Someone set the great inspirational speech by Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday to some of UCLA sports greatest moments. It’s a great video that makes you proud to be a Bruin. Contrast the message in it about “fighting for every inch … claw with your fingernails” … to the message put out by Dorrell and his team:
- “They’re understanding that it takes them to be hard on themselves … to achieve great things.” Dorrell on ESPN All Access
- It takes them to learn to “(play) with your best rep, each time you get a rep to do something.” Dorrell on ESPN All Access
- “You can’t win every game.” UCLA football player in UCLA Alumni magazine recently
- “I didn’t believe it until the clock hit zero” Dorrell speaking to Seattle reporter about beating SuC
- “We have a lot of room for improvement … we have been inconsistent … there is potential” UCLA football player on ESPN All Access
It’s a game of inches. This kind of attitude just doesn’t cut it on the field or in life. There is a time and place for reflection, for working through issues. This team of veterans, 20 seniors and 20 returning starters, should be done with all that “learning” and “growing.” Going into this special season they should be talking about “fighting for every inch.” We just don’t get the mindset of this coaching staff and team. As Pacino says, we can’t do it for you Karl. Watch the video Karl!! (HT to PSBruin66 at Bruinzone)
Remember the ESPN All Access segment about UCLA football back in May that was shown on ESPN SportsCenter?? In that segment Dorrell sounded weak with his usual Dorrell-speak dropping cliches like they were stink bombs. So did a couple of our players who basically apologized for losing this UPCOMING season. Well, that’s all changed. Check out this video of our football coach giving words of wisdom on how he builds his football team and how to have the attitude to win. It’s one of the best motivational/inspirational segments we’ve watched in a long time.
Yeah, yeah, it’s not Dorrell, but we can dream. It’s Urban Meyer … who COULD HAVE BEEN our coach. We are not fans of Florida but how can you not like what this guy is saying? How can you not wish Dorrell had a fraction of this guy’s determination and ability? We could have had him!! (HT to JWBruin at Bruinzone)
We are heading into Media Day next week and Training Camp with a bunch of mixed signals. Last year that really wasn’t the case. Last year at this time we were coming off a suprising 10-2 season, with a typical late-season meltdown. There was the predictable excitement in Bruin Nation and many fans thought that ‘06 was THE year, even though we lost some star players. Media Day last year was about the hype Dorrell and Morgan Center were spinning .. the “best team yet” … “this year is going to be special.”
We at DD didn’t buy a moment of it. Neither did the experts, who all pretty much had UCLA finishing in the middle of the pack in the conference. We KNEW that it was going to be a bad year and that Dorrell would do his usual scapegoating. And we were right. So were the experts. Consensus expectations were met as the standard Dorrell mediocre season unfolded.
This year is a different story, there is no consensus. This year the hype is muted, inconsistent and countered by a growing criticism in the MSM about the job Dorrell is doing (finally). Major outlets are saying that we will go 11-0 heading into the Coliseum or that we will win only 6 or 7 games. Some are saying Dorrell is on the hot seat, or calling Dorrell one of the 5 worst coaches in college football. There is no consensus on our pre-season rankings either. Experts rankings are all over the map. Some have us finishing #6 in the conference, some have us ranked #9 in the country, and yet others have us as a sleeper pick to win a national championship. Morgan Center of course is out hyping - they printed in a mockup of the Spring preview sent out to journos that we would win the Pac-10 and beat SuC by 20 points at the Coliseum this year.
But none of that makes sense. By now read more
Former UCLA great basketball player Sakuragi is expected to play for the Japanese National Team at the FIBA Asia Championship in Japan, a qualifier for the Olympic Games, according to The Japan Times. Sakuragi, as you all know, was a freshman standout for the incredible ‘95 team that brought home to Westwood our 11th national title in hoops. Who can forget the clutch free throws Sakuragi hit at the end of regulation against top-ranked Stanford at the Farm early that season?!  And who can forget the all-star freshman tandom of Bailey and Sakuragi during the NCAA tourney that year?! Sakuragi … wait … who??
J.R. Sakuragi … that’s who … formerly known as J.R. Henderson. Now that we cleared that up … let us explain. J.R. had a great 4 years at UCLA and landed at the Grizzlies for one year in the NBA. He has been playing in Japan since 2001 and has done quite well for himself. Apparently, he’s been seeking Japanese citizenship for some time (the Japan Times article does not say why) and finally had it granted to him July 2, just in time to play for Team Japan at the FIBA Asia Championship. So J.R. Sakuragi may get to play in the Olympic Games for Japan, although it’s a long shot. Only one team will get the invite, and Japan hasn’t made it since 1976. There is also this matter of the Chinese team …
Best of luck to a UCLA great .. J.R. by any name .. Bruin and Champion!
Note: China, as the host country, gets the automatic bid so Japan does have an easier road.
There is this ridiculous video of Pee Wee Pop Warner football that we found for you folks. You will not believe what you are about to see. These are 8 YEAR OLDS!!! Running complex offensive sets like they are pros. The focus of the video is an 8 year old phenom by the name of Cody Paul #5 who has some awesome moves, breakaway speed and toughness. But it’s not just Cody Paul who impresses in this video, it’s the entire team. Seriously, watch the offensive plays (the entire video) and tell us that Dorrell’s WCO looks better!! We know, it’s ridiculous to be talking about little kids, but we are not talking about recruiting them. We are in awe of their cohesiveness, discipline and brilliance at running complex offensive plays. And it looks like they are having a great time. Pop warner never looked like this when we were kids. It may be too late for this season but Dorrell and Training Jay might want to check this video out and learn something.
Cody Paul
According to Brian Dohn, Daily News, UCLA came in second to Stanford “in the competition for the Directors’ Cup, which is presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors, USA Today and the U.S. Sports Academy.”
Congrats to all UCLA athletes and all the programs that showed the excellence of the UCLA community. Here is what Dohn quotes Dan Guerrero saying of our 2nd place finish.
“Our goal at UCLA is to have a broad-based program that is nationally competitive in all of our sports,” UCLA AD Dan Guerrero said. “Our placing in the Directors’ Cup standings, combined with the number of programs we had in contention for NCAA titles this year, is a tribute to all of the student-athletes, coaches and staff members who contribute to the overall success of the program.”
Nicely said. Nationally competitive in all sports. That would include football. Are we nationally competitive?? We all know the answer to that. 29-21 … 3rd place in our own conference being the best we’ve done in the Dorrell era, and we did that only once … is NOT nationally competitive. It’s not competitive within our own conference!! Let’s hope DG means what he says.
More from Dohn: “UCLA finished second to Stanford (1,429), with North Carolina (1,161.33), Michigan (1,135.25), USC (1,103.5), Florida (1,064.25), Tennessee (1,045.75), Texas (1,037.25), California (1,030) and Arizona State (1,005) rounding out the Top 10.”
This is going to be the coolest post you will ever see on DumpDorrell (besides maybe the one that’s going to say,”Its official Dorrell’s gone”). Check out this badass American soldier and hard core UCLA Bruin (no name until we get his approval to use his name) at Sather Air Base in Baghdad, Iraq, wearing an official “Save Football Dump Dorrell” t-shirt in that iconic powder blue. His brother Sean, also a hard core Bruin, had this to say about the picture, “Real Men Wear Powder Blue!!” Truth!! This pictures says it all!
We have our little job to do here at DD, but it obviously pales in comparison to what our soldiers like this great Bruin are doing in Iraq and other places around the world. A huge hat tip to this UCLA Bruin bruiser and thanks to all of our soldiers, Bruins or otherwise. Thank you for your service to our country.
We are getting emails wondering where we are … we are still around. We have been busy with business trips all over the States and are taking advantage of the calm before the football season to take a breather.  Still we haven’t been totally away from DD.  You will see some changes this summer to the site that we are currently working on, including a site redesign (nothing too much) and some new functionality that will allow anyone to write a post on the main page.
There have been some things happening that we would have liked to comment on, including our great 100th national championship!! We love that the football team, like all teams, will be wearing the “First to 100″ patch all next year. We can’t think of a better reminder to Karl Dorrell about what everyone else is achieving at UCLA that he isn’t.   There have been a few articles about football that are finally recognizing the situation Karl is in. We will join that chorus again soon enough, and it will get louder as the Summer wears on. So, enjoy the beginnings of Summer and look back here for non-stop coverage come June.
As always, Go Bruins!!! First to 100 baby!!!
It will be interesting to see the blowback from the Ohio State loss to Florida. Ohio State loses by just as much as we do to Florida, and we all know how the media crucified our program for it. What will they say about Ohio State?!
Florida had a very well-balanced returning starting 5 who won the championship last year. Three of their players could be getting significant minutes in the NBA next season (although some think Noah will go to the WBNA). They are the better team period. And we lost to them twice. We would have matched up better against Ohio State AND Georgetown, and would have had better games because of it. But that is all speculation because obviously those games won’t be played. And next year we will look very different with a true big in Kevin Love. We will not forget how the MSM treated UCLA however.
Congratulations to Florida … they will be a shell of the program they are now after this year. Donovan would be stupid to turn down Kentucky, and we dont think he is stupid. We, however, will be back to the top of the heap and will be for the foreseeable future … a bright one with a great coach.
Interestingly, one basketball “guru” is saying that Florida would own UCLA 99 times out of 100: John Wilner of .. well who cares. The MSM keeps repeating their own hype so much they start believing it themselves.
The two worlds of college football are at odds again concerning UCLA football and Karl Dorrell. There is the MSM reporters and columnists love affair with Karl Dorrell no matter how awful his numbers are and then there are the analysts that don’t give Dorrell any respect. We saw it last year with the MSM hyping Dorrell to challenge USC for the conference title while analysts had us finishing no higher than 4th. We know how last season turned out, 7-6 and 4th in the conference during an average conference year. The analysts, including DD, were right and the MSM were left with only the win over SC to fuel the Dorrell hype.
Now, analysts have our ‘07 pre-season national ranking all over the map with 4 ranking us top 20 and 2 not ranking us at all, but one analyst, ESPN’s Greg Schlabach, doesn’t even have us finishing in the top 2 of our conference next season. You may recall that Schlabach is the only analyst saying that Dorrell is on the hot seat in ‘07. But it may be even more significant to point out that read more
