UCLA: It’s Time to Clear House

I read Bill Plaschke’s Article Saturday night and hung my head in disbelief. Irrelevant little Bruins indeed. Just like Coach Neuheisal, I will always remember the Stanford game, 2010. It wasn’t the interceptions and the fumbles, or the lack of defense that got me down. It was the feeling of disbelief – that burning question: how did we get here?

The 2005 “Beat SC Bonfire” was my introduction to UCLA football. “Beat SC Week” was scheduled for the week before finals, giving us a nice catharsis. The tower burned, the insults flew, the Trojans hung and the troops were rallied. Karl Dorrell, our fearless leader stood in front of the inferno pumping his fists and leading numerous 8-claps. Then, like a mystic hero, Maurice Jones-Drew took the mic and the crowd went haywire. Although we suffered a humiliating loss to SC that year, our 10-2 record stood was nothing to be disappointed over.

We had momentum going into 2006. Although we barely broke even that year, we did the impossible. We upset #2 ranked USC 13-9. Like the aforementioned Stanford game, I will always remember where I was when we beat USC. We rioted, cars were torched and fans were maced, all in the supposedly quiet Westwood.

The next season, we made the Las Vegas Bowl, but went 6-7. But, no lackluster season goes unpunished – Dorrell was fired.

Those were the days.

It went downhill from there. Relatively unknown former UCLA MVP quarterback Rick Neuheisal was hired to replace Dorrell, and former Trojan Norm Chow took up Defense. Redshirt Junior Kevin Craft was chosen for starting quarterback, and the worst season in my four years at UCLA began. Craft ran more than he could throw and when he did throw, he had more interceptions that completions. He ignored Neuheisal, and made up plays on the fly. We went 4-8 that season with another humiliating loss to USC. That was my senior year. Nice way to say goodbye.

Again, no lackluster season goes unpunished. Craft lost the starting quarterback position to Kevin Prince, a perpetually injured Crespi High School alumni. Neuheisal started the season with a promise: a 6-6 record and a bowl berth. He fired up the troops and we rushed into the 2009 season 3-1 with wins against Tennessee, Kansas State and San Diego State. We were unstoppable. That is, until we started playing against Pac-10 teams. We went 0-4 in October, lost a 5^th game to USC, but held on to beat Washington, Arizona State and Washington State. Neuheisal made a promise and he delivered. We were 6-6 and were invited to the Eagle Bank bowl in Washington, DC, where we beat Temple University.

Our current team is a mix of rookies, the always-injured Kevin Prince at quarterback and the sensational Kai Forbath at kicker. But, when I watched Prince go 9/26 against Kansas State, and experienced our Washington-State-like effort against Stanford, I could not help but wonder: Why do I miss Karl Dorrell so much?

Maybe it’s time for the UCLA to do some soul searching, and clear house. Neuheisal is failing and Chow isn’t helping. Our most effective offensive player is Forbath at kicker. And, with the 7^th hardest schedule in the entire BCS system, we are destined to go into October 0-5. If we don’t act soon, UCLA might become Pac-10 irrelevant, and The Pac-10 doesn’t need 2 Washington States.