In the Dorrell era, where not much is what it’s claimed to be, a myth prevails that this year’s team is young and that explains the awful season, despite all the claims that this year’s team was Dorrell’s best yet. Anyone remember the bracelets the team wore at the beginning of the season with the inscription, ‘Pac-10 Champions’? Those were cut off in mid October! And what about those “Champions Made Here” shirts? We don’t see KD wearing those anymore either. They’ve been replaced with the steely determination to “finish strong” and to “go 3-0″ to end the season in 6th place in the Pac-10.

The excuses for this year’s season, like the team being young, never showed up in those glowing early days when prognostications of a big year were certain. Now the excuses are repeated like spiritual mantra for the foresaken. The youth myth is an especially hallowed one. It’s a myth pushed by Dorrell lackeys and apologists on the bulletin boards as comfort food for those who are content with lower standards. It’s the source of the greatest elixir for the brainwashed fan and the greatest tranquilizer for the enslaved fan that ever existed … wait ’til next year!

The truth is this team is plenty experienced and filled with upperclassman (breakdown below). A good coach would have them performing well now. A great coach … well. This year’s team will make next year’s team senior-heavy and will give the Dorrell apologists grist for the mill, as even an average coach will take them to 8-4 in the regular season. Yes, we will end up 8-4 and again not come close to winning the Pac-10, or playing a BCS Bowl, or beating Southern Cal (who lost more starters than any other team in Div 1A this year and are younger than our Bruins) - all goals Dan Guerrero set out for the program when he hired KD. Next year’s exodus of the huge senior class will leave the team barren in 2008 for another run at Dorrell’s worst record yet. And we know what we are going to hear from the apologists then …

But back to the myth-busting. Much thanks to a poster on another board (we lost the source link, if someone knows it please let us know), here is the breakdown of this year’s team (with minor corrections).

There is this myth around Bruin circles that UCLA has a young team. We do not. We have in all phases of our game (offense, defense, and special teams) the following break down. I put down backup players who currently have (or have had) seen significant time playing.

Starters
4 Seniors (Taylor, Chai, Hickman, Medlock)
14 Juniors (Pitre, Markey, Breazell, Sutherland, Joseph, Tevaga, T Brown, Horton, Keyes, Van, Whittington, Taylor, K Brown, Davis)
4 Sophomores (P Cowan, Paulsen, Hale, Lombard, Perez)
2 Freshman (Lanis, Carter)

Backups with significant time
2 Senior (Willis, McNeil)
6 Juniors (Dravogic, Snead, Harwell, Everett, Williams, Abraham)
6 Sophomores (Olson, Bell, Moya, Ketchum¸ Lockett, Bozworth)
2 Freshman (Verner, Chane Moline)

Returning Next Year
1 Senior ( J Cowan)

A lot of this year’s starters were starters last year. Half of the guys playing are Juniors.

And let’s not forget that we only have 8 or 9 scholarships for next year (anyone with source info on that please let us know), so we are not going to be able to refill easily for 2008.

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