Dan Guerrero Watch: “Validates,” But Still No Absolute

When the euphoria from this game wears off and the Bruins reconvene for practice, they will be preparing for the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 27. Yet another season that will end before January. That's not acceptable to an increasingly intolerant UCLA fan base that has watched Carroll's successful run at USC over the last five years” and UCLA's futility in this matchup that predates it” and wondered why they can't have some of that success themselves. Athletic Director Dan Guerrero shares their wishes, if not their frustration with Coach Karl Dorrell. If there's any heat on Dorrell, you won't find matches in Guerrero's pockets. Fresh off the victory Saturday, Guerrero didn't say "Told you so," but he did use the word "validates" twice.

J.A. Adande of the LA Times. We are getting a lot of questions about what this win means for Karl Dorrell. We will address it in full in due time. But because J.A. Adande brought it up, even though it's so soon after the big win, we would be negligent if we did not touch upon it. We heard Dan Guerrero being interviewed on the radio immediately after the game and we have to say, he did not sound all that happy. Seriously, it was at least odd. That means nothing really, but his words do.

"We made an investment in Karl," Guerrero said. "I don't like what I see in college athletics a lot, where coaches are being replaced without an opportunity to show their stuff in a general sense. "That being said, we have expectations and we want to move this program forward. We want to compete on a national level. I understand that takes time. If I didn't think things were on the right track” I mean, look at my career. I'm not hesitant to make those decisions [referring to his quick hooks for Bob Toledo and Steve Lavin after Guerrero took the job]. But I don't see that [with Dorrell]. I saw a lot of things this year that showed that we were on the right track."

Do you want us to say it … Karl Dorrell saved his job with this win, and DG confirms it?? Even though those who love Dorrell can find much comfort in DG's words, we are not prepared to say that. Obviously, with the glow from the only big win in KD's tenure still keeping the Bruin faithful warm and cozy, the likelihood of KD being fired now, this year, is slim. But we are not going away, not now, not after a 7-5 season. That is all we will say now … we will have much more to say later. We want to point out one other thing about what J.A. Adande wrote in response to DG's quote immediately above:

It depends what parts he watched. This same Bruins team that took out the second-ranked team in the nation Saturday lost to the second-worst team in the Pacific 10 Conference 10 weeks ago. This three-game winning streak to finish the regular season was preceded by a four-game losing skid. In October the Bruins went to Notre Dame and outplayed the Irish for most of the afternoon, only to lose when the coaches became overly cautious on both sides of the ball and Notre Dame staged a last-minute comeback. That game indicated to many ” including me” that while Dorrell might be a winner (he's now 17-7 over the last two seasons) he didn't have the makeup of a champion.

And that's the bottom line … isn't it? At the end of the day, can Karl Dorrell ever make a champion out of a UCLA football team … Pac-10 champion even?? More later …

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