Last Tuesday, first-year UCLA wide receivers coach Eric Scott, along with two other men, was arrested on a charge of burglary. He was placed on administrative leave Wednesday.
By Thursday’s Pac-10 Football Media Day, football coach Karl Dorrell didn’t want to spend much of his time fielding questions about Scott. So he said his piece before any of the assembled reporters could ask.
“I put (Scott) on administrative leave yesterday given the allegation that’s out against him,” Dorrell said. “We can’t really comment much about what has happened.
“At UCLA, we’re all held to the same standard whether you’re a player or a coach, so when something like this happens there has to come a judicial process. We’ll find out more about this case as it unfolds.”
Scott is 32, a former football player for the Bruins, and a 1997 graduate of UCLA. His duties also included recruiting, especially in the southern Los Angeles area, where he previously worked as an assistant coach at Crenshaw High School. He has been released on $50,000 bail.
Dorrell, whose resume before coming to UCLA includes three years as wide receivers coach for the Denver Broncos, said he will personally take over Scott’s coaching duties while the case is pending.
“I think my arm’s still strong enough, so I’m going to be acting as the receivers coach,” Dorrell said. “It’s something that I’ve done before for most of my career. I know our offense, so we’re just going to let the process take its course.”
BRUIN OUTLOOK: A few days before the start of training camp is an easy time for any football team to be optimistic, and UCLA is no different. But with 20 returning starters, a potentially dominant defense that should continue to improve in its second year under coordinator DeWayne Walker and a promising new offensive coordinator, the positive vibes may be warranted.
Whether or not preseason optimism translates to on-field success, however, could greatly depend on how quickly that offensive coordinator, Jay Norvell, can revitalize an offense that struggled last season. Dorrell believes the transition should be smooth and that offensive production will improve quickly.
“(Norvell and I) speak the same language,” Dorrell said. “He’s the only (coordinator) I’ve had in my career who understands to a “˜T’ exactly what my expectations are and what the terminology is of how we do this thing. He’s going to do a tremendous job.”
Dorrell went so far as to compare Norvell’s potential impact on the offense to the impact Walker had on the defense last year. After being ranked near the bottom of Division I in 2005 in total defense, the Bruins improved to 33rd overall in 2006 and allowed nearly half as many touchdowns (27, as opposed to 48).
“(With Norvell) you’re going to see very similar types of attributes (compared to Walker),” Dorrell said. “He’s very well organized, he’s a strong, strong communicator, he’s very demanding, and he’s going to get our offense up and running like we’ve had in the past.”
Senior defensive end Bruce Davis agreed with Dorrell’s assessment but also embraced the notion that, for now, the defense is the backbone of the team.
“I’m glad that people are starting to recognize that defense is the strength of our team,” he said. “I think our offense will pick it up though. I think our quarterbacks can be just as good as anyone in the Pac-10. But right now the flagship of our team is the defense.”
And if the defense plays up to its ability and the offense can come around? Davis wasn’t bashful in his assessment of how good the Bruins could be.
“I think we’re a serious contender for the national championship,” he said. “We’re just going to have to wait and see, to take it one game at a time. Hopefully we’re the best team on the field every week we play.”
AROUND THE LEAGUE: One popular subject of conversation among the gathered media was Louisiana State coach Les Miles’ comments in late June, when Miles criticized the Pac-10 as being effectively a one-team league and sarcastically pitied USC for having to “play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford ““ some real juggernauts.”
Washington State coach Bill Doba said that such perceptions of the Pac-10 as a soft conference are inevitable, given the league’s overall offensive focus.
“We throw the ball around more out here,” he said. “It’s grass basketball.”
When asked how he’s changed since he last coached in the Pac-10, new Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson, who coached at Oregon State before spending two years in the NFL as coach for the San Francisco 49ers, replied, “I’m quite a bit more mellow. I don’t yell at officials anymore.”
New Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh isn’t at all interested in being mellow. His formula for turning around the Cardinal, who finished last season 1-11? “A group of senior guys who are willing to work hard and are tired of getting their butts kicked … (we’ll be) working like dogs and having fun doing it. To me, that’s what football is. You have to earn the right to expect to win.”
The former NFL quarterback also added that he was looking forward to Stanford’s season-opening game against UCLA on Sept. 1 and said of the Bruins that “they are a great team.”