a few years at Kansas, then a few years at UCLA.
- Dick Vermeil (1974-1975): A few years assistant at UCLA under Pepper Rodgers.
- Pepper Rodgers (1971-1974): 3 years HC experience at Kansas (15-16).
- Tommy Prothro (1965-1970): 9 years HC experience include at Iowa St. and Oregon St. Led OSU to 2 Rose Bowls and a Heisman QB. Assistant under the great Red Sanders for many years incl. NC year 1954.
And here we are as we are waiting for the UCLA athletic director to hire our next football coach, once again we are hearing and reading about a concerted campaign that is pushing for yet another experiment of bringing in someone who has never been head coach at any level. And if you think there is not a huge movement for CHOKER then you are simply being naïve. If you don't believe just how many idiots are clamoring for CHOKER just follow the link in this diary and just take a look at this crazy screenshot of BRO's premium board:
Yeap, for some absurd reason a sizeable segment of UCLA fanbase want to dive into yet another experiment simply because of the desperate short sighted hope of holding on to a recruiting class and to an overhyped self promoting defensive coorindator, who arguably is not even the best defensive coordinators in last twenty years of UCLA football.
Yet again we have some UCLA fans waxing poetic about the dreaded "P" word. They are talking about these guys' potential as a recruiting magnet, their ability to lead, and their expertise in the technical aspects of the game. It's the same load of BS they sold us when they were hyping up Karl Dorrell.
Now I get that DG is conducting this search in `golden silence':
None of the football coaching candidates have made any public statement, not even to beat writers in the cities covering those teams.
Why?
UCLA AD Dan Guerrero is telling the guys not to talk to the media about the search, who is interviewed, or how the interviews are going, according to sources.
I get that this is really his search as he has reportedly not delegated it to losers like Bob Field (although his name keeps popping up everywhere). But to be honest with you based on the public information we have at our disposal this search is feeling a lot like the last one, when we kept hearing uninspiring names like Robinson, Riley, and Dorrell for days, while we all kept hoping against hope that DG had someone else up his sleeve.Why?
UCLA AD Dan Guerrero is telling the guys not to talk to the media about the search, who is interviewed, or how the interviews are going, according to sources.
All I know is at the end of the day if we get served up with either Walker or CHOKER, DG will be responsible for poisoning the atmosphere of UCLA football to such a extent, it may take decade or more to undo the damage.
So let's hope there is really someone else besides names like Walker, CHOKER or some no name loser with "impressive bloodlines" on DG's tap. Because if the final choice if any of those three, it will be Guerrero who will be in our cross hairs. Not to mention picking any of those guys with zero head coaching experience will leave them in charge of a football program with zero breathing room from thousands of alums and students who read Bruins Nation.
We are sick of going round and round and round routine of mediocrity of last forty years. And if you are sick of this BS routine PLEASE make sure to email Dan Guerrero at dguerrero@athletics.ucla.edu and Chancellor Gene Block at chancellor@conet.ucla.edu, and let them know respectfully and politely that neither CHOKER (Chow + Walker) nor Walker will be acceptable at UCLA. If you are an alum or student please indicate your graduating class in your emails. As always feel free to post your email in the comment thread to share with rest of BN.
GO BRUINS.