October 13, 2007
Ah … What Might Have Been
Editor’s note: ASU beat up on Washington to take sole possession of 1st place in the Pac-10. UCLA is in 2nd, one half game behind.
With Cal and LSU losing, following a third straight crazy week of football, only one big-time BCS school remains undefeated, Ohio State. Had we simply beaten two pansies in Utah and Notre Dame, we would be ranked probably #2 in the nation! Karl Dorrell and his merry band of kool-aid drinkers would probably be wearing those Champions Made Here shirts with pride (incidentally, its odd how Dorrell is not seen in any of those shirts this year!). So, we are now looking at sole possession of 1st place in the conference if Washington holds onto its lead (up 17-13 at the half) over final undefeated Pac-10 team Arizona State. The worst we could end up today is a half game out of the lead in the conference in 2nd place.
But that’s meaningless as we all know. We have to still play the top teams in the conference. Still, you will hear about the conference lead all week. Its the last stand at the OK Coral for Karl Dorrell … we can still win the conference. Cal is going to be pissed at the way they lost today to OSU, and at the fact that they very well could have regained the #1 ranking in the country tomorrow, something they haven’t sniffed for something like 60 years!! Oh .. what might have been. Ha!! Here we were waiting to hear from Cal fans arrogantly proclaiming that they didn’t really care about the Rose Bowl (a place as foreign to them as a championship is to Dorrell) because they only play for national championships. Ah well. Cal usually spells the end ‘O-c-t-o-b-e-r’ so nothing new under the sun.
But Cal will be pissed, and this team’s true character will come out against our Bruins. If they are champions they will look to destroy Dorrell and they will. If not, Dorrell can steal a win … ridiculous as that may seem. No no no. Wait. We claim temporary insanity. Anyhow, we will begin our usual end of season slide next Saturday. As mellotti2 on BruinsNation said, “it seems that the only day that is good for UCLA football is one in which the team doesn’t play.” Stay tuned.
p.s. If you want a classic Save Football Dump Dorrell t-shirt by the Cal game next Saturday get your order in next Tuesday! We are running out as well so we cannot guarantee there will be any left.
4 Comments on Ah … What Might Have Been
October 13, 2007
Steve @ 9:16 pm:
Why we must keep the heat on: Email to TJ Simers:
You continue to attack Karl Dorrell notwithstanding the circumstances or his past accomplishments. Didn’t you look at the stat sheets for Saturday’s UCLA game vs. Notre Dame? UCLA beat them statistically. That shows that the team was prepared and ready. No team could overcome those turnovers and inept play of the freshman quarterback…
There are still nuts like these out there.
October 14, 2007
whp '68 @ 9:53 am:
Prepared, my ass.
Tell him a team that was prepared and ready to play would not commit as many penalties as UCLA did - especially in mid-season. They would have given their third-string walk-on more reps to prepare him (because he is now second-string and because the guy in front of him has a bad leg). USC, facing a similar situation this week with Booty, “dumbed down” its offense so Sanchez could run it. They just barely eked out a win over Arizona, BUT THEY RECOGNIZED THE SITUATION GOING IN AND DID NOT BLOW IT OUT THEIR ASS LIKE DORRELL’S STAFF DID.
UCLA was playing against a team that was, essentially, the 100th (or worse) team in the nation based on their stats; like at Utah, with the exception of several flashes by the defense, they played flat and uninspired ball. Through the previous four years of his tenure, Dorrell has shown no consistency and overall philosophy and does not seek to raise the program to a higher level. He seems content to garner the prospects who naturally accrue to UCLA owing to the location and attractiveness of the school, and then squanders this talent in a chaos of pathetic coaching, inadequate physical training, and overall lack of vision save for the blandishments the staff mouth like “Champions made here”..
..more like “chumps made here.”
October 15, 2007
ucla2k3 @ 12:10 am:
I know this is water under the bridge but if we had beaten Utah and Notre Dame like we were supposed to, we would be #1 in the Coaches poll and #2 in the AP poll. I clearly remember that right before the SLC massacre we were ahead of Ohio State in the coaches ranking but behind them in the AP poll.
WHP '68 @ 11:34 am:
You are correct!
..and any coach worth their salt would have their team prepared and ready to take advantage of such opportunities. The BCS is a treacherous crap-shoot. One misstep and you are out of the hunt. USC is not a shabby team — worthy of our emnity, perhaps, but not shabby. They got tripped by Stanford and played a lackluster game at Arizona and — wham! — they’re #14.
A truly good team will be coached tio play above it’s abilities; all we ask is that our kids play up to their abilities and the talent not get squandered. You do that with a program and, like you correctly pointed out, you will be in the right spot at the right time.
Compare and contrast Howland’s program with Dorrell’s.
No contest.