Dump Dorrell

CSTV has an interesting piece about Karl Dorrell and the team with the kind of optimism you’d expect at the start of the season. But CSTV played it fair, noting that many fans are not satisfied with the job Dorrell is doing. We have to give them credit for that, which is something we here at DD have not had the opportunity to do often. And it’s not because they gave us a nod in the piece. CSTV:

If Karl Dorrell was going to lead an orchestra of UCLA fans, he’d probably only get half to listen.

We agree with that assessment. It’s fair, and yet both sides of the Dorrell divide (no one questions that Dorrell has divided the faithful) can argue against it. There is something there for everyone.  CSTV goes on to mention that what the other half is listening to basically is the kind of tune being served up here at DD:

Plenty of fans, such as those at DumpDorrell.com, are still grumbling even though Dorrell has shown signs he’s developed his rhythm as a head coach.

Dorrell may have shown signs he’s developed a rhythm but more importantly he has cemented signs that he’s not up to the task of reaching the standard Dan Guerrero and Dorrell himself set for the football program, no matter what rhythm he’s developed.  And that is the bottom line.

The pre-season rush article also has a few good quotes from players that sounds like they are ready to play to win, even if Dorrell tries to dampen expectations with his “factor in the conference” and “learning how to practice” inspirational quotes.

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According to an article on Yahoo Sports, it looks like the players feel the same way we do, that this season it is BCS or Bust (HT to Nestor at BruinsNation). We, of course, add Pac-10 championship to that expectation, but it's good to see that the players know what they can do.

In talking with the players' it is BCS or bust in 2007. The players' have high aims for the coming season. What was notable is they are approaching the season one game at a time. More than one player said that anything less than BCS will be a disappointment. That kind of mentality is important. These guys want to win and they want to win a lot. Anything less will not be tolerated. This is the first time in the Karl Dorrell regime where there will be solid depth across the board.

We agree, anything less than a BCS bowl should not be tolerated. Nowhere to hide, no more excuses! Too bad Dorrell couldn't speak with the same confidence as his players at Media Day last week, saying only that the team has "worked very, very hard to get ourselves in the position to factor into the Conference race." Huh?! Looks like the players expect more than Dorrell. Having been embarrassed by his own misplaced optimism the last 4 years (including having the team wear ridiculous bracelets with "Pac-10 Champions" on them last year), and in fear of losing his job, Dorrell downplayed expectations this year, as we expected. Pathetic. This rah-rah article, by the way, was written by Rick Kimbrel of BruinBlitz writing for Rivals.com and published on Yahoo Sports. Last week he wrote a touching piece on how Eric Scott is a great man and he should be reinstated. Just a little bias there.

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Editors Note: Sign the petition, and get your DumpDorrell tshirts for the Southern Cal game.  If Dan Guerrero does not get rid of Karl Dorrell this year he won't be able to until the end of the 2009 season at the earliest! So, get the word out!

The euphoria of getting to .500 last week against OSU has created even more hyperbole in Westwood this week, if that is possible for a 6-5 team that just beat a mediocre ASU. Our players and coaches are calling the win over hapless Arizona State, "Huge!" They are talking about how at UCLA "the expectations are you go to a bowl game."  Here we thought it was  championships and the Rose Bowl, not the Pineapple Bowl, or whatever it's called.  That is what  Dan Guerrero thought too when he hired Karl Dorrell … he said something about (more…)

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Predictably, the team and coaching staff are talking up this win against Stanford as a return to form, as part of the growth process, as knowing they would come around.

“We talked about finishing the game at halftime and that’s what we did,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “What can I say about our defense?”

“We showed we improved on what happened last week,” Dorrell said. “I think this team will make a big push now.”

“We never got frustrated, we knew the offense would come around,” Horton said. “We had a excellent week of practice and we came out and played like that tonight.”

Finishing the game?  How about PLAYING the game?! 0 scores by our offense at halftime coach.  How does a team “finish” a 0 score performance?  Our offense finally put points up with less than 3 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter … against the worst defense in the country.  As we predicted, KD said “we improved on what happened last week.”  We can write the script for his press conferences, seriously.  He is that predictable.  The players looked frustrated Horton, sorry, we can see their faces clearly on high definition, and BO admitted as much.  Getting booed off the field at halftime by your home crowd can’t possibly be a confidence booster.  The defense did look great, much better than years past and even last week, when they allowed Washington to move downfield with ease for a victory.  We question their pre-eminance KD, until they play a quality offense, and that is not Stanford.

The only person associated with UCLA football that actually acknowledges what we are all seeing, and not just talking happy talk, is Ben Olson.  He had a third consecutive poor outing (due in large part to poor preparation by the coaching staff) and yet we feel more confident of his improvement than anyone else:

“We’re stopping ourselves,” Olson said. “It’s not like anyone is overwhelming us. It’s just frustrating, very frustrating.  A couple of those balls got away from me.  I have no excuses. I have to get better, particularly in the red zone.”

BO is not drinking the cool-aid, not thinking happy thoughts.  That’s why he has the best chance to improve.  The rest of the team, particularly the coaching staff, are not looking at the picture we’re seeing realistically, and that is a troubling sign, as we warned before Rice and Washington.  Happy Thoughts Don’t Move Chains, and we will be reminded of this against better teams than the likes of Rice and Stanford, as an average Washington has already shown us.  As Nestor at Bruinsnation put it, the Stanford win was an ugly, pathetic, inconsistent, unwatchable offensive performance.  We are not happy with it.

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The fallout from two consecutive embarrassing games continues Monday. Even the beat press is starting to turn on KD. We would like to point out a number of odd and troubling signs, some we have already noted, emerging in this pivotal 4th year of the KD era:

1. Irrational exuberance: KD calls this team his "best team yet." Odd bit of chest-thumping given that last year's 3rd place Pac-10 team lost its top passer, its top rusher, its top receiver, and its top yard-gainer and returned one of the worst defenses in the country. We raised this issue weeks ago, calling it a "foreboding of a graceless fall to Earth." We believe we are seeing the fall to Earth., and points #4 through #8 show how the fall has been graceless. We will return to this point many times.
2. Irrational exuberance #2: Coaches allow players to predict Pac-10 championship at press day. Great show of confidence, but odd given point #1. Shows coaches are not controlling expectations, and when you don't do that and disappointment comes, you get a deterioration in the morale of the team and of the relationship between coaches and players (points #6 & #8). It would have been better had the player said, "we expect to compete for the Pac-10 championshp."
3. Irrational exuberance #3: Rush to make public Happy Thoughts of a return to glory. Morgan Center rushes to issue PR and get beat reporters on "best team yet" euphoria, proudly pronouncing, "Watch out, USC - Dorrell is making UCLA a threat again." Forcing the issue now into bold comparisons of champions given point #1 shows that the program is feeling pressure, a lot of pressure. If they had the goods, they wouldn't feel the pressure. Bad sign.
4. Lack of Preparation: Utah game showed our special teams had problems. We find out later that coaches never practiced special teams with live coverage. We see this again later with practicing the offense against the blitz, we'd never practiced against it. Very odd considering opposing coaches are expected to test "rookie" QBs with blitzes. We had two weeks to prepare for Washington and looked unprepared for red zone execution. Bad signs that coaches are not doing their job and are not anticipating well.
5. Gametime coaching: Poor, predictable, and conservative play calling (especially in the red zone); offense confused by blitzes and defenses; continued special teams problems; poor use of the talent on the team; seemingly no adjustments in game to the situation on the field; no aggressive or creative play calling during critical moments in the game; and a near loss at home to one of the worst teams in the country who played their backup QB - signs of weakness in our coaching staff.
6. Coaches publicly blame players: Postgame Rice & Washington, troubling trend of coaches publicly blaming players for loss and poor play. Coaches Dorrell and Svoboda single out BO as being responsible for red zone problems and being confused by blitzes. Postgame Washington, coach Walker singles out player as REASON for loss.
7. Coaches complacent/aloof: Odd postgame demeanor by coaches after two consecutive disappointing performances. No urgency in their voices, and they display a complacency and aloofness regarding the program. Odd since KD says this is his "best team yet" and that they expect to win the Pac-10 and yet they are having trouble playing weak teams.
8. Players openly question coaches: Postgame Washington players are now publicly questioning the judgment of the coaching staff, a troubling sign.

As this continues, it's going to be harder for KD to pull out his "rebuilding year" trump card and get any sympathy. More later …

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The Rice game showed that Karl Dorrell’s enthusiasm at the start of this season is not rooted in reality and that this season remains one in which he has to prove himself. In the short term, yesterday’s disappointment also calls into question the credibility of the Utah win and makes a win at lowly Washington suddenly an uncertainty.

When KD said that this was the best team he’s had in his four years one could just see Guerrero’s staff at Morgan Center tripping over themselves to get a press release out and get the beat reporters to cover it. “Watch out, USC - Dorrell is making UCLA a threat again,” began the PR and one article. Was this reasonable expectations for a program coming off a record, and breathless, 10 win season, or, a foreboding of a graceless fall to earth and reality?

Happy thoughts of a championship, a Pac-10 championship, permeated training camp. Players openly talked to the media of winning the Pac-10 this season with the admiring approval of the coaching staff. Confidence and ambition are admirable, and we as fans love it. But, as Kevin Modesti of LA Daily News pointed out, when a non-championship team loses its top passer, its top rusher, its top receiver, and its top yard-gainer and returns one of the worst defenses in the country, it’s difficult to take such happy thoughts seriously. And no expert did. This year the Bruins are expected by most polls to end up in the middle of the pack, of the Pac-10, fighting for a bowl game in some Southern swamp in the middle of December.

So that brings us to yesterday’s embarrassing performance against Rice. Lavin-like Dorrell supporters will make the case that “a win is a win” and point out how our running game has improved. For a 4th-year coach that is not fair. What’s fair is to take a look at his record and how he himself measures the progress of his program. The “best team he’s ever had” has just almost lost to one of the worst teams in the country; a team KD’s lesser team last year beat quite handily. Worse still, Rice has a new coach who last headed a program in 2000, as a high school coach, and he used his backup QB to nearly beat UCLA. If only KD did as well in his first two years as a head coach we might be singing his praises. We all know that the problem here was UCLA and not the rise of lowly Rice.

Predictably, KD’s assessment of the game carries the positive note:

“There’s disappointment when you have high expectations,” UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said.

We don’t blame KD for being positive or for having happy thoughts. That trait is admirable were it not for the glaring deficiency of his assessments of the up-coming season and this game. High expectations do not only come with one good season. High expectations come with coaching at UCLA! Unfortunately, there are more problems with this program than just this game against Rice. KD could have pulled the “rebuilding year” trump card out early, BEFORE the season, and we would have respected that, albeit begrudgingly. We say begrudgingly because KD has consistently been losing the recruiting battle every year. Nevertheless, we would have had more respect for him for being realistic. However, he said this was his best team yet and we have to hold him to this assessment.

Without great talent, KD’s coaching must be what sets UCLA apart this season. KD admitted as much to his players at camp:

“You guys did your part,” Dorrell says. “It’s time for the coaches to do ours.”

Yes, it is time. KD and everyone at Morgan Center and Spaulding Field need to take this dose of reality seriously. The Rice game put our Utah win under the microscope and calls into question its credibiility. Utah came in wanting to stop the rush, since our OL is formidable and our “rookie” QB was untested. That plan backfired when BO lit up the Utah secondary and the Utah coaching staff failed to adjust.

With a week’s preparation and game film in hand, the Rice coaching staff did the opposite. They planned to stop the pass and have our rushers beat them. Even as we racked up nearly 300 yards on the ground, the Rice game plan nearly won out. And KD looked outcoached, again. The obvious question is: what will other, and better, coaches and teams do with now two weeks or more of game film? KD and Co should be worried. Hopefully, they’ve stopped drinking the cool-aid, stopped with the Happy Thoughts game planning, and stopped with the fly-by-night play calling.

KD has a lot of work to do just to take a step forward again.

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