Guerrero II: "This is not a place for just any coach "

Following are highlights of the question-and-answer segment of UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero’s news conference earlier today:

>> "I can assure with the highest degree of confidence that I have no regrets in having hired Karl Dorrell when I did. Was there a leap of faith involved in that hire? Sure there was; there was no question about that. But I felt that he’d served his time. As I looked at the candidate pool and those individuals that I felt can make an impact on our program, I felt was the right guy. Karl is a builder of men. And I think if you see the individuals that are in our program, it reflects that.

"Now, on the other side of the equation, we have to build a program that can be competitive, especially in this city, as you well know. And, as times we did. But at other times we didn’t. And as you go through the process of looking at the ups and downs of this program, at some point in time you have to say ‘Are you ready to take that next step,’ and I just felt that this point in time that we weren’t and in order to do that, I needed to get a new coach."

"There were a lot of games throughout the course of the five-year period where you kind of wished you could have it back. There’s no question about that. There were a lot of frustrating games. Certainly, the Utah game was a tough one for us this year. We felt that we could really ride some momentum after two wins, get that win; we were nationally ranked and had a chance to vault maybe into the top ten and we didn’t have a good effort that game. Of course, we had injuries when we played Notre Dame. But when our no. 1 quarterback went down, I mean we struggled the rest of that game and certainly that was a game we all felt, to the player, that we could have won. Those kinds of things were obviously frustrating, but there was never really one particular game. I think it was just an evaluation of the body of work and as we looked to the future, what gave us the best chance to move forward."

>> "Karl and I have been in discussion over the course of the season, just in the regular sense. We knew that we were in a difficult spot as we progressed through the year. After the SC game we spoke, even yesterday [Sunday] and talked through the season once more. I’ve been in contact with the Chancellor as we moved forward as well. Obviously, after my discussion with Karl, I came in today, met with him this morning and indicated to him I was going to make the change."

>> "We had the players meet in the Terry Donahue Room over at the Acosta Center. The assistant coaches were there, members of the staff that support the football program were all there as well. I addressed them and informed them of the decision that I was making. And I talked to them about how difficult it was for me to do that.

"I mean, I hired Karl without the intention of having to make this decision. And sometimes it is very difficult when you go down the road and you realize that it didn’t work. And it wasn’t because of a lack of effort, it wasn’t because of a lack of vision, it wasn’t because of a lack of anything. It just didn’t work and I had to convey that to them. I did tell them that the foundation that Karl and his assistants laid in this program – I looked at them – the foundation was right there, they were in that room. And it’s their responsibility to continue to maintain the dignity that Karl has displayed throughout his tenure here and to represent us with distinction. And they understand that; everyone of those young men was looking me in the eye when I was talking."

>> "You always have the pulse of your community in the back of your mind as you move forward. For me, that really isn’t an issue. I have to be at peace about how we’re running this program, just in a general sense. I think you know that I’ll make whatever decision I think is the right decision for our school, irrespective of what the climate is out there in a general sense. Football is a very important program to our university. It’s a very important program to our department. It’s the economic driver; one of the economic drivers that allow us to be great in all of our other sports. Certainly, that is part of the equation that comes into play, not because there is any particular influence from the external community that created that."

>> "I can’t speak for Karl in terms of what he feels and what he believes [about racial factors]. But I will tell you this: the issue of his particular situation has nothing to do with race. It really is about performance and it’s really about my expectation for this program as we move forward. I think I have been to convey very clearly that Karl has brought a great deal to this program and I believe he has represented UCLA just as I knew he would, with class and character."

>> "I believe we can be a national player and you can define that however you want. I believe UCLA could be a program that is in the national rankings every year, that can knock on a BCS door, that can win the Pac-10 Conference. If you win the Pac-10 Conference, you have a chance to play in the Rose Bowl and you maybe have a chance to play in a national championship game. Is it hard here? Yeah, there are some constraints, there’s no question about that. But, this is a great institution, a great place to be. And I believe that all of those things are possible; you cannot concede that they are not."

>> "I think if you were to talk about a prerequisite that’s pretty important, it certainly would be [prior head coaching experience]. We will look at a broad array of candidates for this position and obviously someone who has had successful head coaching experience would be an ideal candidate. That being said, you never say never. You can to look at the candidate pool, you have to evaluate what’s out there. This is not a place for just any coach as you well know."

>> "I think it’s important that someone understands the West Coast to a certain degree, that’s recruited out here. But that’s not an absolute. We need to get the best coach that is the right fit for us, that understands our culture, that understands we want things done with integrity, that’s just a great fit for our university. UCLA ties are not an absolute."

"There are a lot of characteristics of a good coach should have that are similar to that Dorrell did have. First of all, integrity. He is a leader of men. And he knows how to organize and how to run a disciplined program. That’s an absolute not only for our football program but for every head coach in all of our sports. Those are expectations in how we conduct ourselves.

"We want someone that can inspire our team to greatness. That’s clearly what we’re trying to do. We need to find someone that can create that kind of motivation, that can have the mindset that these kids will play hard every game, fire out every game and compete and more often than not, will be on the winning side."

>> "In this day and age, virtually every coach has some form of a buyout or you should expect at least some form of a buy-out, so we understand that dynamic. We have an idea who’s out there. Some of these individuals might be attractive candidates for us and some of them may not. But we haven’t explored that yet."

>> "One of the positives during our tenure here in the last five years is we’ve really been able to build the resource base in our [athletic] program in a general sense. We raised a budget from $42 million when I first came in here to $60 million and we’re still in the black. That tells you that we’ve done some things that are very positive and will allow us the opportunity to be more competitive in the marketplace as we move forward.

"Our assistant coaching pool is not wanting. Many of you believe that we’re on the bottom of the barrel on the assistant coaching pool. We receive salary surveys from various sources; our assistant coaching pool may be second in the conference and I say that only because we don’t know what one of the private schools pays their coaches. We built that assistant coaching pool over the course of the last three years to be very, very competitive in the marketplace. Many of you kind of missed that as we did that."

Comments

[dave m]

finally!

this should have been done a long time ago

[Philizay]

It is true that Karl Dorrell reduced the amount of off-field issues that led to Bob Toledo's ouster. However, in the end, the amount of inconsistency led to his firing. If UCLA can be dominant in basketball, there is no reason that the Bruins cannot have an equally strong and competitive football team. Even though I don't like to see a fellow UCLA alumnus get blasted, it was time for some change. Karl Dorrell was professional, but the results were few and far between. I look forward to next season and the prospects of a better program. Go Bruins!

[r.]

got two words for everyone butt-up against the 405 freeway.

NORM CHOW.