When attempting to defend their indefensible position that Karl Dorrell has achieved at least some progress during his tenure at UCLA, Dorrellistas invariably cite to Dorrell's cleaning up of the football program's "underbelly" that grew out of control towards the end of the Bob Toledo era. Of course, I don't recall Toledo ever hiring buddies that had been arrested multiple times for packing firearms, but I digress.
Dohn has an interesting, but not surprising response to one of his readers questions presented for his ongoing Q&A feature:
Matt Stevens (former Bruin QB, does color during the game) said in an interview this week that Karl confided in him during the summer that he was having trouble getting this group of players to work hard. How does this team's work ethic in practice compare to what you have seen when covering other programs? Do you see Karl doing anything at practice to motivate his players to work harder? How does the tempo of the practices compare to what you have seen elsewhere (a lot is made of how much USC's 'Competition Tuesdays' keeps people working hard to maintain their positions)?
Let's see, when I worked in Connecticut, I covered a pair of Division I-AAs, so there is no comparison there. When I was in New Jersey, I did not cover a team on a daily basis, so no comparison there. As for as what is done at practice, I am not at liberty to say. That is part of being allowed into a closed practice. And on the competition aspect, it would be a bigger factor is there were backups more qualified to challenge for a starting spot.
I am moving to strike Dohn's answer as non-responsive.
I did not happen to catch that comment from Stevens. If anyone else happened to hear that interview, please chime in. If true, it completely contradicts all of the crap we heard in the pre-season about how hard these kids have worked and how committed they are to the goal of taking this program to the next level. And that all falls squarely at the feet of coach "make-a-move." Seems to me that Dorrell has grown an underbelly of his own. Yet another example of why this cruel experiment must be terminated now.
Dan Guererro: We trust that you are making preparations to jettison this fraud when the time is right.
Go Bruins!