DumpDorrell.com: "even we haven’t gone that far . . ."

After Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel dropped a bomb on Bruin fans yesterday by ranking UCLA coach Karl Dorrell as one of the five worst coaches in college football, we had to see what the DumpDorrell.com site had to say.

The verdict: "Now even we haven’t gone that far, but we can’t argue with him either."

Recognizing that one UCLA coach who had a "fire" site did get released – remember LoseLavin.com? – let’s take a step back on Dorrell. Three items to consider:

>> (1) Money.

UCLA football accounted for 37.6% of all athletic department revenues in the 2005-06 academic year, the last for which records are available from the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Web site. And UCLA has collected more football revenue and made successively more money in each of Dorrell’s first three seasons:

2003: $17.23 million gross, $5.73 million net.

2004: $18.48 million gross, $5.74 million net.

2005: $19.60 million gross, $6.14 million net.

The results for the 2006 season, so far as I know, were even a little better than 2005. The Bruins are not in USC territory yet, but the trend is positive.

>> (2) Lack of trouble.

Dorrell may have changed a lot of his assistant coaches, but after the cataclysmic handicap-parking scandal that destroyed the 1999 football season, his players have pretty much stayed off the police blotter. And reports are that he is recruiting fairly high-character high school players. This aspect of his tenure should not be overlooked; it certainly isn’t inside the Morgan Center.

>> (3) Performance.

College coaches have essentially two jobs: recruit and then coach those recruits to success on the field. To the extent that Dorrell is on the hot seat – he has 20 starters back from last season and these are now all his players – he has also made it harder to fire him by recruiting his best class ever and one which will certainly be in the national top 10 and perhaps the top five.

Dorrell’s own goals have not been met: win the Conference and go to a BCS Bowl game. This coming season, UCLA – if you believe the pre-season rankings – will almost certainly be favored in each of its first 11 games and could go into the USC game undefeated. If you listen to Dorrell speak about his team and their own expectations, they’re just that high.

Does a 9-3 season, third in the Pac-10 and a berth in the Holiday Bowl (assuming USC goes to the national title game and the second-place team – Cal or Oregon? – goes to the Rose Bowl) get Dorrell tossed? No.

But then the pressure will be even greater than in 2008, with a great class coming in, Ben Olson having a full year under offensive coordinator Jay Norvell and a schedule that has Tennessee and USC at home and BYU, Cal and Oregon on the road. It may be that 2008 is the real litmus test.

Comments

[DumpDorrell]

One point regarding football revenues. In 2002, the last year of the Toledo era, UCLA football brought in close to $20 million in revenues if I remember correctly. So, we are only now getting back to the level we were at during the DOWN years of Toledo. Not necessarily good numbers for the Dorrell era.

[Cocoman25]

No, 2007 is the real litmus test. The Bruins have the returning players, the schedule, and virtually everything else going in their favor this year. In 2008, all you'll hear is songs of woe about "rebuilding". The time for big season is now.

[Cocoman25]

No, 2007 is the real litmus test. The Bruins have the returning players, the schedule, and virtually everything else going in their favor this year. In 2008, all you'll hear is songs of woe about "rebuilding". The time for big season is now.

[Cocoman25]

No, 2007 is the real litmus test. The Bruins have the returning players, the schedule, and virtually everything else going in their favor this year. In 2008, all you'll hear is songs of woe about "rebuilding". The time for big season is now.

[DumpDorrell]

I have to agree with Cocoman all 3 times. In 2008 Dorrell loses 20 seniors, 17 of them starters. That is a ton of players to replace. Dorrellistas will most surely claim 08 to be a rebuilding year and give him all the slack he needs to have a .500 season again, for possibly the 4th or 5th time in 6 years, and certainly miss his Pac-10 championship, BCS bowl, and SuC win goals he and Dan Guerrero set for him for the 6 straight year (with the exception of the lone SuC victory). No, in 08, if Dorrell is still here, he will get a pass on another mediocre season. Its just a sad sad affair. You are right though ... 9 wins is the worst case scenario for Bruin fans. It will be hard to fire Dorrell though he will for the 5th straight year not meet those goals, and he will most likely not be in consideration for those NFL jobs he so wants to have. Good thing we have a basketball coach who actually would rather be coaching at UCLA.

[BruinPhil]

Take away that SC victory last year and Dorrell has been absolutely terrible. Here's his imagination on offense. 1st through 3rd downs: run up the middle. 4th: punt.

Time to boot Dorrell. UCLA fans deserve better.

[Urban Bruin]

They say that sometimes the best prayers are the ones that go unanswered. In the case of last years “SC” game it could not have been more apropos. By winning the “big game” we lost the big picture. Under Dorrell, the UCLA program has been without vision, focus or continuity. It feels like each year we begin at ground zero and are told by the AD and the media that the program is a year away. Well, needless to say there are programs across the nation which has proven what a capable coach can. Regardless if you are in a powerhouse conference such as the situation Urban Meyers entered or have to prove the national media wrong as with Boise State it is clear the coach can make a difference.

When AD Guerro fired Lavin it was easy because it was not his hire. Now he must step up and dump his own mistake. Do it now! There may always be a next season but our patience will not last forever.

[MIMBruin]

I cannot speak to Point No. 1, as I will not begin to claim an understanding of the finances of big-time college athletics.

And I will certainly agree as to point No. 2, as I am proud that my alma mater's football team has not generated the sheer number of column-inches that USC's players have for their off-the-field actions, what with arrests for assault or solicitation, and questionable acts regarding free rent provided for star Trojan players and their families with no substantial sanctions by the NCAA.

However, with Point No. 3, I respectfully disagree. The 2007 season should be closely scrutinized. A 9-3 season (pre-Bowl game, as it is a 12-game regualr season) may not lead to Coach Dorrell's firing, but that doesn't mean his coaching seat is secure.

This season, UCLA will have:

a) 10 returning starters on offense;

b) 10 returning starters on defense;

c) 17 returning seniors in the 2-deep rotation;

d) 2 experienced quarterbacks, including a backup who was a vital part of the victory over U$C last year; and

e) only 2 road opponents this year who had winning records last year.

If Cal, or Oregon, or U$C, or almost any other team in the Pac-10 had these attributes going into the season, there would be no question that the team would be talked about as being in the race for the National Championship.

Why not UCLA? Why not now?

I sincerely hope the Bruins play to the best of their ability and win the pac-10, if not the BCS. But, if they don't, and they have another season with poor end-zone production... losing in upsets... squandering halftime leads with conservative and predictable playcalling... if this team loses 3 times in the regular season, with this kind of experience, this kind of schedule, and this kind of talent, the questions will have to be asked.

Why not UCLA? Why not now?

MIM

[bee]

4th and 1..What do we do? Dorrell calls time out. I'm excited and i'm thinking were going to get 1st down. I'm watching and they are taking their time..thinking cool..they have a play ready. next you know, we get a penalty. what the hellll???!!!. what was that? that is the worse play calling ever. bruins were pump up and what does the coach do..he kills the crowd with that call.. first he wastes a timeout and for what to lose 5 yd and Bruins lose momentum. Even the sports commentators were shocked. Let Dorrell go.

[G Frazier]

No matter how well Dorrell and UCLA does, The fact of the matter is that too many of you still don't like the idea of having an African American running the program. Under Dorrell The Bruins have continued to improve yet you have continued to ask for his head. Don't forget Notre Dame and the Willingham firing . Wittingham won but they still gave his team and players to Weis. Now where is that "dumpweis.com" website. Shut up and give this man the respect he deserves. Pete Carroll hasnt been doing that great of a job this year with all that talent but you will never here TJ Simers calling for his head. UCLA is winning despite not having a healty Quarterback all year. Shut up BIGGOTS!

G Frazier
Woodland Hills

[MarcoTheBruin]

Hi G Frazier your post is filled with many factual errors and your final comment is rude, disrespectful, and highly insulting.

"Under Dorrell The Bruins have continued to improve"
Dorrell is 18-6 during the first 6 games of the season and 11-15 during the last 6 games and bowls. Translation: UCLA plays worse as the season goes on.

"Don't forget Notre Dame and the Willingham firing ."
Notre Dame and WIllingham are not relevant to the discussion about Karl Dorrell. This is not about skin color, it is about performance- wins and losses.

"Pete Carroll hasnt been doing that great of a job this year with all that talent but you will never here TJ Simers calling for his head."
USC has lost 5 games in the last 4.5 years under Carroll. Dorrell has lost 23 games in the same span of time. Pete Carrol also has 4 Pac-10 championships and 2 national championships while Dorrell has 0.

"UCLA is winning despite not having a healty Quarterback all year."
Ben Olson played in all 4 quarters of UCLA's 44-6 loss to Utah and for 1.5 quarters of UCLA's 20-6 loss to Notre Dame. Olson has had a history of injuries, missed the game prior to the Notre Dame game with an injury, so Karl Dorrell should have been better prepared when Olson went down with an injury. Pete Carroll was able to prepare USC's backup QB well enough that USC beat Notre Dame 38-0 on the road.

"Shut up BIGGOTS!"
Worthless drivel.

[Playhard]

Frazier , Why are you pulling out the race card ??. That has nothing to do with inconsistant Dorrell. Expectations are high and we need to finish strong - PERIOD.... Compete and not FOLD . No more game FLOPS !! Also , Olson is not the answer at QB. He should be the backup.

Good day !

[G Frazier]

Cal, USC, Arizona State, Oregon, All highly ranked. UCLA, first place in the PAC10. I just call it like I see it. You can call it the race card if you want. Most bigots don't even realize what they are. All I say is gvie the Coach his due respect, and quit complaining.You're offended by my opinion, Well I'm offended by your disrespect.

G Frazier
Woodland Hills

[DumpDorrell]

Frazier ... were you offended by the racial hatred against Lavin when we wanted him fired?? Were you offended by the racial hatred against Toledo when we wanted him gone?? Were you offended by the racial hatred against Larry Farmer, former UCLA champion, when we wanted him gone?? Didn't think so.

Isnt it amazing that all people remember about the Lavin days is how bad Lavin was ... and not how racially motivated his detractors were, or how disrespectful they were in calling for his firing??!! Same for Toledo, Farmer, Hazzard ... etc. etc.

[Jon Kavulic]

G Frazier,

You're a fricken moron! Morons like you throw out the race card whenever you're irrational insecurities get threatened. It's both stupid and ethically repulsive.

By the way, the person who I want to be the next Bruins coach is DeWayne Walker, who I think is black, right?

Moron.

Dorrell must go because recently losses to Arizona, Wyoming, Florida State, Utah, and Notre Dame prove that Dorrell should not be the Bruins head coach.

PERIOD!

GO BRUINS!

[Michael Bartlett]

First of all, I thought this comment board was moderated. How can Jon Kavulic get away with calling another poster a "moron" three times?

Second, if we are going to talk about smarts, I question the intelligence of anyone who throws out random losses as "proof" that a head football coach should be fired. Have Kavulic and the other people who routinely castigate Dorrell read the sports page in the past few years? Newsflash: every coach loses games!

And before you trot out the statistic about Dorrell's teams losing when favored, every coach -- even those people think are "great" coaches -- loses games his teams "should" win. Steve Spurrier has 19 years of experience, plus a National Championship, yet his South Carolina team lost at home Saturday to Vanderbilt, scoring only 6 points. Lloyd Carr has 12 years of experience, plus an NC, yet his team opened the season with home losses to a I-AA team and a spanking by Oregon. Bob Stoops has 8 years of experience and an NC, and his team blew a 17-point lead in losing at a mediocre Colorado team. And I suppose you might have heard about Pete Carroll's toejams losing at home to Stanford a couple weeks ago as a 40-point favorite -- a Stanford team Karl Dorrell's Bruins beat by 28 on the road to open the season.

Already this season, 12 Top-10 teams have lost to unranked teams. Should all of those coaches be fired? Of course not -- no one would be left to coach anywhere if every team fires a coach that loses when they "shouldn't."

I don't know for certain if Dorrell is a target because of his race, but G Frazier raises an excellent point the posters here ignored in their haste to personally criticize him -- Dorrell has built up the program over his four years, yet so-called Bruin fans do nothing but scorn him. Dorrell started in a "one-down" situation in 2003, trailing our cross-town rivals badly on the talent front -- thanks in no small part to four consecutive years of fair-weather Bruin fans dumping on Bob Toledo, causing recruiting to go south. Dorrell has been able to make advances in recruiting each season he has been here, and in fact last year won head-to-head wars with U$C for top talents such as Brian Price and Raymond Carter. Next year's class has been ranked in the Top 5 since the ratings were announced earlier this summer. The program is on an upswing, yet the people who post here call UCLA football a "national joke." Those people are a joke.

Just three days ago, UCLA defeated a favored Cal team led by Jeff Tedford, who allegedly is an "offensive genius." I guess because fans and the media have decided Tedford is brilliant, he has drawn very little heat for his poor decisions in the UCLA game. Bruin fans can't let go of one decision by Dorrell to not go for it on a 4th and 1, but what about Tedford? At the end of the first half, he stood there with two time outs in his pocket and let the clock run down, forcing his kicker to attempt a long field goal, which was missed. Once Cal took a 21-20 lead late in the third quarter, "Quarterback Guru" Tedford, with arguably the best receiver in the game in DeSean Jackson on his team (and unlike Dorrell, had his No. 1 QB available), went into a shell offensively and tried to nurse a 1-point lead. Even after UCLA took a lead and Cal returned a kickoff into Bruin territory, Tedford called two running plays -- even though he was not in easy field goal range and even though the Bruins had stuffed the run all day -- setting up an obvious pass that was picked off for a touchdown.

Karl Dorrell made one questionable decision in the Cal game, which even arch-Dorrell critic Brian Foster had to admit had no bearing on the outcome, and Bruin fans are in an uproar...but Tedford makes several mistakes and no one says a word. Nice.

So by all means, "Bruin fans," keep ragging on a coach whose team is 4-0 and in first place in the Pac-10, despite this season's unbelieveable quarterback injury parade. Go ahead, make it easy for other schools to negatively recruit. Maybe it is racism, maybe it is just stupidity, but whatever the reason, get off Dorrell's back.

[DumpDorrell]

Did you hear that everybody? Michael Bartlett says to get off Dorrell's back! He means it!

Michael has even made of his comments defending Dorrell ... here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

[G Frazier]

Thank you Michael Bartlett. I must be on to somthing judging by all of responses to my observation and comments reguarding biggotry. You call a dog a dog and they all come out of the woodwork to attack you. I know many of you dont want to admit it but not everyone is treated the same or even fairly. If I remind you of this you react by making a personal attack on me with targeted name calling. Call me all of the morons that you wish. This will never change the fact that racism exists. Next time somone says this don't go shooting the messinger. The fact remains that this coach has been blasted for no GOOD reason by many of you who can't carry his jock when it comes to football knowlege. Just because you watch a couple of games on t.v. doesn't make you an expert in the operation of a program. If the shoe doesn't fit then dont put it on. If you are not a racist good for you, but dont try to act like it's not there. UCLA is in first place in the PAC10 regardless to what you think of Dorrell. Mr Kavulic I must have struck a nerve ( You notice I said Mr. )

G Frazier
Woodland Hills

[DumpDorrell]

Frazier ... racism exists so anyone critical of Dorrell is a racist. People disagree with you so they must be racist. People call you out on your assertions so you must be right and they again must be racist. Your logic is that of a child.

And no GOOD reason to be critical of Dorrell?? Now you are being melodramatic. For the record, Dorrell's 4 year record is the 2nd worst in the history of UCLA football. That right there is a GOOD reason to fire him. He is in his 5th season and has accomplished 1 of the 12 goals set out for him thus far, beat SuC 1 time out of 4. That right there is a GOOD reason. Embarrassing losses to 12 teams that we were favored over, including Fresno State, Wyoming, Utah, Notre Dame, etc. etc. etc. That right there is a GOOD reason. I could go on and on ... The real question is what GOOD reason is there to KEEP him??!!! And dont say he is in 1st in the conference, he hasnt won anything yet.

[themadbruin]

G. Frazier, you're confusing the generalized, implied racism that accounts for, say, Marty Schottenheimer continuing to land NFL HC jobs when his game day coaching is demonstrably lacking and his playoff record is a joke, while a quality coach like Dennis Green gets dumped but not picked up right away by someone, and a more specific racism (people want Dorrell fired, and, since he's black it must be because those people are racism) which is not a factor in the groundswell of discontent with a man who after nearly five years has stagnated the UCLA football program. Numbers keep going up? Sure, how much of that has to do with football fans wanting to see games (no NFL in LA), and not being able to get the "hot tickets" to watch pom pom Petey and company? No problems off the field? Anybody remember Eric Scott's embarrassing episode from, say, August? Even without charges being filed, there's never been a good, publicly given answer for why this guy was 25 miles off campus on a weekday/workday a few weeks before camp started, with 2 young guys who were not even in the Bruin program? And Performance? One good season out of 5 is a 20% success rate. This season's starting factors (very favorable schedule, 20 returning starters, Adonis at QB) was supposed to be a repeat of '05. I guess you could say it is - after all, '05 did feature two completely unbearable losses - but at least one of 'em was to a good team. No. Karl Dorrell is a nice guy who has not handled the coaching reins well in five years. In today's NCAA Div 1-A climate, his record is not good enough to save him for another year without winning out, beating $C and winning a bowl game. Call me a bigot, a biggot, or whatever you want. It will simply be another instance of being wrong.

[S Holland]

Had Ucla remained undefeated in Pac-10 Play, one might be willing to overlook the stunning losses to Utah and Notre Dame, however the loss to Washington State exposed the serious flaws compounded by the extensive injury list on our team. On a positive note, unlike USC, Ucla still has only one conference loss. Let's hope this time around the coach and the team can prove the doubters wrong.