Forgive me for not getting too excited when I opened up my
e-mail inbox a couple of nights ago to find a UCLA press release
telling me that Jay Norvell was going to be the man to turn around
the Bruin offense come August.
I know we’re still months away from spring practice and
then training camp, with a deep run in the NCAA Tournament on most
people’s minds right now, but I wanted to nip this thing in
the bud before it gets too late.
I want to squash any notions of a re-energized West Coast
offense for the 2007 season before coach Karl Dorrell and his
players feed me the bland lines about the new coach ““ in this
case, Norvell ““ coming in and “really opening things
up,” which is one of those sports euphemisms that someone is
going to have to explain to me.
The fact of the matter is that this coaching change could be
seen coming from a mile away. Dorrell waited a grace period before
handing former offensive coordinator Jim Svoboda his walking papers
after only one year on the job. In his short stint as play-caller,
Svoboda designed an offense that managed only 23 points per game
and kept the Bruins from having anything more than another mediocre
season.
Norvell will likely prove to be a more creative Xs and Os guy
than Svoboda (which isn’t setting the bar too high). Norvell
is a West Coast offense disciple who has been the quarterbacks
coach in Nebraska for the past three seasons, studying under Bill
Callahan. Next year will be his first chance to develop his own
offense and call the plays.
But the change in coordinators does more to remind me of
everything that is holding the UCLA football program back.
Rather than try to implement a high-concept offense that
attempts to master efficiency and timing patterns, maybe Dorrell
should just focus on recruiting the best natural athletes he can
get and then utilize their abilities more flexibly. Dorrell would
have a much easier time getting elite prospects to commit to UCLA
if he were to employ an offense with a broad foundation that could
really take advantage of the most explosive athletes on the
roster.
Instead, however, he has attempted to recruit players who seem
to fit more narrowly into his West Coast system, hoping they will
develop .
Former Bruin quarterback Drew Olson said it took him three years
““ until 2005, his senior season ““ to finally feel
comfortable in Dorrell’s offense. That year, Olson led the
Bruins to a 10-2 season in which the offense scored 39 points per
game.
Olson was one of the most intelligent athletes to play under
Dorrell, and was able to overcome a lack of natural ability with
workmanlike play. Think about how long it would take a more
physically gifted player who was, shall we say, less mentally
acute. Think Michael Vick.
The way Dorrell has built his program suggests that one of two
possibilities must be true. He has either sacrificed recruiting
blue-chip prospects at the altar of his West Coast offense, or he
has tried to overcome a roster with scant athletic specimens by
using a more intricate system. It’s obvious that the latter
explanation is the real reason, which is actually a testament to
Dorrell’s ability as a coach, if not his ability as a
recruiter.
He knows how to take an offense and make it better, which he
proved again in 2006, when he assumed some of Svoboda’s
responsibilities in the middle of the season by taking a more
hands-on approach once it was obvious his offensive coordinator
couldn’t get the job done. Dorrell never fully revealed how
much (if any) of the play-calling he was doing, but it was evident
to anyone who followed the program that he was the one who deserves
credit for turning around the Bruins’ season with a four-game
winning streak. He got every last inch out of an offense that
lacked a true playmaker.
The unfortunate reality is that Dorrell’s technical
knowledge of the game is still light-years ahead of his ability to
recruit big-time players to Westwood. Until he finds a way to get
more physically gifted skill players into his program ““ big
receiving targets who can run and jump, or big bruising running
backs or slashing tailbacks ““ he will be forced to patch
together a team that will hover around seven wins, maybe reaching
nine or 10 every three years or so.
So while UCLA welcomes in a new offensive coordinator, competing
Pac-10 programs are welcoming in the next class of Dwayne Jarretts
and Marshawn Lynchs.
E-mail De Jong at adejong@media.ucla.edu.