He's too staid, too indecisive, in over his head and doesn't win enough.
So goes the tired, old argument against UCLA football Coach Karl Dorrell. An army of you critics wants him gone. Bring in someone else, you say, and the Bruins will morph into a football juggernaut.
You are dead wrong.
Karl Dorrell is right for the Bruins. UCLA should not stoop to the maddening crowd and cut him loose.
Someone should square off against the lot of you who are trying to drive a good coach out of town. You have your websites and blogs. So I'm starting mine. I'm calling it dontdumpdorrell.blogspot.com, and it's on the web now. It is a forum for discussion about the embattled coach.
I'll post this column and respond to your reasoned arguments until we know his fate.
I hope my final post will be hearty congratulations to UCLA administrators for finding their coach of the future -- the guy they have right now.
Here is why Karl Dorrell should stay. He has the kind of smart, honorable character that more coaches need.
And he has done exactly what he was asked to do.
UCLA brought him in before the 2003 season and told him to refashion an unruly, undisciplined team in his own straight-arrow image. Under Dorrell's watch, here is what you no longer see: Bruins in the headlines for run-ins with the law.
He was also told to win. His record could be better, but he's done plenty to keep his job. Two years ago, his team was 10-2, and he shared Pacific 10 Conference coach-of-the-year honors with Pete Carroll. Over time, Dorrell's teams have won nearly six of every 10 games -- pretty much the standard Bruins clip.
This year, as the Bruins' sideline has come to resemble a hospital emergency room, Dorrell's team has five wins and five losses. With two of the toughest games of the year still to play, you critics have him firmly in your cross hairs.
But if you think that you are getting to him, then you're wrong about that, too. Karl Dorrell takes pressure with grace, and that is Ernest Hemingway's definition of courage. Dorrell is wary, but calm. You're not rattling him. He has grown used to your flak.
"Well, definitely, the season has not gone according to plan," he told me the other day. For an hour, we sat on leather sofas in his office, and he answered my questions.
"You know, we have shown signs of being a very good football team," he said, his voice firm. "Then there have been times when we have not gained the continuity we'd like. . . . I do want people to understand the context."
