January 18, 2007
Who’s Got Next
Who’s the next assistant coach to get the ax from Karl Dorrell?? One scapegoat might not be enough for another 6-loss season for KD. It’s sad and an indictment on the program he runs that Karl has shown no loyalty to his assistants and he has shown he will not fight for them (making Svoboda disappear after only a few games). Worse, recruits can see he is willing to put their coaches under the bus and change them every year they are at UCLA. Doesn’t say much to recruits about continuity.
As we noted earlier, we anticipate that OL coach Jim Colletto might be the next scapegoat. The OL did improve late in the season (not enough in our opinion), but the OL looked awful early on, Southpaw Jesus got beat up and hurt, and even in later games the OL looked horrible at times with so many penalties and with inconsistency. We could be wrong, but we put him at the top of our list.
Second on that list would be John Wristen, 1st year tight ends and special teams coach. There are a lot of 1st year coaches on this and every Dorrell team, but Wristen stands out for making one of the biggest blunders this year. Remember when it came out after the first or second game that special teams had not practiced live game situation plays?!! Our special teams unit underperformed all year, especially on receiving kickoffs and punts, and of course that blatant missed assignment on the blocked punt in the nut bowl. It was embarrassing.
Third on the list would be D.J. McCarthy, 1st year wide receivers coach. It’s not like he had 4 or 5 star receivers to work with, Dorrell hasn’t recruited any even though it was his position. But our receivers were horrible this year. It’s partly due to the play-calling, partly due to Pat Cowen’s poor arm and impatience and inability to give receivers time to run their routes (which is why PC should not be the starter next year - but that is another discussion), and partly due to the lack of talent at the position. Still, Dorrell looks for scapegoats this time of year and with a 6-loss season 1 scapegoat may not be enough.
We will repeat it again. It might be worth remembering what Karl Dorrell said just this past August about coaching UCLA football:
“I wake up every morning and can’t believe I’m the head coach here,†Dorrell says. “Hopefully, we’ve wiped away issues that have been plaguing us.â€
Yeah, we can’t believe you’re still head coach either. And, nope, you haven’t wiped away the issues that have been plaguing us. You are still here Karl.
4 Comments on Who’s Got Next
January 18, 2007
RL Hollander @ 9:28 pm:
An incredibly weak Karl Dorrell has used Jim Svoboda as a scapegoat and the LA media put this firing into motion early this season. The media would not recognize and accept the drop off in talent at the skill positions between ‘05 and ‘06 and Dorrell wasn’t storng enough to tell the local media that their expectations, especially after Ben Olson was injured, were unrealistic. It was just last year that Svoboda was a finalist for the Frank Broyles award, an award recognizing the best assistant coach in college football. Throughout his career, Svoboda has been recognized as one of the top offensive minds in football. Having watched Svoboda call plays over the past 20 years, “conservative” is not a word I would use to describe his play calling tendencies. Karl Dorrell should take responsibility for any conservative play calling that took place at UCLA this season. I expect that the “Bruin Nation” will regret losing a coach and person the caliber of Jim Svoboda in the future.
DumpDorrell @ 11:57 pm:
RL we feel you … but Karl Dorrell told everyone at Media Day preseason that his ‘06 team was his “best team yet.” So if the media would not recognize the drop off in talent, Dorrell had something to do with it. Sure, the recognition in the media of the talent drop off came after we crashed down to earth with the 4 game losing streak. They were looking for excuses, anything other than Dorrell being the problem. Svoboda got some of the backdraft, and maybe not all of it was deserved but certainly a good deal of it. It doesn’t matter what someone has done at another level or in another position, Svoboda is being judged on his record as OC.
January 31, 2007
John Marrone @ 4:23 pm:
Karl Dorrell has always been in over his head. Beating SUC was an aberration. The SUCsters are now saying that they’ll accept one loss every 8 years. If we keep Karl that may be fairly accurate.
Go Bruins!
Jason Mendoza @ 6:58 pm:
Right on the money -
Karl Duh-rell is our version of Paul Hackett.