October 22, 2007
TJ Simers Column About You, The Dump Dorrell Crowd
TJ Simers pretty much devoted his column yesterday to you all, "the Dump Dorrell crowd." Oddly, he was kind … well sort of. First, Simers sets up the final moments of the Cal game and how it all was on the line for Dorrell and UCLA football on one single play:
Just a minute to go in Saturday's game, and it appears (DC DeWayne) Walker's career is developing quite nicely if he wants to be a head coach. And soon.
Cal is in position to essentially end the Bruins' season, the Dump Dorrell crowd swelling, the pressure about to mount on Guerrero. One minute to go and Guerrero is standing on the goal line, arms folded, judge and jury, watching Dorrell's team. The Rose Bowl is alive with noise and excitement, as good as it gets — as horrible as it might be if all goes askew in the next few seconds.
As we said, one play - one single play - ended up being the fine line between Dorrell getting hammered for another loss and Dorrellistas talking national championship again. Crazy, manic stuff. If Guerrero is looking for one play to help him determine if Dorrell should stay, then he already should know his answer! Simers, of course the journalist, loves this stuff:
IT'S WHAT makes UCLA football so compelling these days, this up-and-down ride with Dorrell — and with so many convinced he's the wrong guy for the job.
A win here changing nothing. A loss here almost always expected. Will it ever be any different with Dorrell in command? Will the day ever come when the UCLA faithful embrace him?
Not sure if that day will ever come TJ. Dorrell was an experiment, an on-the-job training experiment that has had its time. 5 years is long enough to convince many Bruins that we have the wrong coach. But there are the lovers of mediocrity that kill any attempt to make our most visible, profitable, revenue-generating sport an example of excellence. This chasm, this "up-and-down ride," is not "compelling" … it is killing the spirit of UCLA football. Both sides of this ridiculous and unnecessary debate point fingers at the other side as being the source of the problem. It's infuriating, maddening and totally wasteful … as Simers himself points out:
IT'S SO depressing. So satisfying. They lose to the absolute worst teams out there, they beat the No. 10-ranked team in the land. They play terrible. They play great.
UCLA infuriating football, of course, as orchestrated by Karl Dorrell. It's a win over California, the worst thing possible for those "dumpdorrell.com" proponents — at least for another week — but the best finish imaginable for UCLA fans. Sometimes the very same people on both accounts.
Yes, we "the Dump Dorrell crowd" are huge fans of UCLA football. We are the fans that want excellence for our program, for our players. Beating Cal was a great thing, but we see it for what it was … a win handed to Dorrell by mistake-prone Tedford. We just don't expect Dorrell to keep winning … as TJ himself points out, inconsistency is Dorrell's calling card. Dorrell will most likely have our team lose badly again, and hopefully Dan Guerrero will finally put an end to the source of this destructive Bruin division.
TJ, of all people, should know that this is not a new problem for UCLA, which makes it even more infuriating. We've had this problem before with Farmer, Hazzard, Lavin … WE SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!! Once Dorrell is finally gone we will all look back at this period and remember how bad it was just like we do Lavin, and some of us Farmer and Hazzard. Because hopefully Dan Guerrero and UCLA will finally have learned the lesson we've been taught so many times … Make a commitment to excellence … the rewards are unparalleled!!! TJ, the solution has not changed … Dump Dorrell!



















4 Comments on TJ Simers Column About You, The Dump Dorrell Crowd
October 22, 2007
Stu @ 11:15 am:
Dorrell is a WIMP!!!!
The Cal win was SOOOOO frustrating…Dorrell continues to coach like a wimp. I mean 4th and 1 on Cal’s 40, down by 1 and he PUNTS!!?!??! Not only did the crowd boo him big time, but the ABC announcers totally called him on it…they basically ripped him to shreds for a few minutes on that call. As a fan, I always like to see UCLA win, but we ALL know we won IN SPITE of the coaching…not because of it.
JM Bruin @ 11:59 am:
Does anyone remember the loses to who Northride, and Northern Arizona, then beating the likes of #1 Stanford…
The Spirit of Lavin lives to infect Duh-rell!!
7-0 if we had a Real Coach and guess what people we’d be ranked #2 or possibly #1 right now!
Thanks Radio! But 5-2 is ok maybe we can start Putting up banners that say Pac-10 Participation Award 2007.
Bruins095 @ 4:04 pm:
what is even more distressing is the very good chance that DG and the Morgan Center crowd will not learn and may be doomed to repeat history as we have seen before. So many people asked me why I wasn’t thrilled with beating the supposed number 10 team in the country. As I stated so often, “because overrated Cal lost the game. KD tried to give Cal the victory by once again playing not to lose. Verner saves the day on bad Tedford call, 8 wins could be in order with another year of Dorrell. If DG finally wakes up and does the right thing by booting KD, will there be a cultural shift that is sorely needed with respect to the football program? Will we get excited to finally be rid of Dorrell only to see another experiment put in place? These are trying times for the blue and gold faithful.
Diego @ 8:41 pm:
I just heard tonight on the Joe MacDonald experience radio show on AM 570 (I was on talking about the game, by the way. We must identify the truth and spread it as far and wide as we can) that DG met with Dwayne Walker about possibly taking over midseason for KD. Joe MacDonald says that the reports were incorrect in terms of time. Joe says that the source he heard this information from, which apparently is teh same source that the reporter who broke news used, said that the discussion with DG and Walker centered around Walker taking over for Dorrell NEXT year.
I DON’T LIKE IT!! No more fooken coaches in TRAINING! No more coaches with scant resumes and scarce experience. FOOOOOOK DAT!!!! See what I mean, guys? I keep writing this over and over: UCLA doesn’t care about football. They’re in search of BARGAIN coaches. They want a coach that will keep us competitive, but won’t mess the program up too badly. Whether Walker is good or not as a Coordinator is of no relevance. After more than a decade with BARGAIN coaches like Bob Toledo and Karl Dorrell, UCLA REQUIRES that we put a head coach in charge that has HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE!!!! No more picking guys that need to learn on the job. This isn’t a vocational school for coaches who want to learn the profession. We’re not the family station wagon where Jr. can learn to drive by taking it for a few spins around the parking lot… or maybe we are!? Maybe that’s the way the UCLA administration looks at our football program. Maybe that’s all football is allowed to be at UCLA.
I DEMAND AN ESTABLISHED HEAD COACH! I will settle for NOTHING LESS!