Maybe it is a hopeless cause, the hope being that the firing of Dorrell now gives UCLA the chance to move up to a higher plane of football to be among the elites.  We cannot move up.  The loser's mentality is too pervasive.

What I saw last night was a loss.  Yes, many UCLA players played their guts out, but it was a loss.  The final score told me it was a loss.  A loss to a MWC conference team in a nothing bowl.  A loss that stamped UCLA as a team with a losing record.

But if you read the myriad of gloating posts at other UCLA football sites, you might think that UCLA had just won the BCS title game.  This is the mentality that will continue to keep UCLA from being anything but a middle-of-the-pack Pac!0 team.

It was bad enough to celebrate a loss against SC a couple of years ago -- at least SC was an elite team that year.  But this time, the celebration is over a LOSS to BYU.  Earlier in the season, a ho-hum, sloppy win over BYU was used as a positive measuring stick as to how great Dorrell was as HC.  And now a LOSS to BYU is being used as a projection as to how great Walker would be as HC.

Since when has BYU become a measuring stick of UCLA football?  

Yet, Bruin fans are celebrating this moral victory, building a case to promote Walker to HC. All this excitement over a LOSS to BYU -- I just want to raise my arms in surrender.

6-7, after a LOSS to BYU in some nothing bowl, and Bruins are dancing in the streets hailing Walker as some coaching genius.  Against this backdrop, UCLA wants to move up among the elites?  It's not going to happen.  Those of us with higher aspirations for UCLA football are fighting a losing battle.  The loser's mentality out there has too much inertia to overcome.

Just 3 words.  I GIVE UP.

"Bowl eligible."  These two words reek -- they reek of underachievement, they reek of coaching incompetence, they reek of glaring mediocrity.

Other programs are fighting for the national title, they are fighting for a BCS bowl, they are fighting for a conference title.  UCLA is fighting for...to be freakin' "bowl eligible."  I mean it, these two words are insulting to respectable Bruin fans everywhere, and yet this is the most that KD could deliver to our beloved university.  UCLA football should never, never be about merely being "bowl eligible."  

We all had such high hopes at the beginning of September.  We thought everything was in place for a superior football season.  Returning seniors, favorable scheduling, blah, blah...  But one person was at least smart enough to know a crucial component was still missing:  KD himself, and the missing piece was first-rate coaching.  He himself knew he was not up to the taske of delivering anything of significance inspite of the numerous advantages in place this season.  And this is the only time I will ever use the word "smart" in connection with KD.  

While Bruin football fans everywhere were enumerating various lofty goals for the 2007 team, KD himself knew he did not have the capability to deliver.  When pressed and pressed for his own expectations for this season, all he would project was that UCLA would MAKE A MOVE.  Wow!  That was brimming with confidence.  And now that KD has made the move, we are at the doorstep of being "bowl eligible."  Yippee!!  What an absolute joke for the UCLA football program.

And yet, against this 'bowl eligible" backdrop, there are still UCLA fans who want to retain this clueless coach-pretender?  You've got to be kidding?  These people and this sentiment is as anti-UCLA excellence as can be.  It lends credence to the suspicion that these KD "supporters" are not Bruins, but people from enemy camps who wish UCLA to be continually mired in mediocrity.

Bowl eligible.  What a nasty, demeaning state of being for our football program.  And we still have yet to attain it.

And people are dancing in the street.  People are crawling out of the woodwork to bash Bruin Nation for it's anti-KD stance.  People that were nowhere to be found after Utah and after Notre Dame.  And here they are in droves, flipping their middle finger at BN.

To these people: why don't you stop and consider what "UCLA upsets Cal" really means.  Cal is ranked, and we beat a ranked team.  Why aren't we ranked?   Why is a UCLA win over Cal now considered an upset?  

Yes, it's the Lavin debacle all over again.  After Lavin beat a ranked SC basketball team he was running up and down the court exclaiming "We beat a ranked team...we beat a ranked team..."  It was an embarrassment, and sportwriters asked -- why wasn't UCLA ranked?  Why should UCLA ever be so gleeful over a win, as if it were a rare occurrence?

Questions such as these are the basis for the existence of a site such as BN.  If you don't see the legitimacy of these questions, then stay the hell away from BN, because you are clueless as to what an elite UCLA football program means.  You are hopeless zombies to the KD brand of second-rate, road-to-nowhere, ridiculed football.

For those of us who wants an elite program at UCLA, "UCLA upsets Cal" signifies the sorry state of the KD regime.

Bumped from the diaries. GO BRUINS. -N

UCLA is no longer on top of the Pac 10.  ASU is now in first place, and with that ridiculous pro-KD argument (UCLA being first place in the Pac 10) gone, another pro-KD absurdity immediately surfaced:  UCLA is still in control of its own destiny -- win out and we will be in the Rose Bowl.

Remember at one time there was actually talk about UCLA going into the SC game 11-0?  In retrospect, what a ludicrous notion that was.  In all that pre-season euphoria of a mighty, dominating, top-5 UCLA team, people overlooked an 800-lb gorilla standing in the way.  An inept coach.  You give KD the New England Patriots to compete with college opponents, and he will find a way to royally screw it up.

The nadir of KD's incompetence for all the world to see was his decision-making in the Notre Dame game.  That game turned countless former supporters against the joker.  How could that game not?  Only morons could continue to be on his side.

And morons, indeed, remain.  They're the ones saying -- no problem, we can win out to make this a successful season after all.

Dominoes are falling one by one:

Undefeated season, gone.
Top-5 ranking, gone.
Any ranking, gone.
BCS Title hopes, gone.

And the latest, Pac 10 leader, gone.

And so, the latest battle cry of the KD morons is:  Win out.  Pat Cowan will be back.  He will make everything alright somehow.  Winning out is now not out of the question.  

But the 800-lb gorilla is still there, you morons.

I just cannot get that KD quote out of my mind.  In conjunction with his "I sleep well at night" comment after the Utah loss, these two comments really portrays a person totally devoid of any sense of responsibility.  Responsibility to his employer UCLA, responsibility to Bruin fans, and responsibility to his profession as a football coach.

These are very callous statements, tantamount to pouring salt onto a wound.  There are thousands upon thousands of Bruin football fans who live and die Bruin football, and with each loss their emtional well-being take a dive into a pitch-dark abyss.  

So, after the Utah loss, while Bruin fans everywhere were suffering the pain of such an unexpected humiliation, KD smirked to the media and declared:  I still sleep well at night.

And then came the Notre Dame debacle, a game that no way UCLA should have lost regardless of who was at QB, a game UCLA should not have lost even if there was no one at QB.  There was only one way UCLA could have lost, and KD found that one way -- by abandoning the running game (against which Notre Dame basically had no answer to stop) and forcing a walk-on with zero real-game experience to instantly become Johnny Unitas in a wide-open passing offensive scheme.  This coaching decision, two days later, remains inexplicable even to the most ardent of KD supporters.

And once again, Bruin football fans everywhere were suffering in pain to have lost so unexpectedly to a Notre Dame that, talent-wise, did not belong on the same field as UCLA.  It was a colossal loss, the worst of KD's career.  Asked about the loss, KD responded:  It is what it is.

To die-hard, mourning Bruin fans everywhere, what a cold-hearted, insulting, and even spiteful statement to make.  And it seemed to be calculated to inflict purposeful pain -- as if KD were cornered and that was his way of fighting back.

KD is telling Bruin fans:  don't take the game so seriously, because he himself sure doesn't.  It is what it is...so, get over it.

"It is what it is" will stay with me for a long, long time.

Would KD dare bring the race card into the picture if he feels threatened of being fired?  He had better not.  Ain't gonna work.  If there is any racism in the athletic department, it would have been there 5 years ago -- he never would have been hired in the first place.  KD cannot argue that racism was not there when he was hired, but now is here when he's being fired. It's just too convenient an argument to use, and UCLA could easily refute it.  

There is nothing racist when Bruin fans speak of his mediocre record over the past 4 years.  Toledo was canned even though UCLA achieved a fabulous 20-game winning streak during his tenure.
Where is KD's accomplishment equivalent to Toledo's win streak?  There is nothing in KD's record remotely similar to Toledo's.

And lastly, there is nothing racist about the 44-6 humiliation at the hands of Utah.  Sportswriters call it the worst defeat in KD's career.  There is no racism in that debacle, only sheer incompetence.

So, if the time comes when UCLA is ready to bid him farewell, KD -- instead of bringing up the race card -- should thank UCLA for the opportunity that no other college was willing (and wisely so) to offer.  For once, KD should behave like a man.

• KD is now furious back-peddling, saying that he has always believed that this team is not as good as others say it is.  Then he blames the players for being over-ambitious in publicly declaring their lofty goals, goals which are not his own.  I am sure that others could find past KD quotes to expose KD as a liar in this latest back-peddling.  However, there is no disputing that he has said that this was his best team.  In his 5th season and with his best team, if KD still gets blown out by a previously winless, bottom-feeder like Utah, then we can only conclude that this joker's "best" equates to "mediocre" by overall college football standards.  
•  KD says that he won't be "sorrowful" over the Utah blow-out.  Excuse me, KD, but the entire UCLA football community is still wheeling over this latest embarrassment, and you're damn right everyone is still sorrowful about it.  How about showing some pain, some empathy for the way Bruin fans feel right now, instead of saying -- let them be sorrowful, but not me.  Well, F**K you, your inept coaching caused this gloom.  You walked into a china shop and shattered every piece of merchandise, and you cannot say -- I'm not going to be sorrowful about this.

A coach with an ounce of integrity would not say such things.  KD does not own up.  He is a spineless weasle, looking for the quickest exit to extricate himself from his own mess.  This is why I have zero respect for this joker.

Last year there was a glowing propaganda newspaper article on KD "The Thinker," explaining that people should not be misled by the quiet exterior, that there was a profound "thinker" underneath. That maybe so, I don't know, but sure as hell he cannot translate his profound thinking into some meaningful words for the world to hear.

Last week, amid all the preseason media accolades about this year's UCLA talent, experience and favorable scheduling that should propel UCLA into a conference championship and a BCS bowl, the Thinker had this to say:  UCLA this year will definitely "make a move."

Then this morning reading the papers, I wanted to learn how his WCO was progressing.  I mean, I really wanted to gain some insight into his philosophy behind his commitment to the WCO.  The Thinker provided this bit of nonsensical gem:  "Receivers were making some plays downfield, some big throws and big runs, stuff like that."

I cannot help but be appalled by KD uttering such kids-level phrases as "stuff like that."  

What comes out of the Thinker's mouth is pure meaningless pablum that any 10-year-old could utter.  Someone at Morgan Center should either teach him to say something meaningful and intelligent, or else KD should stop giving interviews altogether.  I am embarrassed for him and I am embarrassed for UCLA.  UCLA's head football coach should not be talking in such juvenilistic manner.  

Come, on Thinker, can you do better than that?

As I'm reading the LA Daily News recap of media day, there were no printed quotes from Dorrell.  In fact, there was no mention of Dorrell whatsoever -- as if he was a non-entity, invisible, and utlimately, irrelevant.  LA Daily News is supposed to cover everything LA, like  UC "LA".  Surely, it had to have found SOMETHING printable from Dorrell that might be of interest to readers.  Apparently not.  And yet, I do not blame the LA Daily News -- I'm sure it really, really tried.

This is supposed to be KD's best squad and his best chance to make a run toward a BCS bowl appearance, at the very minimum.  How could UCLA not even get a mention in a major LA newspaper?  I was not there, but surely KD must have uttered something quotable for the Daily News to print?  How could there be a recap of media day without some kind of quotes from the coach of a major university right here in LA Dalily News' coverage territory?

I'm afraid that the answer is that Dorrell, in the LA Daily News' eyes, is basically irrelevant; UCLA football is irrelevant.  If this were college basketball media day, do you think there would be a Daily News write-up with no quotes from Howland?

We Bruin fans could jump up and down all we want about this being the year, the best chance for our football team to make some kind of national statement.  But as far as the Daily News is concerned, UCLA football is still basically a non-factor.  And KD's inability to say anything of substance, other than the usual meaningless cliches, really does not help mitigate that perception.