Ryan Young from LAist, who is also an alum BLASTS the incompetent clown:
Ordinarily, I think it's foolish to pull a Chicken Little and react so strongly to just one game. Unfortunately, this demoralizing scene from Salt Lake City has become too commonplace to just dismiss it as a fluke. Instead, it confirms the fear that this coaching staff simply doesn't have what it takes to get the UCLA football program back to elite status. I said last year that Dorrell was running out of chances. He's out of chances now. It's certainly within the realm of possibility for the Bruins to rebound from this debacle and have a really good season. But I seriously doubt that anyone who watches the team closely realistically holds on to that belief. More likely it will be just another five-loss season, and hopefully the last with this head coach. Nothing personal Karl, I would really like for you to succeed, but unfortunately we can't wait forever for you to figure it out. Not that you ever would anyway.
Before the season started, I had been joking about the state of the football program with one of my friends over IM. We were taking our shots at Dorrell while quietly holding out optimism for a good season. My friend made the ultimate insult of comparing Dorrell to loathed Bruin basketball coaching flameout Steve Lavin. While I don't think that's an entirely fair comparison, given how greasy and undedicated to the job Lavin was, the results have been eerily similar. Both guys had numerous embarrassing, unprecedented losses, led their teams to generally perform below expectations every year, yet somehow to did just enough to keep their jobs by surprisingly winning a couple of high profile games and having some cosmetic success (in Lavin's case, his run of Sweet 16 appearances; in Dorrell's case, the 2005 season and the USC win last year). But while they were allowed to keep their jobs, the programs that they ran were slowly getting run into the ground. And without a drastic move, the football program will continue to flounder.
If I sound pissed, it's because I am indeed FURIOUS. Sure, football is just a game. And these are just kids. There are many greater injustices in the world happening every day where this ire should be directed. I agree. But it is a personal affront to me and every other person who has invested time, money, and energy into the wonderful institution known as UCLA to have to be associated with such crap. It is insulting to watch people wear the Bruin name and not be prepared and focused, week in and week out. We don't expect to win every game. We do expect that our players will be put in the best possible position to succeed in football and in life, and carry forth the appropriate amount of effort to make that success a reality.
Last week, I went to an alumni event honoring incoming undergrad scholarship recipients in which legendary softball coach Sue Enquist, part of eleven national champion teams as a player and coach, was the keynote speaker. She exhorted the new students to work to become champions in whatever field they were going into because that's what it means to be a Bruin. At UCLA, we build champions.
If there's one thing to be taken away from Utah 44 UCLA 6, it's that as long as Karl Dorrell is running the show, there will be no champions built on the gridiron. Not just in terms of wins and losses, but in the way the game is approached, the way the game is played. No, Karl wasn't the one that made all of those mistakes on Saturday. But the disgraceful performance was a direct reflection of the leadership from the top. Or lack thereof.
Meanwhile, Brian Dohn's predecessor at the Daily News - John Wilner from San Jose Mercury News - becomes one of the first reporters from the traditional media to shred the Thinker of the Pac-10:
Before the season started, I had been joking about the state of the football program with one of my friends over IM. We were taking our shots at Dorrell while quietly holding out optimism for a good season. My friend made the ultimate insult of comparing Dorrell to loathed Bruin basketball coaching flameout Steve Lavin. While I don't think that's an entirely fair comparison, given how greasy and undedicated to the job Lavin was, the results have been eerily similar. Both guys had numerous embarrassing, unprecedented losses, led their teams to generally perform below expectations every year, yet somehow to did just enough to keep their jobs by surprisingly winning a couple of high profile games and having some cosmetic success (in Lavin's case, his run of Sweet 16 appearances; in Dorrell's case, the 2005 season and the USC win last year). But while they were allowed to keep their jobs, the programs that they ran were slowly getting run into the ground. And without a drastic move, the football program will continue to flounder.
If I sound pissed, it's because I am indeed FURIOUS. Sure, football is just a game. And these are just kids. There are many greater injustices in the world happening every day where this ire should be directed. I agree. But it is a personal affront to me and every other person who has invested time, money, and energy into the wonderful institution known as UCLA to have to be associated with such crap. It is insulting to watch people wear the Bruin name and not be prepared and focused, week in and week out. We don't expect to win every game. We do expect that our players will be put in the best possible position to succeed in football and in life, and carry forth the appropriate amount of effort to make that success a reality.
Last week, I went to an alumni event honoring incoming undergrad scholarship recipients in which legendary softball coach Sue Enquist, part of eleven national champion teams as a player and coach, was the keynote speaker. She exhorted the new students to work to become champions in whatever field they were going into because that's what it means to be a Bruin. At UCLA, we build champions.
If there's one thing to be taken away from Utah 44 UCLA 6, it's that as long as Karl Dorrell is running the show, there will be no champions built on the gridiron. Not just in terms of wins and losses, but in the way the game is approached, the way the game is played. No, Karl wasn't the one that made all of those mistakes on Saturday. But the disgraceful performance was a direct reflection of the leadership from the top. Or lack thereof.
This was supposed to be a big year for the Bruins and their 20 returning starters. That would have made it a big year for Dorrell, who entered his fifth season in Westwood with a 29-21 record that wasn't as impressive as it looks (and it doesn't look all that great).
The Bruins have been .500 -- or within one game of .500 -- in three of his seasons.
In the fourth, they were 10-2 because Drew Olson and Maurice Drew were around to bail them out of tight games ... until the Bruins were exposed as a fraud in a 52-14 loss at lowly Arizona.
If not for a handful of how'-d-they-do-that comebacks in 2005, Dorrell would be hovering around .500 for his tenure, which isn't what the Bruins had in mind when they hired him to compete for Pac-10 titles. [...]
[A]t some point, the coach has to coach -- really coach.
It seems to me that any grand plans for 2007 are essentially shot. At 2-1, having struggled more than they should have against BYU and then with the Utah loss, the Bruins look like the sixth or seventh best team in the Pac-10.
They look like a 7-5 team, and that's with all those returning starters and that supposedly vaunted defense.
If Dorrell can't win with this team -- if he can't get a veteran team to play hard each week -- you have to wonder just how much he can win with any team.
At this point personally I don't care whether UCLA fires Dorrell at this moment of time. It would be preferable if Dorrell and his incompetent and worthless coaching staff resigned as a group this week. However, we know that is not going to happen. These losers are too freaking shameless to do that.The Bruins have been .500 -- or within one game of .500 -- in three of his seasons.
In the fourth, they were 10-2 because Drew Olson and Maurice Drew were around to bail them out of tight games ... until the Bruins were exposed as a fraud in a 52-14 loss at lowly Arizona.
If not for a handful of how'-d-they-do-that comebacks in 2005, Dorrell would be hovering around .500 for his tenure, which isn't what the Bruins had in mind when they hired him to compete for Pac-10 titles. [...]
[A]t some point, the coach has to coach -- really coach.
It seems to me that any grand plans for 2007 are essentially shot. At 2-1, having struggled more than they should have against BYU and then with the Utah loss, the Bruins look like the sixth or seventh best team in the Pac-10.
They look like a 7-5 team, and that's with all those returning starters and that supposedly vaunted defense.
If Dorrell can't win with this team -- if he can't get a veteran team to play hard each week -- you have to wonder just how much he can win with any team.
What would be ideal is for UCLA to let the public know that Dorrell and his entire coaching staff would not be returning to Westwood if and when it becomes clear that UCLA will not be winning its first Pac-10 championship since 1998-99. UCLA can allow the coaching staff to finish out the season (like Florida did with Ron Zook few years ago) and focus on getting the permanent replacement, as soon as the target candidates are available for direct talks. However, I understand the practical arguments Bruincore laid out in Dump Dorrell's radio interview today wrt to "political costs" of firing Dorrell now. That's a pretty good point. Although if DG were to make such a bold move, we would do everything we can to back him up.
Still what is really important for me right now is that Dan Guerrero should be polishing up all the groundwork he should have been doing following the debacle at the Emerald Bowl.
I believe UCLA needs to severe all ties with Dorrell even if we somehow miraculously win the Pac-10 or win 8-9 games and beat Southern Cal.
It doesn't matter. Dorrell needs to go.
So I hope DG has his options 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3b, and 3d all lined up on paper for his hiring process at the end of the season, and executes that plan as soon. And BTW he cannot leave that "hiring process" up to some Donahue lackie such as Bob Field. That will not work.
Anyways, as a fellow alum Ryan Young pointed out above so eloquently, "he's out of chances now." It's not a matter of if any more, but when. We hope DG is doing his homework and the right guy is ready to step in when the moment arrives.
Meanwhile, on our end we need to keep up the pressure, and do what we need to do let it be known we never ever want to go through the nightmare we have gone though for last five years, and during those dark and depressing seven years of Steve Lavin.
GO BRUINS.