Trivia time: What was Karl Dorrell's first game as a college head coach?
Answer: U.C.L.A. vs CU, at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado. The more things change...
I was there and briefly met Karl's parents. Lovely people. The Buffs won 16-14. A crappy late PI call (oh, how I have NOT missed you SPTRs) kept a CU drive alive for the winning field goal.
Guess I won't be attending this one, though. Only a limited number of player families are allowed in. FU covid.
Correct!! Klatt did some morning sports talk radio here for a while and has become one of the best college football color analysts on TV. He is currently paired with the incomparable Gus Johnson for Fox Sports.
I don't know how much more interest we can drag out of that totally meh game lol
I was at that game as well. Brought a bunch of UF friends from Orlando and met a fellow Bruin. Great trip; terrible game. Olsen got hurt and Matt Moore was the QB for most of the game. I have a great pic somewhere of Marcedes Lewis walking out of the tunnel for that game.
I don’t understand the vitriol around Dorrell. As I recall he had the team in contention for the Rose Bowl in 3 of his 5 years. We didn’t beat SC in any of those years I’ll admit (the Reggie Bush years), and I’m pretty sure we lost to Wyoming in the Las Vegas Bowl one of those years. But no other coach since then has come anywhere near the Rose Bowl. Or maybe I’m misremembering, I am getting old.
Yeah, the only year UCLA was really in "contention" for the Rose Bowl was 2005, and that was built off an unsustainable series of late-game heroics. Every other year the Bruins ended up around .500 in conference play.
And at this point, I don't think it's vitriol when it comes to Dorrell. Mostly it's a recognition and understanding that he wasn't ready to be a head coach then, and the Bruins threw away half a decade following an impressive run mostly because they wanted to make sure everyone knew they were running a clean program. I think the biggest issue plugged-in fans had with that era was the fact that Dorrell refused to compete for local recruits, instead letting anyone with talent head either across town or somewhere else, and leaving the team with a noticeable ceiling when it came to ability (sound familiar?).
Yes I do remember the recruiting failures. Also I seem to recall in 2005 we lost those last two games by a combined score of 115-20. A real let down. But it was a fun year to watch nevertheless.
I hope he's successful at Colorado after this Saturday because he's a good man, a great Bruin, and there are still far too few African American college football head coaches. I hope he's learned a lot since we let him go. Also, I think your summary is about right, Dimitri, though it was unfortunate that those calling for his firing because of poor coaching were often called racist.
Also that an important factor in Dan Guerrero's hiring him was that he was impressed with the sharp creases in Dorrell's pants. Dorrell was a great Bruin as a player. He was not ready to be a head coach.
True, although in defense of Dan (did I just say that?), Chancellor Carnesale is the one who really pushed for Dorrell. Dan was brand new to the job and basically followed the Chancellor's recommendation.
This was not the last time we would bear the consequences of a weak AD and weaker Chancellor.
Trivia time: What was Karl Dorrell's first game as a college head coach?
Answer: U.C.L.A. vs CU, at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado. The more things change...
I was there and briefly met Karl's parents. Lovely people. The Buffs won 16-14. A crappy late PI call (oh, how I have NOT missed you SPTRs) kept a CU drive alive for the winning field goal.
Guess I won't be attending this one, though. Only a limited number of player families are allowed in. FU covid.
Trivia time on top of trivia time: The Bruins lost that game partly because Karl Dorrell "forgot" to put in the game which star running back?
Oh yeah. That was that game. I'd forgotten that part. Good question...Was that Manny White?
Trivia time on top of trivia time on top of trivia time...and this is sort of tangential and obscure: Anyone know who CU's QB was that season?
Joel Klatt?
Correct!! Klatt did some morning sports talk radio here for a while and has become one of the best college football color analysts on TV. He is currently paired with the incomparable Gus Johnson for Fox Sports.
I don't know how much more interest we can drag out of that totally meh game lol
Cannot go wrong being paired with Gus Johnson!
I was at that game as well. Brought a bunch of UF friends from Orlando and met a fellow Bruin. Great trip; terrible game. Olsen got hurt and Matt Moore was the QB for most of the game. I have a great pic somewhere of Marcedes Lewis walking out of the tunnel for that game.
I don’t understand the vitriol around Dorrell. As I recall he had the team in contention for the Rose Bowl in 3 of his 5 years. We didn’t beat SC in any of those years I’ll admit (the Reggie Bush years), and I’m pretty sure we lost to Wyoming in the Las Vegas Bowl one of those years. But no other coach since then has come anywhere near the Rose Bowl. Or maybe I’m misremembering, I am getting old.
Yeah, the only year UCLA was really in "contention" for the Rose Bowl was 2005, and that was built off an unsustainable series of late-game heroics. Every other year the Bruins ended up around .500 in conference play.
And at this point, I don't think it's vitriol when it comes to Dorrell. Mostly it's a recognition and understanding that he wasn't ready to be a head coach then, and the Bruins threw away half a decade following an impressive run mostly because they wanted to make sure everyone knew they were running a clean program. I think the biggest issue plugged-in fans had with that era was the fact that Dorrell refused to compete for local recruits, instead letting anyone with talent head either across town or somewhere else, and leaving the team with a noticeable ceiling when it came to ability (sound familiar?).
Yes I do remember the recruiting failures. Also I seem to recall in 2005 we lost those last two games by a combined score of 115-20. A real let down. But it was a fun year to watch nevertheless.
I hope he's successful at Colorado after this Saturday because he's a good man, a great Bruin, and there are still far too few African American college football head coaches. I hope he's learned a lot since we let him go. Also, I think your summary is about right, Dimitri, though it was unfortunate that those calling for his firing because of poor coaching were often called racist.
Also that an important factor in Dan Guerrero's hiring him was that he was impressed with the sharp creases in Dorrell's pants. Dorrell was a great Bruin as a player. He was not ready to be a head coach.
True, although in defense of Dan (did I just say that?), Chancellor Carnesale is the one who really pushed for Dorrell. Dan was brand new to the job and basically followed the Chancellor's recommendation.
This was not the last time we would bear the consequences of a weak AD and weaker Chancellor.