CollegeFootballNews.com’s Pete Fiutak tells us something reaaaaaaaaaally original:
What’s the toughest place to coach in America? Alabama? Sure, the pressure is ridiculous, but it’s like that everywhere in the SEC. Notre Dame? Sort of, but outside of a few academic issues, Charlie Weis has every advantage in the book. No, the toughest place to be a head football coach right now is at UCLA.
It’s a major media market without pro football (keep your Reggie Bush comments to yourself), so until the Lakers get rolling, all the focus is on USC and UCLA. Of course, the unattainable success of the Trojans under Pete Carroll jacks the expectation levels to unfair proportions, made only worse by a very rich, very powerful, very demanding alumni base that can only take so much abuse from their University of Spoiled Children friends and co-workers. And then there’s the overall UCLA expectation level, with all the success in various sports, the resurgence of the basketball program, and the all-timer success under John Wooden. (Unfortunately, there’s no Sam Gilbert for the football program.) This is a place that always demands winners. Karl Dorrell is in a tough spot, and if he gets canned, the job search will make the latest search for an Alabama head coach seem like an audition for America’s Next Top Model.
Yeap. That’s the kind of mendacity we used to get from blowhards like Bilas, Phelps, Katz, Vitale and horde of other "pundits" in the national media during the Lavin days about how UCLA basketball fans were bunch of meanies (feeding into the talking points served up by the worst (and perhaps the sleaziest) coach (scumbag) in the history of the game) who would never allow a competent coach breathing room to prosper and be successful at UCLA.It’s a major media market without pro football (keep your Reggie Bush comments to yourself), so until the Lakers get rolling, all the focus is on USC and UCLA. Of course, the unattainable success of the Trojans under Pete Carroll jacks the expectation levels to unfair proportions, made only worse by a very rich, very powerful, very demanding alumni base that can only take so much abuse from their University of Spoiled Children friends and co-workers. And then there’s the overall UCLA expectation level, with all the success in various sports, the resurgence of the basketball program, and the all-timer success under John Wooden. (Unfortunately, there’s no Sam Gilbert for the football program.) This is a place that always demands winners. Karl Dorrell is in a tough spot, and if he gets canned, the job search will make the latest search for an Alabama head coach seem like an audition for America’s Next Top Model.
But let’s get to the meat of Fiutak’s stupid and asinine comments.
We have written time again how historically UCLA has been a top 10-15 program. That is where UCLA should be year in and year out basis, given the access we have to the incredible talent pool from Southern California. Sure Southern Cal is the football school and they are on a phenomenal run (notwithstanding Pom Pom’s shenanigans). But still there is no excuse for UCLA not to be the second best recruiting program out of Pac-10 in a year and year out basis. Even a moron like Dorrell can haul in recruiting talents once every four years. If UCLA had a competent coach, he would be able to do it on a yearly basis.
As far as UCLA football fans putting unreasonable pressure on the football program argument is concerned, Fiutak is smoking some serious crack. Can you imagine if Karl Dorrell was a head coach at some school in the SEC or the Big-10 program? I can guarantee if this poser somehow found himself as a coach at another BCS school from the aforementioned conferences he would find himself in the top-3 of this list. Simply put the alumni and students in those schools would not stand pat if their programs were getting blown up by schools like Utah and getting embarrassed on an annual basis in the hands of programs like Fresno State or Wyoming. They wouldn’t be understanding and ok with that kind humiliating defeats, while rest of their athletics programs were excelling and competing for national championships.
Pete Fiutak also prove himself out to be a complete ASSCLOWN with the Sam Gilbert dig. Any college sports observe who has a shred of clue (and is not connected to sleazy figures like Jerry Tarkanian, cough***Wetzel***cough) would not make ridiculous assertions that Gilbert somehow helped Coach Wooden with his recruiting. We have eviscerated that bullshit here, here, and here. You’d expect that kind of smear from lying, cheating, corrupt scumbag Trojans, not paid "pundits" who butter their bread by opining as impartial observers on college sports.
Looping back to my point above. Yeah, I get the fact that Lavin and Dorrell are different cases because UCLA basketball is not the same as UCLA football. But the point here is the same. For almost three decades following the departure of Coach, we heard BS opinions from national and outside observers about why UCLA basketball would never be successful again because of unrealistic expectations, poor facilities, salary issues, academic excuses on and on and on.
The same way Coach Howland has eviscerated and shredded those narratives, we expect there is a credible head coach out there, who will come in, reestablish our football program as a perennial top 10-15 program and put us in position to compete for Pac-10 championships on a yearly basis (while competing for NCs every once in a while) on the field, instead of hype we get to read year and year out in off-season articles.
And if a coach comes in here and attain that kind of success and live up to those reasonable expectations, it is a no brainer that this Nation will embrace and revere him just like Coach Ben Howland.
We have heard over the years from a number of sources we trust that college football coaches around the country recognize the appeal of UCLA head coaching job. There are folks out there just like Ben Howland who recognize UCLA football is a sleeping giant, and are waiting in the wings to take advantage of it when our Karl Dorrell nightmare is over.
Meanwhile, if any of you see nonsense like what Fiutak wrote on CFN, please bring it to our attention, or better yet call these stupid takes out in our diaries and shred them to pieces.
GO BRUINS.