Postgame Arizona State: Glorifying Inferiority

If you want to prove you are 'getting better' beat a good team, BEAT SOUTHERN CAL!! It's sad when coaches think they can prove they are getting better after a 4 game losing streak with wins against average, inconsistent and injured teams and with a lousy 6-6 season. We play the same way against Southern Cal as we did the last two games and we will get blown away, again. Moreover, it is Lavinesque to get a couple of meaningless wins in the middle of overall futility and be happy about it. The difference with KD is the happy talk doesn't raise false hopes. Great coaches and great teams don't gloat like this. Who really thinks Karl Dorrell is a great coach?? Who really thinks Karl Dorrell can take us to the next level??

UCLA won and the team deserves credit, especially given the loss of Cassel. But hearing gloating and that happy talk again is never a good sign. We win a game with three plays, and Karl Dorrell beat out Dirk Koetter for Mediocre Coach of the Year honors, that is about what we have. While KD gets no bonus for such coaching honors in his contract, and DK soon gets shown the door, KD now gets another week, or two, of media praise for a '2-0' season and for making the team 'better.' That is what we expected, a team and beat press estatic about a 6-6 season and a middle of the Pac-10 finish. Not exactly what Dan Guerrero had in mind when he hired Karl Dorrell. 6-6! Just as we predicted losses to Washington, Oregon, and Cal, and easy wins against Oregon State and Arizona State, we know that this horrible offense of ours, and average defense, we will lose to Southern Cal.

It pains us to say it, but we are calling it like it is. Arizona State and Oregon State have average defenses playing inconsistently. 260 yards against OSU and 270 yards against ASU is not going to be enough against good defenses and good teams like Southern Cal. 100 yards offense in the first half in both games will not get it done. Without those two big pass plays, we get less than 200 yards against ASU. Our offense was non-existent for most of the game.

"This is a great win," KD says to the press. Great win? Against ASU? This is what me mean by glorifying inferiority. A great win is a win on the road against great teams (this year it would have been Cal) or at home against Southern Cal. Dorrell needs to do something big first, THEN say it's great. Who is impressed by 6-6? Who says 6-6 is great?? It's sad to see this. This is what you hear from an inexperienced coach who has never won a big game. Beating an average, inconsistent, injured ASU whose coach is about to be canned, at Sun Devil stadium where their fans are booing their own team, is not something great coaches gloat about. Our defense played well, but ASU's offense is not that good so excuse us if we again are not drinking the cool-aid. We have been here before. Hold Cal (didn't do that), hold Oregon (didn't do that), hold Notre Dame (didn't do that), hold Washington State (at home, didn't do that), hold Southern Cal and THEN gloat.

With all this happy talk coming back, we are reminded of the losses. Let's not bring them up again, we are 2-0! It must make those pom poms across the way snicker at watching our coaches and beat press go gaga over unimpressive wins against bad teams. They know better. They are running a winning program, despite their methods. This euphoria at 2 straight wins will be met with more rationalization and blame-gaming after another loss to Southern Cal. The same rationalizations and blame-gaming we saw during the 4-loss streak. But we have two weeks before that time to gloat, to swim with joy in this sea of inferiority. Let's get some game notes out of the way … more later.

Game Notes

• Dorrell gets his first road win this season. It is NOT a road win against a team with a winning record. That is a full season record statistic. So, ASU must beat Arizona and stay above .500 for KD to get that 0-10 mark off his illustrious record.
• Many are making a big deal of wins against Rice, Utah, and Arizona, now that those teams are above .500. They conveniently forget that Utah and Rice play in vastly inferior conferences. And the Pac-10 is having a very bad year this year, getting beat up in non-conference games en route to a 15-9 record against Div 1A teams.
• After losing to Southern Cal, UCLA may still have the upper hand in getting to the Hawaii Bowl, something the coach couldn't be more thrilled about. Hawaii Bowl officials would take UCLA over ASU, UofA or Wazzu.
• The best we can finish in the Pac-10 is tied for 4th. The worst we can finish is tied for for 6th. Again, not exactly what Dan Guerrero had in mind when he hired KD. Not exactly what was written on the blue bracelets our team wore for half the season, "Pac-10 Champions." Not exactly what is written on KD's shirt on a lifesize cardboard cutout in BruinWear in Ackerman still to this day, "Champions Made Here."

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