February 22, 2007
Rivals.com Names Walker Pac-10 Recruiter Of The Year
Rivals.com named DC DeWayne Walker Recruiter of the Year for the Pac-10. They claim he was responsible for 7 of our 10 recruits, including our top 2 Raymond Carter and Brian Price, for an average of 3.57 stars. We don’t have anything to add to what we’ve said before regarding recruiting. It was a small class and most of the recruits were committed before UCLA played one game or DeWayne Walker coached one game last season. It is odd that someone at USC, who had more 5 star recruits than the size of our entire recruiting class and who had the top or second best class in the nation, was not so honored. We have to tip our hat to Morgan Center on this one.
Next year we have 25 or so scholies to recruit for … that is when we will see who is a great recruiter. But we all know the coaching staff will not look the same then. Good for Walker, another feather in his cap. It will give him more marketability next year when he seeks his own head coaching job.
We should note, while we are on the subject, that it pains us to see messages on the boards already giving Walker our head coaching job once Dorrell leaves. Who is putting this idea out there?? Is it Walker’s people? Is it Morgan Center? We don’t like seeing lackeys greasing the wheels on this. Our P.O.V. has been the same since the beginning - we need a PROVEN winning head coach. Let Walker EARN his stripes as a head coach somewhere else first like nearly all the coaches who have won NCAA titles over the last decade plus have done. Being a head coach is significantly different than being a coordinator. We do not want to be a training ground anymore. That experiment failed with Dorrell and Lavin (ed. thank you Fox 71).
2 Comments on Rivals.com Names Walker Pac-10 Recruiter Of The Year
February 22, 2007
Fox 71 @ 7:57 pm:
A track record as a head coach should be the number one prerequisite for all of the head coaching candidates after Coach Dorrell is fired or leaves. I couldn’t agree more with DD on that point. UCLA is not the place for coaches to learn their trade. DD is one hundred percent correct that Coach Dorrell should not have been given the UCLA job to hone whatever skills he might have (and at this point it seems that his only proven skill is speaking in cliches.)
As much as I like Coach Walker for what his defense accomplished on December 2, in reality he is no different from Coach Dorrell in terms of head coaching experience.
Perhaps Mr. Guerrero will look at the difference in the Basketball and Football programs. He hired a proven winner for Basketball, and this proven winner fixed what another coaching trainee had ruined in a relatively short time. But his hire of a trainee with absolutely no head coaching experience has proven to be an abject failure. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way but expecting a different result. Why on earth would Mr. Guerrero think that the result will be different if he repeats the experiment of hiring someone with no head coaching experience and no track record?
February 23, 2007
BillSouthBay @ 11:12 am:
Well, we have been through this one more than once. I understand the previous Chancellor, Carnesale (sp?), really hired KD, and that DG was not as much in the loop…. but that is speculation on my part. In addition DG needs to bit his tongue and support KD maybe because of the politics. However, when the change in made to get KD out, or he leaves, I have to think that DG will make the next HC decision or drive it thru the admin.
Bill