From the FWIW department:  Terry Donahue just had a 15 minute interview on AM 570 and said that Rick Neuheisel "is the right coach for UCLA."  That was a bit of a shocker. Given the past between the two we fully expected Donahue to support Walker for head coach.  He did not, although it wasn't clear what his opinion of Walker was.  Donahue did say that "there are other coaches that are right for UCLA too." He said that as if to say that the search process was not complete so RN was not the only coach he'd support. 

We have long said that read more

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There are a couple of media notes of import today.  The first:  Jim Rome, as DD reader Jeff noted yesterday in the comments section, ranted about what a horrible mess our football program is and that Dorrell should go.  This Rome radio rant was reported on other sites by other posters as well. Rome went on to slam Breazell for throwing his teammate under the bus and for our embarrassing losses to Notre Dame and Utah.  We have not heard the audio, and Rome charges people to listen to it, but since the reporting on it is wide and consistent we have to believe it's true.  And so, Karl Dorrell continues to hurt our program and university nationally. 

Contrast that bit of sad but unsurprising news with our second media note:  read more

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We got a great email from a DD reader about local radio talk on the Dorrell situation.  Steve Hartman and his show The Loose Cannons on AM 570 brought former UCLA QB Wayne Cook on air to discuss the Notre Dame game and dumping Karl Dorrell.  You have to listen to the 13 minutes interview in which Steve Hartman keeps talking about DumpDorrell.com and needing to give Bruin and DumpDorrell.com fans answers to the Karl Dorrell coaching problem.  Wayne Cook tries his best to be diplomatic but can't avoid saying that if Dorrell doesn't win we need a coaching change.  You can't fault Wayne for speaking the truth.  Nice job guys.

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Steve Hartman, of AM 570 Loose Cannons, said today on their show that if UCLA loses to Notre Dame this Saturday that Karl Dorrell should be fired "on the spot!"  Hartman also was passionate when he said that a loss would be the END of Karl Dorrell at UCLA.  Nice.  The message is out there … it is definitely out there.  But we should NEVER let up because if Dorrell fails to produce this season it will take every one of our efforts to ensure that we get a new coach. It is not set in stone, and the Dorrellistas and lackeys inside Morgan Center are out there making excuses for Dorrell all over the boards. If we make the ruckus that we as fans are capable of making then we can force Dan Guerrero to feel the heat himself.  We must make hiring a new coach the only option.  Looks like Steve Hartman is with us. 

By the way, Steve also said the the Utah loss is still with the team.  No matter how much they try to sugar coat it, that loss was too big, hit too deep, to be forgotten with words.  Only a conference championship can make people remember anything else.  True dat.

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Karl Dorrell went on AM 570 with Roggin and Simers this morning and talked about how he didn’t “want to be that guy who fires coaches” but that he’s had to at the OC position “2 or 3 times and that’s unfortunate.” He did it “to move in the right direction” to make the team better. So hiring a guy who has never called a play in college football or the pros, or even high school it seems, is a move in the right direction. Ok Karl. We hope so.

But we remain realistic. For 3 years Training Jay’s boss at Nebraska didn’t trust him to read more

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From the No One Saw This Coming Dept: Nestor at BruinsNation is reporting that AM 570 announced that Karl Dorrell has fired OC Jim Svoboda. Shocking news! Svoboda was fired basically back in October. Talk about giving a guy time. Svoboda had something like 5 games before everyone knew he was gone. It was pretty much official after the Cal loss - the only time we can remember the press being so giddy over a coach after a convincing loss - because Dorrell took over 25% of the playcalling from Svoboda. After that game Svoboda disappeared. We called off the search party long ago. Look for more firings or press releases that say something like “so and so coach has decided to pursue other opportunities/wants to spend more time with family in (some far off location where at least one relative lives).”

The second part of AM 570’s report is ridiculous and troubling: read more

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Now we are getting pissed off. We are hearing excuses coming from Wayne Cook and Joe Grande on AM 570, that you can’t fault Karl Dorrell for yesterday - that is was the players’ fault - and that 7-6 is a good season. WTF?! Cook beat USC so he will always have respect. But look at the record Dorrell has built over 4 years. Stop giving excuses. It’s always something with Dorrell’s team or assistants, and never with Dorrell himself with these guys. 6-6, 6-7, 7-6, and it’s not Dorrell.

We thought we’d point out 2 very obvious coaching mistakes for the boys at AM 570. Everyone is talking about the 4th and 1 FG call in the 2nd Qtr. The play before that play was the biggest mistake Karl Dorrell made and read more

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For those of you who may not have heard last night’s The Joe McDonnell Experience on local radio station AM 570, a DD editor was on live with Joe for about 4 minutes.  It was a random thing, not set up.  He called the show because Joe had mentioned to callers to check out the site … and that Karl Dorrell needs to have a minimum 9-3 record next year or he’s out.  We appreciate the love, but our editor called to challenge the latter assumption.

Joe came on the phone during a break and he talked about the KD situation.  He has said many times, and we have noted on DD, that read more

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Editor’s note: We made the petition to Dump Dorrell available last night. Read it, sign it, leave a comment, and send it to your friends. Get viral with it by using the viral bookmarks at the bottom of this post, by sending the post to your friends, or using the links on the petition to send to your friends.  You can also link directly to the petition on your Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, or other website pages.  Tshirts are coming soon.

One of our editors was on AM570 with Big Joe McDonnell and The Joe McDonnell Experience after the basketball game tonight.  It was a call-in so not a big deal of course.  But what’s worth noting is that Big Joe said he has been quoting DumpDorrell often and that “you’re doing a good job, keep it up!”  Nice!  It’s good to hear some backing of our efforts by local media.  That lovefest, though, came after he hit us with this nice bit of analysis: he doesn’t think KD is going anywhere even if he loses out the rest of the way.  Ouch.

We respectfully disagree that it’s decided.  We still believe that Dan Guerrero has not revealed what he will do at all no matter what the outcome is the rest of the season.  No one knows how DG sees this or how he thinks this plays out with his own legacy.  And DG certainly hasn’t committed publicly one way or the other, giving both sides of the issue reason for hope.  We still believe there is a chance, however slight, DG will pull the trigger.

To continue, our editor asked Big Joe that if DG keeps KD for another year doesn’t that mean that KD will get yet another year because he will go 8-4 with all those returning players??  Big Joe gave a confident “no.”  He thinks an 8-4 year next year will get KD fired.   We suck wind when we hear this.  Like most of you, we cannot trust an 8-4 season with Morgan Center and Murphy Hall.   If it does go down that way, it would be 5 years without a Pac-10 championship or BCS bowl, and yet, they will think that they cannot get rid of coach who goes 8-4 at UCLA.  Our institutional instinct is to praise such an effort.

This is why this year is critical to our efforts. If there is a slight crack in the window we’ve got to break it.  Pressure is the way to ensure that we are not mediocre for another eternity.   It would be a neverending cycle. Lavin 2.0 only longer.  Get the word out!

We may not agree with Big Joe but we give much respect to him because few really know LA sports like Big Joe. Give credit to him for his frank analysis and for giving our effort a little bit of help. Thanks Big Joe!!

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Its no longer morning, we have been busy today.  Much to talk about today, so lets get to it.

1. Hit on Ben Olson — Looks like BO is going to be out 4-6 weeks.  This is unfortunate for Ben as the coaches finally are catching up to his, and the rest of the team’s, talent.  The hit was clearly, on replay, a late hit.  We hope for a speedy recovery Ben!!  This no-call is another Pac-10 officiating blunder, which leads us to point #2;

2. Pac-10 officiating — Pac-10 commish Tom Hansen has got to do something about officiating.  Once again, the Pac-10 is getting negative national press for a blown game-changing call with seconds left in the Southern Cal-Washington game, and the clear no-call late hit that sidelined BO in the Arizona game.  When is Tom Hansen going to step up and take control of this story?  He continues to be behind the 8-ball on officiating in this league and it is damaging our reptuation nationally, which leads us to point #3; 

3.  BCS Gaming — It is shaping up to be yet another year in which the Pac-10 will be slighted out of a second BCS bowl game.  Chances are good that the Pac-10 will have 1 undefeated team and 1 1-loss team, or at least two 1-loss teams.   It certainly is too early to tell, but the SEC is already campaigning for its programs.  LSU is a 2-loss team that is ranked higher than 1-loss Oregon.  Notre Dame, if they lose to Southern Cal, will also be a 2-loss team that currently is ranked higher than both Cal and Oregon, and perhaps deservedly so.  But we have seen this played out many times over the last 10 years, and the Pac-10 is nearly always left out.  Commish Tom Hansen has to start lobbying like the SEC or else we will lose yet again the millions of dollars in purse a second BCS bowl bid would bring to all Pac-10 schools.  With the campaigning that is going on, it is looking like  that second bowl bid will surely go to a 2-loss Notre Dame or SEC team.  Let’g get to work Tom!!

4.  Dorrell Happy Talk — What the heck was KD thinking when he said he looked over to Cowen with a knowing smile as soon as BO went down??!!  This has to be one of the strangest and most inexplicable comments to come from a coach after a key player’s injury.  Why does KD always seem to be on a different page than most people? 

More on KD comments to the press:  anyone hear KD on his weekly interview on AM 570?  He gloated on how well the team has been playing, and said nothing to refute one announcer’s comments that the Bruins “destroyed” the Arizona Mildcats on Saturday.  We don’t know what games they were watching but the Bruins did not “destroy” Arizona.  KD also, as predicted, said this team has “learned” from the past two weeks performances. KD is going to have to explain all this happy talk if he doesn’t come back from Eugene with a win or a strong showing.  KD said this was his “best team yet”, so a win should be doable.

But we know better.  Oregon is going to hit UCLA with one of the nation’s best offenses (even counting the Cal loss), and with one of the nation’s best passing defenses (good luck Svoboda!).  Nestor at Bruinsnation has a great rundown of the matchup.  With our running game stalling against average defenses, yardage isn’t going to come easy at Eugene.  We’ll see if this bravado of KD’s turns into more excuses, player scapegoating, and “growing” and “learning” issues.

5. Beat a Winning Team on the Road! — This is becoming one of KD’s legacies.  KD has yet to beat a winning program on the road! In 4 years! Now that he has his “best team yet” and Oregon showed weaknesses against Cal, we should win this game, and the game at Notre Dame the following week.  No excuses KD, let’s get it done!

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