Dohn continues to make excuses for Karl Dorrell's underachieving reign in the UCLA football program. He posted the last two installments of his Q&A sessions this past weekend (Part III and IV). Once again couple of excuses stuck out like a sore thumb.
First, Dohn made excuses for how assistant coaches are not being paid enough:
During Dorrell's tenure at UCLA, he has seen an entire gaggle of assistants leave or be terminated. Is this unprecedented in college football to have this number of assistants leave a program? What are your thoughts on the reason(s) for these defections? Is Dorrell a very difficult person to work with? Is it the salaries? The school colors??????
I love the school colors part because I believe you either love the powder blue or hate it. Seriously, though, it is mostly financial. From what I understand, USC’s assistants still laugh at the salaries of some of the UCLA assistants. And if you’re a coach like D.J. McCarthy (and forget whether he is good or not because this is just an example), he was living 45 non-traffic minutes from campus, working 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the season making about $130,000. He is now at LSU, living five minutes off campus, with the chance to make twice as much and can live in twice the house for half the money. I think the carousel will continue, with good coaches leaving for jobs that are more family-friendly.
Well I am not sure who Dohn is hearing from but it is interesting that he went back to the excuse of assistant coaches are not making enough just a day before he himself asserted that "the staff is making more money than ever." And his using D.J. McCarthy as an example (even though he tried to attach a weak disclaimer) is beyond laughable. If you look at the circumstances its not unreasonable to conclude that McCarthy left UCLA for something other than financial reasons [Dohn himself wrote about McCarthy's dog and pony show at UCLA]. The dude seemed to have been pushed out. It certainly looked like he was scapegoated. He was a joke as WR coach, as it was one of the most messed up units in a messed up Dorrellian offense. So to assert that a coach like McCarthy left UCLA because he wasn't making it financially is just a sorry excuse and it is just pathetic that Dohn had to go that route.I love the school colors part because I believe you either love the powder blue or hate it. Seriously, though, it is mostly financial. From what I understand, USC’s assistants still laugh at the salaries of some of the UCLA assistants. And if you’re a coach like D.J. McCarthy (and forget whether he is good or not because this is just an example), he was living 45 non-traffic minutes from campus, working 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the season making about $130,000. He is now at LSU, living five minutes off campus, with the chance to make twice as much and can live in twice the house for half the money. I think the carousel will continue, with good coaches leaving for jobs that are more family-friendly.
Dohn then also went on to provide another contradictory response in Part IV:
How secure is Dorrell's job? I hope he succeeds this year, but do you think there is a minimum number of wins he needs to garner to sustain his job into 2008?
I think eight wins would make things very interesting, but it is contingent on injuries and the happenstances of a season. One thing I do know is the administration is pleased he has cleaned up the off-the-field image of the program, and there is a belief that the academics make it a challenge to win 10 games consistently.
Uhm. Notice something here? Just couple of days ago he was setting the bar at 8 wins saying, "If UCLA doesn't win at least eight games, there could be trouble." And now he is saying 8 wins will make things "interesting." Whatever. I think it is kind of clear Dohn is not thinking through these responses at this point. He seems to be going through motions chortling out boilerplate responses. Kind of disappointing. Oh well.I think eight wins would make things very interesting, but it is contingent on injuries and the happenstances of a season. One thing I do know is the administration is pleased he has cleaned up the off-the-field image of the program, and there is a belief that the academics make it a challenge to win 10 games consistently.
Lastly, there is a nice read on Bruin RG Noah Sutherland in his hometown newspaper in Virginia Beach. Noah certainly seems to have the right mindset heading into this upcoming season:
"We're hoping to win a Pac-10 championship," Sutherland said. "And with everybody back, even compete for a national championship. I don't see anybody we should lose to. If we take care of business with the talent we have, it should play out pretty well for us."
Noah must have been reading BN? No?GO BRUINS.