Last week we wrote a piece on how Dorrell was losing control of his program: players were openly questioning play calling, players were beginning to make “coach’s decision” their pat answer to questions, recruits were decommitting or talking to other programs, assistant coaches were talking to Dan Guerrero about their future behind Dorrell’s back, practices were unfocused and lacked effort, etc. etc. Chris Foster of the LAT today is now pushing that same theory, that Dorrell is losing his grip on the program. He starts off by quoting LB Christian Taylor:

This has stopped being about winning, in Taylor’s view. This isn’t about the Pacific 10 Conference football title anymore. It isn’t even about whether Bruins Coach Karl Dorrell is retained. “At this point, it’s just about playing football,” Taylor said.

No longer about winning … sounds like the morale of this team is about as low as one can go. Sounds like Dorrell doesn’t have them believing in his “we got to get better” inspirational speeches. To give you a sense of how bad it is Taylor doesn’t even care about the future of the program anymore:

“To us, we’re gone anyway,” Taylor said. “You guys always talk about Coach Dorrell’s future, but we got [25] seniors and yeah, you want to leave a good legacy. But we have no control over that, so why worry about it? It’s up to the athletic director. Obviously if we win, he won’t get fired. But we’re not winning.”

Sad. Dorrell has taken something special away from his own players, their pride in the program, the memories of a great experience, the desire to keep the program at its best even after they leave … let alone any talent development that might have gotten a few of them to the NFL!!! So what does Dorrell say about yesterday’s game?? Check this out, this is a new twist:

“I’m encouraged how we played in the fourth quarter,” Dorrell said. “They didn’t score any points in the fourth quarter. We did. We still came up short.”

Uh Karl, you didn’t “answer the bell” … didn’t you hear it? You didn’t “coach hard” enough. Got to give Dorrell credit for something. He is about the only coach out there that can consistently come up with head scratching quotes. Great that the 4th quarter was so encouraging, since Arizona basically played a different game because they had such a wide lead. This is pathetic, maybe Chris Foster meant that Dorrell was losing his grip on reality. Christian Taylor at least hasn’t lost his grip on reality:

“You talk about goals, then we lose to these teams. You lose to Notre Dame, and I don’t know if they’ve won since. You lose to Utah, you lose to Washington State, their first win in the Pac-10, now we lose to Arizona. It’s ridiculous.“

Yes it is ridiculous. Thank you Christian for making the point we have been making for some time. Trey Brown had a similar view about Saturday’s game that pretty much summed up DeWayne Walker’s performance:

“It was horrible,” cornerback Trey Brown said of Arizona’s 27 first-half points. “That’s not our mentality. That’s not our style.”

Horrible is another good word. If this isn’t convincing you that Dorrell is losing control then we don’t know what will. Maybe Bruce Davis, the outspoken defender of Dorrell who again said Saturday that this loss is not on Dorrell but on the players who put on the pads, can convince you:

“We got three games left to prove ourselves,” Davis said. “Whatever will happen at the end of the season will happen. Hopefully, it will go in favor of Coach Dorrell. . . . If we don’t get it, there’s nothing he can do about that. It’s on us.”

Even Davis has resigned himself to the fact that Dorrell might have lost it. If Dorrell’s biggest supporter on the team, Bruce Davis, Dorrell’s biggest supporters in the press (Daily Bruin, Trev Alberts), and Dorrell’s boss (Guerrero) openly questioning the remainder of the season, does not show you that Dorrell has lost any and all credibility in and outside of the program then nothing will. We have long thought said that ‘07 was Dorrell’s last year and we are closer to that happening than ever before. But we cannot take it for granted that it will happen. We must keep on the pressure. Go Bruins!!

Bookmark to: