Blog 2 Blog: Bruins Nation

For the first time in a while, I've been able to pull up a barstool with an opponent's blogger and shoot the breeze about the upcoming game. The lads over at firekarldorrell.com Bruins Nation were kind enough to take some time to chat up the upcoming game and the important distinction between Trojan and Bruin drunk hotties.

The complementary Q&A is already up at BN (you'll notice that they misspelled "Weis". I just had to give them hell for that one), so here are their responses to my glib wisecracks. Enjoy!

Okay, let's talk Carl Dorel (see, I'm not going to bother to learn how to spell your head coach's name, either). I'm guessing his seat clocks in on the thermometer somewhere between "en fuego" and "molten magma". What is it about him that drives Bruins Nation so batty?

LOL Nice one Brian. But in all honesty we can't really blame you if you can't spell in his name, considering most of the LA's sport world (outside the members of Bruins Nation) probably still doesn't know his name. As recently as few weeks ago Dodgers manager Grady Little disclosed he had no idea who Karl was.

Now as far as what is it about him that drives us crazy. Well by all accounts Dorrell is a decent and honest guy, who works hard. But we are not exactly sure he works hard at what? We are well into his fourth year in Westwood, and Dorrell's team continues to look unprepared, unfocused on Saturdays. Dorrell continues to look clueless during games days with his idiotic clock management, mind boggling conservative game management with no signs of in game adjustments, and embarrassing and disgraceful losses to opponents with inferior talents, who we have no business losing to. Meanwhile, he really hasn't done much to close the talent gap in recruiting with Southern California, and under him UCLA has fallen behind Cal. But more importantly under Dorrell there hasn't been any improvement in UCLA's on field performance compared to Bob Toledo. Dorrell is still winless against Southern California, and winless against teams with winning record on the road. And right now all signs points to that UCLA football is not heading towards the right direction under Dorrell. Does this sound familiar to you? The only way he can reverse the perception at this point is if he can win at least 4 out of our last 6 regular season games including a victory in our last game at the Rose Bowl.

The UCLA quarterbacking situation is kind of a clown car of the walking wounded. Introduce me to the voiceless Patrick Cowan and what,if anything, you know about how he'll perform.

Patrick Cowan is doing fine. He is doing all right and should be ready to go. We feel confident with him controlling our offense last two weeks. He has had three years in the program and he know's Dorrell's "system" (whatever that is). In any event Cowan is not our concern for Saturday. It's the play calling and coaching schemes that will be our main reasons for ulcer this weekend.

Where I come from, spending three years in the Dorrell system qualifies you for a parking permit. Ba-zing!

It's tough to make an assessment of a Pac 10 team's defense, since it's a widely-believed fact that defense actually doesn't exist west of the Rockies. Is there more to know about the Bruin's D than the arm-tackling mess we're accustomed to seeing on SportsCenter?


Now starting at defensive tackle...

At least statistically speaking Bruin's "D" does appeared to have improved somewhat from last year. We have a defense that is apparently ranked no. 9 in the nation. But then again last Saturday the defense played a real offensive juggernaut for the first time, and promptly gave up more than 250 yards on the ground, and 400 yards of total offense. The defensive coordinator himself admitted in the local rags this week he was out schemed by Oregon's OC. So we are not really sure yet. They do appear to be little more aggressive this year. Our safeties – Chris Horton and Dennis Keyes – are ferocious hitters, and we have a pretty deep and talented defensive line. The question is will our defensive coaches put these guys in position to make plays with good schemes right off the bat this Saturday? Honestly we don't have the answer.

You have the dubious honor of sharing a city with one of the biggest juggernauts in college football. Naturally, this raises the question: Which school has better looking women?

I married a Bruin hotty who I fell in love with during my first week in Westwood at the freshmen dorms and she reads this blog. So what do you think my answer is going to be?

Plus one for touching cute story. Minus one for not spending a few years sampling the goods. Forshame.



Catfight! Catfight catfight catfight! Catfight! Catfight!!



Reading your blog kind of makes me want to huddle up in a corner with a bottle of Bellows Gin and weep, it's just that gloomy. With all the hard feelings out in Westwood, what is your driving force for blogging? Has it become a crusade to impact change in the organization?

No reason to feel sorry for us. Read our blog during the basketball season and you will get a sense how much fun we have writing, reading, and talking up about competent Bruin athletic programs.

We are not really in any kind of crusade. This is not really some kind of "organization." This is really a blog run by 4 Bruin alums, who are good friends and love talking about UCLA. We bleed blue and gold. We love UCLA.

All of us worked our asses off to get into UCLA. 90-95 percent of UCLA students were something like in the top-2 percent of their high school classes. They all have incredibly high standards for themselves as they will go on to get a great education, end up going to elite graduate schools and then do well for themselves as lawyers, doctors, engineers or whatever they end up doing in their professional lives.

Hey, don't be modest. All those brainy eggheads probably play a mean game of World of Warcraft, too.

Isn't it normal for us to impose the same standard/expectation of excellence on our football program, which is one of the two marquee programs of an athletic program, arguably the greatest in the nation? After all we have one of the best basketball coaches in America, and pretty much every single one of our coaches in other sports are kicking ass and winning championships after championships in their respective sports. All we are doing is making the case that Dorrell's program should be held to same kind of standards. And we are just getting the facts out that he isn't getting the job done. That is really it.

What are you hoping for in this game? A big win? A moral victory? A crushing defeat that would seal the fate of your coach?

We are expecting a win. We don't care much for moral victories.

Is it acceptable for a heterosexual man to wear powder blue on any occasion outside of a UCLA football game?

Bruin Blue is always beautiful. I don't see anything wrong with sporting my Bruin blue colored ties during game weeks.

Huzzah! Time to break this bad boy out of the mothballs!

Good luck this Saturday fellas. Here is to a great game and no injuries

GO BRUINS.