The ABW (Anyone But Walker) campaign has caused a bit of a commotion and hit a nerve, and we haven't even gotten underway. People are responding positively and negatively far more passionately than we ever expected. It is a just one symptom of something larger going on. We are at a crossroads for UCLA football - the path we take now we will affect the program for a long time. We cannot take the wrong road. The feeding frenzy on the boards regarding who and what is right has reached new levels. UCLA fan sites are reporting record traffic. This is a battle for the future of the program. We know that the frustrated fan will not take any more losing seasons, so this decision Dan Guerrero makes could be a watershed moment.
The battle lines are drawn. There are those read more
University of Buffalo's football program jumped up to Div-1A 9 years ago and have had a very hard time of it. They won all of 10 games in their first 7 years in the top division, and only 8 conference games in the Mid-American (MAC) conference in their first 8 years. Turner Gill took over the program as head coach, his first HC job, last year to help turn around the program. In his second year this year, Gill took a perennial doormat, one of the worst teams in the country, to a tie for their divisional title in the MAC - going 4-2 in the conference during the regular season. Turner Gill turned a program around in his first 2 years as a head coach. read more
Editor's Note: We will have a new poll out tomorrow taking into account the recent changes in potential candidates.
How many Save Dorrell reporters and Dorrellistas were there that said what the players think is most important … and that the players wanted to keep Karl Dorrell? Even though that argument didn't work the first time, it sounded good enough to use now with DeWayne Walker. Chris Foster, LAT, writes up a piece with the same mumbo-jumbo touchy feely bs that we heard from the Dorrellistas: players love him, there's a new vibe, the players are going to win for him, and oh who can forget this one … they had a great practice! read more
DeWayne Walker has taken self-promotion to new levels in the college coaching world. And Brian Dohn is providing the stage and promotion:
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said Thursday interim coach DeWayne Walker would interview for the Bruins' vacant head coaching position, and added the school was close to hiring a search firm to help in the process.
In addition, several players already went to Guerrero to voice support for Walker as the next coach, and BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe also endorsed Walker.
"I'm flattered, and I think that says a little bit about what they think of me," said Walker, UCLA's defensive coordinator. "Hopefully, I can do a good enough job to be considered a legitimate candidate."
DeWayne Walker's press junket has hit the OC Register. In a tempting piece titled "Search list grows for UCLA," Robert Kuwada brings out the trojan horse. He starts the piece by naming all of the big names Dan Guerrero is interested in and quickly dispenses with each of them for a number of reasons. Bottom line, according to Kuwada, the search has to go wider. He covered that in basically the first 3 paragraphs. Kuwada spends the rest of the article talking about one guy, who apparently is the reason why the search list grew: read more
TJ Simers must be losing relevance. For the third time in 2 weeks he has resorted to attacking DumpDorrell.com and our mission. WTF?? Is he looking to start a fight with a blog?? Weak. More importantly, he still doesn't get it. This site is not about Dorrell and never has been. This site is about excellence in UCLA football. That is is why we aren't talking about Dorrell anymore. We are focusing on what UCLA football needs now … and Dorrell is irrelevant. We will have more to say on this later as an addendum to this post.
We are overcome with so many thoughts right now … we are almost at a loss. We take no pleasure in firing a good man. But Karl Dorrell leaves UCLA over $6 million richer in just 5 years. As much as no person likes being fired, Karl Dorrell and his family will be fine. We do, however, take massive pleasure in knowing that our football program is alive again! We have a chance to make it great again as a new era begins. read more
It all is so right … the Dorrell era coming to an end. We will be playing in the Las Vegas bowl … the same bowl we got an invitation to the year Bob Toledo was fired. The symmetry is nice. There hasn't been this much excitement in UCLA football since 1998. People are excited about the replacements for Dorrell, vote here, and potentially heralding a new era of excellence. The money is also there to make it happen!
We will not know today about Dorrell's fate officially apparently, although we are getting conflicting reports on that score. Dan Guerrero does have plans to meet with Dorrell this morning, according to Robert Kuwada OCR. What happens next is anyone's guess, but a couple of sources have Guerrero waiting until after the Wednesday night season banquet. Waiting really doesn't make sense to us but those are the reports. There is no doubt however that Dorrell is gone.
We thought we'd offer The List of Dorrell's record as UCLA head coach, updated, just in case there are some wackos out there who still think UCLA football is where it needs to be with Dorrell at the helm (HT to Fox71 at BruinsNation, also a Bruin Ad contributor). Here it is, the final word (and we are keeping it short): read more
We read TJ Simer's latest attempt to Save Dorrell late last night when it was first published online. It appeared in today's paper and we have received a lot of comments and emails regarding the piece. Simers obviously is butt hurt by our comments here at DD, and comments by so many on the Bruin internet, regarding his lame flip-flopping attempts to save Karl Dorrell that he can't just let it go. Truly, we have said enough about Simers and unlike Simers we felt that the story has moved on … and it has. But since many of you are asking about it, we will address TJ's comments about DumpDorrell.com: read more
We are going to put our first poll up on replacement candidates. We have put some names up that are being talked about and are in the mix. READ about some of them here, and here, so you can make an informed selection. We have excluded the obvious bonehead choices such as DeWayne “Hey Look At Me” Walker and Ken Norton. The obvious shocker on the list is Lane Kiffin. Believe it. His name is going around the coaching circles like wild fire. Rumor has it that he hates working for Davis and wants back in the college game and it was he who leaked his own name to search firms. Kiffin is reportedly interested in UCLA and Arkansas. As for the poll, you can make MULTIPLE picks on this first round. We will have more definitive polls in later rounds. You can vote only once.
