Jim Svoboda has been fired as the UCLA offensive coordinator,
football coach Karl Dorrell announced Thursday afternoon. Svoboda
was in just his first year as the offensive coordinator, but had
been the quarterbacks coach for two years prior.
“I had a chance to visit with Jim yesterday,”
Dorrell said during a conference call. “We decided to go in a
different direction offensively. This season was a good season in a
lot of respects, but we did not perform as well as my
expectations.”
For much of the season, the Bruins’ offense was nowhere
near the quality of last year. Throughout the first seven games,
UCLA scored no more than 31 points in any game, a stark contrast to
last year’s offensive machine.
After the game against Cal, in which the Bruins had a noticeably
improved offensive game, Dorrell admitted that he had taken a
larger role in the offensive scheming. He maintained that role
throughout the rest of the season, and there has been speculation
since the Cal game that Svoboda would either be fired or demoted
back to quarterbacks coach.
Dorrell does not yet know what they will do about the vacant
position. He may take the role himself, or he may look for outside
help.
“It’s going to be really important that I hire the
best candidate,” Dorrell said. “I was able to do that
last year on the defensive side. There is no time table, it is just
about finding the best fit.
“I will be able to find us a great coach on the offensive
side.”
Dorrell went on to say that it is not imperative that the new
coordinator have knowledge of the West Coast offense, but that it
would help.
Svoboda was handicapped during his year as coordinator by a lack
of knowledge of the West Coast offense. In his time as a
lower-division offensive coordinator, Svoboda’s offenses
excelled by running multiple offensive formations, including the
spread, a formation that is becoming prominent in college football.
In the rigid offensive system of Dorrell, Svoboda seemed to have
trouble raising the level of the playcalling.
Dorrell also said that he didn’t anticipate any further
coaching changes, but given all the late coaching changes that
happened last year due to NFL opportunities, he could not say
definitively whether there would be any further changes.