Strangely, I’m OK with it.I mean, I’m NOT OK with it. I’m full of fury, anguish, and despair. But more than that, I feel resignation. I’m tired. And I’ve come to terms with all of it.
UCLA football is dead to me.
It’s not that I’m disowning the program. I’m still gonna support the team; my blood will always run Bruin blue. It’s just that I’m no longer going to pour myself into the team like I have been these past few years. I’m moving on with my life. I can finally accept that the program - under the leadership of Karl Dorrell - has been buried. I have emerged from the five stages of grief, and now I’m at peace.
This isn’t the first time my relationship with UCLA football has died. During the last couple of games of the Bob Toledo era, I made a similar vow. Fortunately, the administration was on the same page and got rid of him soon after. Unfortunately, it replaced him with Dorrell.
I forced myself to start fresh, let our relationship be reborn, even though I was skeptical about whether the program was alive once again. Over the course of Dorrell’s five-year tenure, I’ve seen all the telltale signs that suggested this death was imminent; I just chose to hold on to some slivers of hope that the team provided every so often by winning a game it wasn’t supposed to. Even as I’ve been calling for his dismissal for the last several weeks, I still went out and gave my all as a fan.
But now, I, like many of my counterparts in Bruin Nation, can acknowledge with absolute certainty that our spirit has been permanently crushed (well, at least until a new coach revives it); that whatever life, momentum, hope, optimism, and promise that survived the losses to Utah and Notre Dame, and was revived by the win over Cal, was extinguished by this humiliating loss to Washington St.
At this point, I’ve got nothing more to say. I’ve vented as much as I possibly can about the frustrations over the team’s lack of toughness (see 11/9/06 after Cal), lack of effort (see 9/17/07 after Utah), and lack of preparation (see 10/8/07 after Notre Dame). Others Bruin faithful are carrying the torch, like the boys at DumpDorrell.com who are fundraising to raise up a billboard to publicly petition to AD Dan Guerrero for Dorrell’s dismissal, or the always vocal Bruins Nation, or the loyal cranks on Bruin Report Online. Even SI’s Stewart Mandel is calling UCLA the worst coached team in America. But I’ve got no more fuel to add to the fire. Any more negativity out of my mouth is just going to affect my health and make me say something I’ll regret.
Now it’s not a given that Dorrell is going to be let go; he still has four games, three against top-15 level teams, to continue the deception that the program is headed in the right direction by pulling off some more miraculous upset wins. Honestly, if Guerrero isn’t convinced that Dorrell is in over his head, I’m not sure what else needs to happen, short of a winless season. Anyone with a pair of functioning eyes can see that. And if you do truly believe Dorrell’s the answer, let me introduce to my good friend the Tooth Fairy.
So with these remaining four games, or possibly even more if the Bruins cowboy up and make a bowl and/or manage to salvage Dorrell’s job, I’m looking forward to being just a casual fan. I won’t have to pull my hair out over a punchless West Coast offense unable to complete even simple pass plays. I won’t have to gnash my teeth seeing another spread offense cut apart the “vaunted” Bruin defense. Best of all, I’ll be able to tune out all of the lame clichéd excuses of problems with execution, focus, intensity, and injury. I’ll get to use Saturday nights to relax with a glass of wine instead of stewing with my bottle(s) of hard liquor. Already I feel my blood pressure lowering. As much as I’ll miss UCLA football, I know I’m so much better off without it right now. And I’m sure I’ll be more refreshed when the program is rejuvenated with a new coaching staff.
Whatever does happen, I hope that things are handled with class. ‘Cause even though Karl may be dead to me now, he’s still a Bruin that exudes integrity, and all Bruins deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Even if they can’t coach their way out of a paper bag.
It’s been one hell of a ride. But this is where I get off.
AP Photo by Dean Hare
You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life. And UCLA football under Karl Dorrell.
What made the defense even more effective was the Bruins’ efficiency on offense. The Bruins kept the defense off the field by churning up first downs and burning the clock with a balanced attack (183 yards rushing/190 yards passing). Not surprisingly, the offense was effective with Pat Cowan back under center, despite being hobbled by a torn MCL. For whatever reason, the offense as a whole seems to play better when Cowan is playing QB as opposed to Ben Olson, and I’ll say it again, he should be the starter from here on out if he can stay healthy. Cowan made good decisions and reads, and protected the ball (save for a botched handoff). While his accuracy was unpredictable and his throws to the outside looked like ducks waiting to be picked off, his understanding of the game compensated for his physical shortcomings by putting the ball where it needed to be and avoiding risky plays. The receivers took advantage of Cal’s suspect secondary, getting separation from the DBs for a change giving Cowan opportunities to throw. Brandon Breazell, as he has been all year, was the man, catching balls, running end-arounds, and throwing touchdown passes (more on that later). And Pat’s brother Joe Cowan made several plays in critical situations. The offensive line turned in perhaps its best performance of the season, winning the battle upfront to create running lanes for Kahlil Bell, but also providing solid pass protection, giving Pat more time to throw than the quarterbacks have had in recent weeks. Bell, of course, continued to anchor of the offense. With Chris Markey effectively sidelined with a turf toe injury, Bell wore down the Cal defense, gaining 142 big yards.
I’ve ripped on the coaching staff for not getting players ready to play and for highly suspect playcalling, but this week, they earned their money. DeWayne Walker had his defense up for the challenge this week. As Verner said about his interception after the game, he was able to jump Jackson’s out route because he identified what play was coming pre-snap; a great individual play, no doubt, but also attributable to excellent preparation. Walker also made some great halftime adjustments to slow down Cal’s passing attack by featuring more blitz packages to disrupt the timing of QB Nate Longshore and his gimpy ankle. Offensive coordinator Jay Norvell showed a little more imagination this week, running the aforementioned Breazell end-arounds to set up the beautiful end-around pass from Breazell to Dominique Johnson. Norvell dialed up more middle screens as well, capitalizing on Cal’s overaggressive defense, and helping keep UCLA in more manageable third-down situations. It was in direct contrast to the playcalling of Jeff Tedford, the guy whose supposed coaching abilities are lusted after by many Bruin fans. He was extraordinarly conservative, particularly in the second half. I’m used to seeing the run-run-pass offense from UCLA, but to see Cal not getting the ball into the hands of its playmakers was strange. Even though Cal was having some success in third-and-long situations, it made the Bears’ offense entirely predictable, culminating in the pivotal interception when it was the Bruins that were on the ropes. For once, it was the Bruins that were the aggressor, well, relatively speaking.
The menu is pretty standard fare, with all types of fried seafood, as well as crab, mussels, oysters, and clams. Traditional Cajun dishes like etouffee, jambalaya, and gumbo are available as well. However, given that these restaurants are known for their crawfish boils, I had to oblige (though Claws only serves crawfish from NorCal and not Louisiana). After having had fresh stone crabs in Miami last weekend, eating crawfish was kind of like downgrading from a Ruth’s Chris filet to a Norm’s T-Bone steak and eggs. Still, there’s always something primitively enjoyable about reaching your hand into that plastic bag, pulling apart those little crawfish and gnawing at the innards. Suck the head, eat the tail, right? I ordered a pound, spicy, with Claws’ cannonball flavor (a mixture of Cajun, garlic butter, and lemon pepper seasoning). The spices were robust, and after about three crawfish, all I could feel was burn, and occasionally garlic. But the spice mix was tasty, and even today I’m getting hungry smelling the remaining residue on my fingers that I haven’t been able to get rid of overnight. As far as the crawfish meat was concerned, the choice tail pieces had the familiar crustacean taste, though prying them open killed my fingers. I even went all out and sucked up the body meat, with the uncomfortable combination of chewy, liquidy, and crunchy comprising the various textures of the body and organs, and that unmistakable flavor (for lack of a better word) of those components. And anytime I my taste buds got too overwhelmed, I had my trusty friend Sam Adams there to give me a hand.
I also ordered the gumbo, which was a perfectly good pot of shrimp, andouille sausage, mussels, and fish mixed in a brown roux with okra, celery, bell peppers, and onions. After some Wikipedia research, I determined that the inclusion of tomatoes in the roux made it more Creole-style than Cajun-style. Either way, I’ll gladly have me some more of it. You have the option for with or without rice, but interestingly enough, the rice was mixed into the gumbo like a jambalaya as opposed to served on top of rice.
If you happen to hurry down there this weekend, Claws is finishing its grand-opening promotion which features 20% off your ticket, free soda, and $2 domestic beers (please remember to drink responsibly, drinking six beers is still not going to put out that fire on your tongue). And they even hooked me up with a little portion of coconut jello for dessert.
As I mentioned before, one does not go to cafes for the food, one goes to eat. On this particular night, I opted for the tan chai porridge, fish fillet on rice satay, and a red bean milkshake. The porridge was primarily a seafood congee, with shrimp, squid, and jellyfish, but topped with sliced peanuts, fried wontons, and scallions, sort of a strange combination of flavors and textures. It’s a huge bowl, and I really wasn’t in the mood to eat that much, especially given how bland congee tends to be. On the other hand, the fish fillet had a lot more flavor, served with sliced onions in a not-too-spicy brown sauce. Served on a bed of rice, it was simple, but easy on the stomach after a long night. This would be a dish that I would be OK with ordering for dinner as well. And of course I had to balance the sweet and the savory, made all the easier since I’m a sucker for milkshakes. The red bean milkshake was essentially a surprisingly good vanilla milkshake with scoops of red beans mixed in (not completely blended). Adding the red bean diluted some of the sweetness while adding some textural contrast, but not so much that it stopped being a beverage. Definitely yummy.
It was my mom’s birthday this weekend and we got to spend a nice dinner together just talking and enjoying each other’s company. Moms are great in that they’ll always be your biggest fan no matter how much you screw up or disappoint them (and I’ve certainly had my fair share of screw-ups and disappointments).
Certainly, the excuse can be made that injuries cost the Bruins the game (or as Karl alluded to in his post-game interview, the team is “snakebit”). Starting QB Ben Olson injured his knee on a sack in the first quarter, and with backup Patrick Cowan also sidelined with a knee injury, the burden fell on walk-on freshman McLeod Bethel-Thompson to lead the team. Let’s just say he brought new meaning to the term ‘deer in headlights’, as evidenced by the five turnovers and four sacks he gave up (the lack of blocking definitely didn’t help). I love the story of the movie Rudy, but dude never had to be in position to win a game on national TV with the ball in his hands for three-plus quarters. Poor McLeod did as much as a kid with his level of experience and talent could do, but he clearly wasn’t ready.
And that last point is the glaring takeaway from this game: the coaching staff is either not flexible enough or not smart enough to make changes, either to the entire offensive system, or to specific gameplans during the game. For five seasons, Dorrell has attempted to implement his West Coast offense philosophy with mixed success (national ranking in scoring: ’03-100, ’04-29, ’05-5, ’06-64, ’07-57), rigidly sticking to it despite having very different personnel during those years. Over the last couple of seasons when the offense has been mediocre at best, it’s been obvious that Olson is far more comfortable taking deep drops and throwing downfield, while Cowan is better suited to quick reads and short and intermediate routes. But the gameplans haven’t been adjusted to play to those specifc strengths.
I’m sure McLeod feels terrible because his poor play led to the Bruins losing the game. But in reality, the coaching staff did not put him in position to be successful, it put him in a position to make mistakes. That is what is most disheartening about the loss. Unlike the Utah game, which was far more embarrassing in terms of lack of effort on the field, this loss wasn’t about players not showing up to play as much as it was an inability for Dorrell and staff to give them the best opportunity to win. And that’s a shame for these kids that generally work hard and represent the types of student-athletes we can be proud of. On a night where the defense played strong, neutralizing the punchless Notre Dame offense (140 total yards and only three points allowed that weren’t the direct result of turnovers), there should be no reason why they look up at the scoreboard and see a 14-point defeat and watch the humiliating scene of opposing players celebrating on the Rose Bowl grass.
40-14. Sounds like an impressive UCLA road win over Oregon St., something that has not come very often during the Dorrell era. In reality, it was a comically bad display of execution by both teams, with the Bruins finally able to take advantage of the Beavers’ total ineptitude on offense and special teams.
On the positive side, the UCLA defense brought its ‘A’ game. With the Bruin offense unable to even get a first down until midway through the second quarter, Oregon St. was able to jump out to a 14-0 lead. It looked like the Utah game was happening all over again. Thankfully for Bruin fans, the Beavers offense sought to prove it could be even more inept. Unlike every other opponent this season, the Beavers didn’t try to spread the field, which allowed UCLA’s front seven to dictate the flow of the game. While Beaver running back Yvenson Bernard found some success on the ground for 125 yards, the Bruin defense held him in check after the first three drives, daring quarterback Sean Canfield to beat them. And he couldn’t. Every pass he threw was an adventure, equally likely to end up in the arms of a Bruin defender as a Beaver receiver, and there was no attempt to throw the ball down the field. Trey Brown had two picks, but there were several other near interceptions. Oregon St. only managed 107 yards total offense after the first quarter, giving the Bruins the time to chip away at the lead with the offense (and it would need a lot of time). It was clearly the most dominant performance of the season for a unit that was highly regarded before the season, but had been grossly underachieving.
From an offensive perspective, the brief fourth quarter explosion should not overshadow the fact that the Bruin offense was really bad for most of the game. Oregon St. came into the game second in the country in rushing defense, so it was not surprising that the UCLA running game wasn’t terribly effective (50 carries for 133 yards), though it gained more yards than the Beavers had allowed in their first four games combined. By sticking with Bell (despite his fumbles) and Chris Markey, the Bruin line wore down the Beaver line in the fourth quarter.
However, the passing game was out of sync again, with nearly half of Ben Olson’s yards coming on two touchdown plays to Brandon Breazell: a 69-yard slip screen and then a great 30-yard deep post. The Bruins found some success with screen passes to the running backs to capitalize on the Beavers’ aggressiveness, which had been missing from the repertoire this year. But there were no completions, besides the one touchdown, beyond about seven yards down the field. Jay Norvell tried without success to incorporate more deep sideline patterns to utilize Olson’s arm, but seemed to abandon any intermediate routes. Still, Olson played decently, quieting the pro-Patrick Cowan crowd (like me) for the time being. He appeared a little more comfortable in the pocket than his past two starts, and showed he can make some throws when given time. Furthermore, he didn’t make as many poor throws as previous starts, other than the bad interception (sadly that’s the standard these days). The problem is that with the shaky play of the offensive line and the predictability of the offense, he’s been unnecessarily under fire a lot of times throughout the season. For example, the vanilla playcalling on first down on Saturday (23 runs versus 8 passes, conservative much?) put the Bruins in a lot of second and long situations, leading to obvious passing situations where Oregon St. could apply some pressure. The bottom line is that it seemed questionable whether UCLA could even score more than 14 points to complete the comeback, and that speaks volumes about how far the offense needs to go, both in schemes and execution.
The biggest difference in the game was the disparity in special teams. I touted the strength of UCLA’s special teams