It’s amazing what a difference a year makes.
One year after he took over the reins of the UCLA football
program, coach Karl Dorrell stepped up to the lectern Wednesday
during Pac-10 media day and said with excitement the program was
just where he wanted it to be.
Reporters saw a different side of Dorrell as he resurfaced with
a renewed exuberance and spoke confidently about the direction of
the team.
Gone was the reserved first-year head coach who in the past had
been overshadowed by an emotional Pete Carroll from USC.
Instead, Dorrell offered with refreshing conviction that the
Bruins would be more competitive than anyone has foreseen.
In the media’s Pac-10 preseason poll released on
Wednesday, UCLA was picked to finish eighth, ranking just ahead of
Stanford and Arizona.
Armed with an optimistic outlook, Dorrell hopes to prove the
naysayers wrong.
“We’ve gained so much ground in the
off-season,” Dorrell said, later adding he thought the team
could finish in the top three in the conference. “We think
we’re gong to be pretty good, despite what some people may
say.”
But for those not connected with the program, the season outlook
certainly isn’t as positive as Dorrell’s.
After all, it only has been seven months since the Bruins hit
rock bottom with a forgettable loss to Fresno State at the Silicon
Valley Classic. And in the months following the bowl defeat, the
team lost its entire defensive line to graduation along with three
assistant coaches and a handful of other significant players who
transferred.
But what Dorrell told reporters was that those events possibly
had to happen in order for the capsized team to right itself.
“We’ve made so many great steps as a program,”
he said. “Everything is on board to my liking. It all comes
down to attitude. It starts with the coaches and trickles down to
the players.”
The biggest of those steps was hiring new offensive coordinator
and offensive line coach Tom Cable, one of three new coaches on
offense for the Bruins.
With Cable on board, Dorrell finally has in place a coordinator
who believes in the second-year head coach’s style of the
West Coast offense, remedying one of the team’s biggest
problems from the 2003 season.
Under then-coordinator Steve Axman, who wasn’t fully on
board with the West Coast offense, UCLA’s offense struggled
mightily, ranking close to the bottom of the 117 Division I schools
in offensive efficiency.
But with Cable at the helm, both Dorrell and quarterback Drew
Olson ““ who was also in attendance Wednesday ““ said the
offense has been rejuvenated.
“Cable has brought so much passion,” Olson said.
“Last year, for Coach Axman it wasn’t his system. But
with Cable, he’s so passionate because he believes in the
system.”
“Everything is much more comfortable now,” said
Dorrell of the new coaching staff. “Now the staff is
operating under my philosophy.”
But even though Dorrell believes the new coaching additions will
help bolster the team’s performance on the offensive end, the
Bruins still will have a long road ahead of them.
The defense, which was UCLA’s most dominant unit last
season, suffered heavy losses in the past months with the entire
defensive line’s graduation. Other key players departing from
Westwood included linebacker Brandon Chillar and cornerback Matt
Ware.
With a large portion of the defense and team leadership lost,
the pressure will fall on the shoulders of Olson and the
offense.
But Olson seems comfortable with the responsibility of leading
the Bruins. Motivated by the devastating loss to Fresno State,
after which Olson said he’d “never felt so
embarrassed,” the Bruins have shown a more cohesive
dedication with the whole team’s devoting itself to a strict
and intense summer workout regimen.
“I haven’t felt as good about things in the last two
years I’ve been here,” Olson said. “Everyone is
extremely close, and that has been a huge change for us. This year,
we have a whole different feeling on the team, and I’m really
looking forward to that.”
It appears the players, spurred by the new staff’s
enthusiasm, finally have bought into Dorrell’s system. This
improved attitude might help explain why Dorrell is so excited
about this team and the upcoming season.
“The team has taken the initiative to grab the bull by the
horns,” Dorrell said. “And ever since then, things are
going forward and in an upward motion.”
All the pieces appear to be in place now. What remains to be
seen is if Dorrell actually can put the puzzle together.