My goodness, was that really Karl Dorrell on the sideline?
Sure, UCLA was playing Washington in the Rose Bowl on Saturday, but that had to have been some other coach in the powder blue shirt running up and down the field and yelling at the referees in disgust, right?
Afraid not.
Dorrell, now in his fifth year at the helm of UCLA’s struggling program, has never been accused of being much of a hothead on the sideline. In the most flattering of football circles, Dorrell has been called a cerebral, understated leader, like his West Coast offense mentor, Mike Shanahan, or Bill Walsh before him. Around Westwood, Dorrell has been often called stoic, inactive and even disinterested.
But at least for one night, during a game Dorrell needed to win to salvage his season, and perhaps even save his job, he showed the emotional flare that so many outsiders doubted the Bruin coach actually had in him.
The Bruins’ 44-31 win over the Huskies at the Rose Bowl pumped some much-needed oxygen into their beleaguered bodies. Coming off an absolute abomination ““ a 44-6 drubbing at the hands of an injury-riddled Utah that was previously winless ““ the Bruins showed some fight: that they aren’t going to roll over before the bulk of conference play starts. But the bigger question following the Bruins’ (3-1, 2-0 Pac-10) win is whether or not Dorrell has finally adjusted his coaching style to his players’ abilities and temperaments.
“We needed a difference in me going into this week, period,” Dorrell said after the game. “I mentioned (earlier in the week) how it was important that I coach hard and get what I expect out of these guys.”
Dorrell mentioned during the week of practice leading up to the game that he wasn’t going to make a “state of the program” statement. Fair enough. After all, that is a surefire way for his players to detect panic. And from the looks of things on Saturday night, the players needed to see their Dorrell coaching with some fire in his belly, the same kind of fire that had been missing from both the players and the coaches during the previous week’s horrific loss.
Lest anyone actually think that all a coach must do is jump around on the sideline like a madman to motivate his players, one need only look at the gutsy coaching decisions Dorrell made against Washington.
With the game tied at 10 nearing the end of the first half, Dorrell opted to run a two-minute hurry-up offense with redshirt junior Pat Cowan, the supposed back-up quarterback, leading the unit. This was a shocking move, considering that Dorrell usually runs out the clock in favor of ball security.
Even though the drive fizzled and the game was even at the break, it showed the kind of chutzpah that has sorely been lacking in the Bruin program.
With a 17-10 lead in the middle of the third quarter, Dorrell made another inspiring decision. UCLA had driven to the Washington 20 and went for the conversion on fourth-and-2 rather than taking the field goal. Again, Dorrell’s decision didn’t exactly pay off. Cowan bounced a pass to junior tight end Logan Paulsen on a naked bootleg. But it was the right play call ““ Cowan would have been able to scramble for the first down, but the Huskies snuffed out the play and forced a bad pass to a covered receiver.
And one should never fault a coach for trying to outright win a ball game, especially when that coach is Dorrell, who has mismanaged far too many games by coaching not to lose.
Not so surprisingly, Dorrell’s team found a way to pull away in the fourth quarter and win convincingly after he set the foundation with an aggressive coaching style. And in case anyone was wondering, the players do notice that kind of coaching.
“We recognize that, sure,” senior wide receiver Brandon Breazell said. “But mostly, we know that coach (Dorrell) wants to send the seniors out on a good year, making it to a good bowl game. And we know that anyway. But it’s extra motivation when you see him like that on the sideline.”
How about the coaches? Did they notice a difference in Dorrell and the coaching style going into this game?
“No question,” defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. “Last week was embarrassing for the coaches first of all, and for the players as well. We don’t play that way. We knew we had to come out and win this football game, any means necessary. We had to find a way to win this game. Were we desperate this week? No question.”
And so the desperate team got its win, and kept its collective head above water for another week. But in the past few years under Dorrell, the Bruins have been known to right a sinking ship in the Rose Bowl, where they play well, and then continue their slide when they head back onto the road.
And wouldn’t you know it, the Bruins travel to Corvallis, Ore., next week to play a mediocre Beaver club. So will the energy fall back down? Is this a new and improved Dorrell, more aggressive than ever before, or just a one-week wonder to stave off the vultures who eagerly anticipated a media feast less than a month into the season?
Here’s the word straight from the source: “I have good coaches but I am the extra,” Dorrell said. “I’m the added coach that’s going to coach in every area. I was really trying to emphasize what my role is, given the circumstances of what happened the week before.
“I like challenges. I like being put up to the task like this. And I answered the bell. And I’m going to answer the bell week after week.”
Nobody likes to probe too much after a nice win. But somebody is going to have to explain, sooner or later, why it is that Dorrell coached hard this week compared to other weeks, and why he never thought about employing a more aggressive coaching style earlier in his tenure. Earlier than, say, four games into his fifth season.
E-mail de Jong at adejong@media.ucla.edu.