What a riot!!! This just keeps getting better by the day! Well, we are in Hollywood. According to Robert Kuwada of the OC Register, Karl Dorrell, after losing to SuC to notch his 4th .500 season in 5 years and knowing that he is about to lose his job entirely, NOW says he is ready to scrap the WCO!! WOW. We could not make this stuff up. If there ever was a case study in what NOT to do as a first time head coach, Karl Dorrell would be the case.
Also, Kuwada is reporting that Dan Guerrero said after the game that he will make a decision regarding Dorrell "during the week." Folks, if Dorrell were going to be the coach next year, WE WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT NOW. Dorrell is gone. It's over. read more
The Dorrell era is over. The days of incredibly awful offense, bad decisions, poor discipline (penalties and turnovers), bad game plans, near non-existent in-game adjustments, poor clock management, constant assistant turnover, Dorrellian quotes, scapegoating, and mediocrity are finally OVER!! Yes, we are talking about Dorrell in the past. He is in the past to us … and any other rational Bruin fan, which is most of you. The only thing we are waiting for is the press conference … which could come as early as tomorrow and no later than Monday.
Today's read more
Today is a great day to be a Bruin football fan! Even though this game is almost meaningless as a football game thanks to Karl Dorrell, we know that today we can't lose. If we win the game, we win the game … and we take something precious away from the hated for a second straight year. If we lose we finally get to start a new era in UCLA football, and hopefully one in which we finally make the commitment to excellence we have long lacked.
Dorrell can possibly be back next year .. that is the dark cloud that hangs over the game. But beating SuC today read more
On to this week's Stat of the Week report. Last week's Stat of the Week was on the money again, taking us to 11 for 11 on the year. We thought that in order to beat Oregon that we would absolutely have to have special teams and/or defense come up big and score a touchdown. We also said that we had to win the turnover battle. The defense put us up +2 in turnovers and put our special teams in place to score 9 of our points (3 field goals), which is more than the touchdown we said we needed from them to win. 4 turnovers caused by the defense put us deep in Oregon territory all 4 times. Even though we couldn't get first downs, it was those turnover plays, and the overall play of the defense we said would dominate Oregon, that gave us the victory.
This week's Stat of the Week is nearly identical as the last 2 games. In order to win we need read more
Dorrell's final days are being written up by more sports columnists and dare we say even the guy who has the biggest man-crush on Dorrell, Trev Alberts. Let's start with Daily Breeze writer Mike Waldner (HT to Nestor at BruinsNation):
Coach (Dorrell) has had ample time to demonstrate his strengths and weaknesses. Not even a win Saturday will save him from a pink slip.
You should have a read of Waldner's entire piece. read more
If this circus that has been going around town trying to Save Dorrell hasn't entertained or wowed you enough then TJ Simers has something for you. Today, as part of his flip-flopping campaign to Save Dorrell, Simers pulls out the final word, the Humanitarian himself, Pete Carroll. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig, Simers:
On (Dorrell's future), though, you would think Carroll would be considered an expert.
"I think (Dorrell's) done a fantastic job," Carroll said. "I think read more
This Saturday's game against SuC puts it all on the line. All you will hear about this week is the rivalry game having the Pac-10 title and Rose Bowl on the line. This is what we wanted right?! A chance to win the title and go to the Rose Bowl. But in this strange college football season the same game could also take us out of a bowl game altogether. At 6-6, meaning we lose to SuC, we are not guaranteed a bowl invitation. There could be 5 teams with 7 wins in the conference and Arizona could also be 6-6. That would mean the 6th Pac-10 bowl could chose Arizona over us for the final bowl slot.
It's fitting that Dorrell's potential final game is that manic. Its all or nothing proposition mimics the inconsistent play of the team during his entire tenure. Dan Guerrero had the chance to end the mania after the Oregon win and state that Dorrell will be here next year, but chose not to. So here we are, all or nothing. If Dorrell manages to win he should still be let go, because as Guerrero would say his body of work demands he be fired. The damage he has done to the program will certainly carry over to next year, when every game will carry the story line of Dorrell on the hot seat. Given that it will be a rebuilding year, that talk will get more heated as the season wears on … just like this year. But it's not a lock that DG will dump Dorrell. So, it is plausible that if Dorrell wins and goes to the Rose Bowl that he will get his job back. So our goal of dumping Dorrell is also on the line, all or nothing.
But the story line you are going to hear all week, because it sells, is the "title on the line" story pushed by the local media. Thankfully, due to Dorrell's ineptness, we only have to hear it for a few days. Go Bruins!!
Strange how we bring up OJ Simpson in our morning post and boom … a story emerges that he has been arrested in Vegas for breaking into a hotel room and stealing things. Nice! Great representative for the program down the street. Doesn't OJ get it that people are going to be watching everything he does?? Why would he ever get near a residence or room that is not his and go in without the owner knowing?? Clearly this is ongoing and the DA has yet to charge him, but apparently they don't want him to go anywhere.
Meanwhile, we also find out that his daughter has filed for bankruptcy … the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree??
We will get to Stanford game notes but today we have some bullet items of note, a picture of an odd-looking Dorrell at his recent Monday press conference, and an announcement of The Bruin Show tonight at 6 pm.:
Stanford upset prediction: We expect to blow out a well overmatched Cardinal team that we blew out and blanked last year with essentially the same team we have this year. Yeah, new Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh can make the team better than 1-11 but not against UCLA, although a San Jose reporter, John Wilner, thinks the Furd will go 0-12. Still, if you look hard enough (or if someone emails you, as is the case here) you will find that one genius who picks the unthinkable upset. Today's genius prognosticator: LawPundit. Yeah, completely insignificant but he's the first that we found to predict the upset so to him go the glories: "Indeed, we predict that to start out the season, (Stanford) will ambush a vastly more talented UCLA Bruins team still struggling with a new west coast offense." Oookay.- Pre-Season honors: More pre-season honors are being doled out. This time RB Chris Markey is on the watchlist for the Doak Walker award that goes to the nation's top running back.
- SuC dogfighting revisted: Amazing story found by BruinsNation.com poster Meriones about how SuC RB coach Todd McNair was arrested in 1996 for dogfighting and convicted of cruelty to animals. McNair also was intimately involved in the Reggie Bush scandal. Guess Eric Scott has a lot to live up to. Look for this story to hit the mainstream soon. Update: It has!
- Depth chart out: The depth chart for the UCLA Bruin football team has been released. UCLA can only take 65 players to a conference matchup that isn't a rivalry game, so the depth chart only goes so deep for Saturday's game. Of note, Christian Ramirez will travel to the Farm as a backup at RB and Fred Holmes will travel as a backup at FB. Both players were practicing in defensive positions as recently as last week. Also, Rasshan will be heading to the Farm as a 3rd string QB "for emergencies."
Snoop Dingo didn’t take kindly to Les Miles’ recent comments on SuC and the Pac-10 that caused a firestorm in college football. So he had some words for Lester in defense of his buoys. You have to listen to (faux) Snoop’s hall of fame rant. Hi-larious (HT to oc phil at EDSBS).
