After five years at the helm of the UCLA football program, Karl Dorrell has been relieved of his position as coach, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero announced Monday.
Guerrero held a press conference to announce the decision, which he said was a difficult one to make.
“This is, as you can imagine, a very difficult and painful decision for me,” Guerrero said. “I hired Karl five years ago in the hopes that this program could grow and prosper under his leadership. In many ways, it did. But after an analysis of the five-year tenure at the helm, and my discussions with him throughout the season … I felt that it was important for us ““ for this program ““ to move forward, that we make the change at this particular time.”
The firing comes after a 6-6 season for the UCLA football team that began with high hopes. Ranked No. 11 at one point, the Bruins nose-dived, losing 44-6 to Utah and 20-6 to Notre Dame and going 1-3 in the last four games of the season.
In his five seasons at UCLA, Dorrell was 35-27, with the high point being a 10-2 record and Sun Bowl berth in 2005.
Guerrero said he was pleased with Dorrell as a “leader of men” and said that he had built a program of high-character, high-quality student athletes.
Dorrell handled the rebuilding process “very, very well,” Guerrero said. “He established stability. He established a solid foundation, and he in fact dealt with the infrastructure issues that had occurred in our program at that time.
“We have terrific young men in our program that represent this university well, and in large part that can basically be placed on the shoulders of Karl Dorrell.”
Ultimately, though, Guerrero said that the decision to fire Dorrell was based on results on the field.
Dorrell will be given the opportunity to coach in the Las Vegas Bowl against BYU, Guerrero went on to say.
“Generally speaking, when there’s a transition of this type at the end of the year, the athletic director hires an interim coach for that particular game,” Guerrero said. “This is a different situation in a lot of ways. Karl is family, and when I discussed this with him, I gave him the opportunity to continue to coach the team through the bowl. Knowing Karl, I believe he would love to be able to take another crack at BYU with our guys.”
Guerrero said he expected a decision from Dorrell on whether or not he would coach the bowl game by late Monday or Tuesday.
In a statement released by UCLA Sports Information, Dorrell said he was proud of where the program is headed.
“I am proud of what the program accomplished during my five years, especially in the areas of academics, citizenship and recruiting,” Dorrell said in the release. “I think a great foundation has been laid, and I will be pulling for the young men I recruited into the program to be successful in the future.”
COACHING SEARCH: Various media sources have named multiple candidates as replacement coaches, including Boise State’s coach Chris Peterson, Texas Tech’s coach Mike Leach and former Detroit Lions coach Steve Mariucci.
Guerrero said that he has not yet been in contact with any of them but wants to do a thorough search to ensure that the program finds the “right fit” for UCLA.