Walker has done a decent job with the defense, and that’s it. UCLA needs a real live head football coach, not a wanna-be head coach. DG had better make the right decision on this matter, if not we will be having this same conversation in a couple of years!

We need the culture of mediocrity at UCLA changed. That will occur with the hiring of a proven winner. What DD writes in this post is right on the money. It’s time we try something we haven’t done in 30 years.

I agree.Someone questioned why this site was still up since we’re rid of KD.Well now is just as important as the job is only half finished.

Hear hear!!!

I’ve posted elsewhere that going with inexperienced coaches has been the demise of the BB program as stated above. DG did a tremendous job in hiring Ben Howland, and I for one am confident he will hire someone with the experience needed to raise Bruin football out of mediocrity. He gave Dorrell a chance but I’m sure he realizes he needs to go with someone with more experience this time. DW has done a respectable job as DC but needs to earn his stripes as HC somewhere else.

Put me in the camp of experienced (and good) coaches!

I was just on the Joe MacDonald Show on AM 570 and I had a solid conversation with Joe and the rest of the guys letting them know how important this hire is and how we must not continue to throw the Dwayne WAlker name or any other inexperienced coache’s name around.

They agreed, essentially. I told them that we must make a critical hire that’s going to change the culture of UCLA football.

Maybe Dan G should think most of what makes the program run…cash and fans. If we boycott the Bruins and root for them from home, the program will still lose. As a season ticket holder of 16 tickets, I’m willing to sit at home for a season and watch from home. Bring Bruin Football back…..find the coach that will make the program move forward and at the same time, keep we the fans happy.

Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska once coined the phrase in talking about US Supreme Court appointments: Even the mediocre deserve a seat on the US Supreme Court. DD is correct, when the next head coach is hired, we need to take the Athletic Department’s normal committment to hiring a mediocre sycophant out of the equation. I still believe a combinatation of Rick Neuheisel as head coach and Norm Chow as offensive coordinator is the best dymanic duo since Batman and Robin. Castor & Pollux or Romulus and Remus.

Coach Bob Toledo was one victory away from a national championship in 1998 when UCLA lost in a rescheduled game on a questionble fumble call in the Miami game. Instant replay proved the runner was down, and there was no fumble. The ref who called the play came from the other side of the field with no vision of the play to overrule the ref on the spot. Bob Toledo did not explode like he should have in that game changing bad call. He was a great coach with a heart, and the players loved him. I remember the double OT win over USC at the Rose Bowl. He was fired over youthful indisretions of his players, not becase he was a bad coach. He was often seen at Pauley Pavilion at Bball games. He was and is 10x the coach KD was and will be. If our Athletic Deparment had any courage in 1998, it would have made Miami play the game in the Rose Bowl on the originally scheduled date, and we would have won and played for the BCS title. The fault was in the Athletic Department not in the coaching that year.

Rick Neuheisel was a great QB, assistant coach,and head coach who has a brilliant football mind and is not a sycophant. He was vindicated with a $ 4 million dollar settlement in his wrongful termination over a bball pool by a former USC loyalist. Norm Chow has a brilliant offensive mind along with Four Heisman winners on his watch– Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinert ,and Reggie Bush. If OU can pay Bob Stoops over $ 2 million a year, UCLA can pay the same, and pay Norm Chow over $ 1 million as OC.

Until we build a stadium on or near campus, UCLA will alwsys be a commuter football school. I went to OU undergrad, and it is one of the most exhilirating and uplifting feelings to tailgate and be on campus and not have to drive 80 miles roundtrip and hassle the parking and the traffic to see a game. There is plenty of room in Westwood to build a stadium, and take UCLA to the next level as Pauley Pavilion did.

Hire Rick and Norm or at least one of the two.

It all goes back to the hiring of Terry D. The program was doing great until, I think it was Vermeil, left and the program was left in the lurch. Terry was an unproven assistant coach who was handed the job for the same BS reasons. The program need continuity with recruiting and couldn’t wait to conduct a real coaching search.
From that beginning we’ve followed the same path with the same results. When Donahue left we were left in the same dilemma as now. Bob Toledo was the 5th or 6th candidate. We lucked into a great coach who unfortunately ran afoul of the squeeky clean image UCLA likes to portray.
What was Toledo’s crime? He won football games and had us within a breath of the BCS championship. His downfall, a QB with a history of DUI’s that lied to his coach, a running back that signed with an agent behind Toledo’s back, and a bunch of players who figured out how to scam the DMV.
I think UCLA is still feeling the pains of when a player committed murder and the question became “How did he get into UCLA”.
Nobody screams about Sam Gilbert and the BB program. They just look up at all the banners and smile.
Tricky Ricky where are you when we need you?

Re: WSU hiring Eastern Washingolton coach. I support this hire as the AD from WSU looked for an experienced D-1 HC and found one close at hand. I am less concerned with the conference he came from than he has the requisite background. This is the type of program that KD needs to apply to. That is a viable training ground for someone who aspires to be a competent HC. Maybe DW should reach out to the EW AD and see if they would hire him as their HC.
Bill

Absolutely…we’ve TRIED the inexperienced route for a long time…imagine what bringing in someone with ACTUAL HC EXPERIENCE could do for us?

It might be a good idea to try to up the salaries available for the assistants in addition to paying market for the HC…that’s probably an issue for any potential HC anyway.