November 6, 2007
The Final Gasps: Bob Keisser Shames Himself To Save Karl Dorrell
It looks as though the we are in the last gasps of the Dorrell era as we are beginning to see final desperate attempts by some to plead for more time for Dorrell. The most prominent and ugly being Bob Keisser of the Long Beach Telegram. In what has to be one of the most hypocritical self-serving articles by a sports writer in a long time (more on that below), Keisser pulls out the race card:
But there are other numbers that loom even larger when UCLA and Dorrell are viewed in a much wider context. UCLA has one African-American head coach, one of just six in Division I-A football.
Aside from being a hypocrite, Bob Keisser acted irresponsibly here. First, he actually starts the article by pointing out that Dorrell’s record stands on its own as not worthy of the position he’s been entrusted with. After listing much of Dorrell’s horrible coaching record, Keisser points out clearly, “That’s what one would call a numerical mandate for change.” Yeah, we obviously agree. So why race bait?? What about our hiring of an undeserving, inexperienced, in-over-his-head football coach who happened to be black? What about our great proud history of diversity, perhaps the greatest of any university in the nation and in the world?
UCLA is a school with perhaps the richest history of accomplishments by African-Americans in academic and athletic areas, the kind of blueprint any chancellor would want to maintain.
Ok, we’re with you Bob, so what gives? Is that your way of establishing credibility so you can throw the race card??
Short of hiring Tony Dungy away from the Indianapolis Colts, there’s going to be a massive sense of loss if, or when, UCLA decides it can’t go any farther with Dorrell in the competitive, high-dollar world of college football … the firing of Dorrell and his staff would represent another kind of loss.
Yeah, ok firing Dorrell will be a loss, but so was Lavin … a DESERVED one (as were Toledo/Farmer/Hazzard - he is black, what .. no mention of him?). Where is the value of hiring equally if you cant fire equally? We will answer that below. It’s irresponsible for Bob Keisser to bring up the race card when he himself admits in his column that Dorrell does not have the RECORD to keep his job. That is a clear cut case of race-baiting. So, again, why is Keisser doing it:
There aren’t a lot of head coaches who would manage more than a .500 record in a season in which the two most experienced quarterbacks and two best running backs and one of the best receivers are injured more often than not. But the UCLA faithful can’t make that distinction. Whether they like it or not, there’s going to be a distinction to Dorrell’s fate. There’s simply no gray area when your head coach is African-American.
WTF??!! So that is your grand reason Bob?!! Your reason for race-baiting is injuries??! It’s a lie. That is a bold lie Keisser makes right there … and we will tell you why. It’s not what you think. It’s obvious that the UCLA faithful can make the distinction that Keisser says we can’t. We see a PATTERN over 5 YEARS of failure to reach the goals set out for Dorrell, not just a few games saddled with injuries! Patterns that Bob Keisser himself reported on a year ago!
That’s right, what makes Bob Keisser a self-serving hypocrite and a liar is his own article on “Dump Dorrell” nearly 1 year ago to the day. Bob Keisser, in prime self-serving mode even then, was the first reporter to openly state that Dorrell was on the hot seat. He rushed to be the first, and we even said back then it was a little oddly bold, to give himself a little internet glory. He got internet glory at the time, but now he will regret it … because we will reprint how Bob Keisser called out Dan Guerrero for KEEPING Karl Dorrell when there was, in his own words, “a PATTERN” of failure already:
But your football fan base is without question as animated as Iraqi naysayers and environmentalists on global warming. And they do not want you to “stay the course” with football coach Karl Dorrell … It’s all about patterns, too, and we’re not talking about anything Junior Taylor will run today. The Bruins were 6-6 in Dorrell’s first season, 6-7 in his second, and are staring at 4-8 in his fourth, which makes the 10-2 mark in his third look like the anomaly. No one would have ever predicted that the Bruins’ game against the Beavers this November would be the most important game of Dorrell’s career, but it clearly looks like a tipping point.
Bob Keisser makes no mention of “loss” if we dump Dorrell then, no mention of fans being unable to make distinctions between losing then and having inexperienced players like we did at the time, no mention of race being an issue. Dorrell has gone 8-5 since Bob wrote that article and has lost in embarrassing fashion to Utah with our starters (a winless Utah team that was playing backups at QB, RB, WR and OL and mostly underclassmen), still-otherwise-winless Notre Dame, Wazzu, Arizona, and Florida State. Seems like more than one “tipping point” to us, the national media and just about everyone else.
So, when did race suddenly become an issue for Bob? What happened in the last year to change his position on the idea of firing Dorrell being about race?? Nothing … obviously. The only conclusion you can draw is that Bob Keisser is at it again, looking for some recognition by hitting some emotional hot buttons. What a shame it is for Bob Keissel to write this self-serving hypocritical tripe now given what he wrote then.
Here is why Bob Keisser’s race-baiting is irresponsible and destructive. What Bob is doing is making it HARDER for deserving black coaches to get the shot at head coaching they should get because university administrators and board of directors are going to second-guess their hiring knowing that the race card will be brought out to save even an OBVIOUSLY mediocre coach such as Bob Keisser has done with Dorrell!! Bob Keisser you should be ashamed of yourself!!
15 Comments on The Final Gasps: Bob Keisser Shames Himself To Save Karl Dorrell
November 6, 2007
WHP '68 @ 8:41 am:
DD:
Easy big fella, you’re getting a bit too energized here. Keisser’s column is one big non-sequitur: Dorrell has a poor record; UCLA has a rich tradition of blacks and minorities as sports figures.
So?
..it seems that Keisser loves to hyper-politicize everything. His original column compares Dorrell’s .500 record to a “failed policy in Iraq” and now he wants to play the race card? Besides, didn’t Martin Luther King once wish that people would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character?”
WHP '68 @ 8:51 am:
..by the way, can anyone tell me what “CTS” means? It is used as a nickname for Dorrell and I can’t quite figure it out?
Thanks in advance!
DumpDorrell @ 9:15 am:
yes Keisser is over politicizing it … thats the problem. We have too great a record for that.
CTS = Coach Toledo’s Successor. A BruinsNation poster came up with that because he no longer wanted to even acknowledge Dorrell has coach (he calls Lavin CHP = Coach Howland’s Precedessor).
M. Smith @ 9:20 am:
Race should be irrelevant to this decision. If he is the color of a tangerine; who cares! The bottom line is he has been a failure as a coach and leader. His teams do not improve throughout the year and they have recurring lapses of focus. The important question; is UCLA committed to do what it takes to elevate the program to a premium level? If the answer is “yes”, then the alumni will have to reach into their collective pockets and pony up to provide the resources to hire not only a successful head coach, but a successful staff as well. If the answer is “no”; there is no reason to fire Dorrell as any other unproven coach will have similar results.
M. Smith @ 9:26 am:
e40wada…..are you KD’s brother-in-law. Concerned the gravy train will stop? Your reasoning is that of loser extradinaire. Osbourne and Wooden teams beat the teams they shold beat. There is no disgrace in losing to better teams with better athletes. The disgrace of both Lavin and Dorrell is their teams regularly lose (lost) to teams with inferior talent. Well coached teams rarely lose games they should win.
DumpDorrell @ 9:48 am:
Ewada has been hiding in sheeps clothing … whatever … he is gone. We deleted his ridiculous comments because if we kept them it would distract from the important discussion going on. His point that Wooden took “15 years to win a championship” has been rehashed upteen times. That was a different era when ticket prices weren’t as outrageous as coaches salaries, and people had job commitments for life. To expect the 15 year job commitment in today’s world, real world or sports, is ridiculous. End of story. We wont rehash this again today.
mikey @ 10:01 am:
AND…The more we ignore these “local” sports writers the more irrelevant they will become. Keep paying attention to the race baiters and sure enough Jesse and Rev. Al will jump on board and then the real mess will begin.
e40wada @ 10:02 am:
One last point to make M.Smith. As T.J. Simers pointed out today, KD is 15-2 at the RoseBowl with injury depleted teams. The only year he had a healthy team for most of the season was 2005 where he went 10-2. Can anyone tell me what was Terry and Bob’s record at home over the same period????
I’ve been reading all year that this isn’t racially driven or motivated, but yet this is starting to smell alot like NOTRE DAME stinch. That had blatant racail undertones.I dont remember hearing of such up-roars for Donahue and Toledo’s removal until after their 5yr on the job.(correction, w/ Donahue it was after his 15thyr on the job)
Can someone please explain the difference?????
bruinhoo @ 10:43 am:
e40:
Too young to have been around for most of Donahue’s years, but have heard him recently say that he felt his job to be in jeopardy if he did not beat sc in his 5th year.
As for Toledo, you may recall that in his 2nd year, he finished the season with a 10-game winning streak and a quality bowl win (Cotton Bowl v. TAMU). His 3rd season saw a genuine run for the national championship, ending with a Rose Bowl appearance. Such a level of recent success will typically buy a coack a couple years of breathing room, as Toledo received for the ‘99 and ‘00 seasons (years 4 and 5).
BruinSince1968 @ 11:48 am:
perhaps you’re too young to remember it: but people were calling for Doanhue’s head in 1979 when they lost to $c for the 4th straight year…
Louis Miranda @ 12:18 pm:
e40wada your just plain stupid. You have your nose up someone’s behind or you are a Trojan fan. Stop making excuses for Karl Dorrell and his staff, namely Dewayne Walker. You whine about injuries. Guess what embecile? Most teams have injuries this time of year and the good ones still beat the teams they are supposed to beat. Are you on meds or where you born this stupid; either way stop writing on this site. It’s for Bruin fans you gutless piece of shit!
Leonard Feebowitz @ 2:14 pm:
Color is no issue; if Dorrell was plaid he would still be a loser. He needs to ‘learn on the job’ at a community college instead of shit-canning a once-proud program. He turned the school into a joke and the only thing that saved his ass was beating SC last year. –Lon
Ndugo P @ 6:07 pm:
Why is race even an issue if NORM CHOW is our next head coach???
How many Asian coaches are there in Division I sports???
jeff @ 8:38 pm:
o.k. whether dorrell is black,green,purple! his color has nothing to do with him being fired what-so-ever. it is based on his teams not being ready to play,losing to horrible teams, his record against ranked teams,and his horrible knack for evaluating talemt! race has no merrit regarding coach dorrell. anyone who says otherwise is F’ing stupid! on another note. I was listening to Loose Cannons today on A.M.570 Steve Hartman threw out that the coach from Boise State “Pederson” would be a great coach! Imagine what he could do with Ucla’s talent!? Sound of Bruin Fans! what do you think!? Perderson would be awesome!
Bruce Nagy @ 9:29 pm:
I consider myself a “Dorrelista” UNTIL THIS SEASON….the column by Keisser is an insult…he is pathetic, politically correct hack….everything I have ever read on this site seems to start with “Dorrell is a great guy, Dorrell is really nice guy”…..I have NEVER, NEVER heard anything racial in the stands or at tailgates….people liked it when Karl was hired…..forget emotion, Coach Dorrell made a fatal mistake….he decided that a form of the West Coast Offense would work in college….four offensive coordinators later…this pass first, finesse, not physical style of play DID NOT work….it worked for one season when strong-armed Drew Olson ditched the damn thing and brought the team back from HUGE deficits at WSU, Stanford…unfortunately, he couldn’t overcome 52-14 and 66-19 deficits at Zona and USC….Injuries, Bob Toledo overcame the loss of Corey Paus and Olson to go with Frosh Matt Moore and go 8-5….he was fired by Guerrero and humiliated when he asked to coach the Vegas Bowl…Merry Christmas to Bob….Keisser’s column insults me…it is a disgrace.