OMG the UCLA bandwagon has crashed so hard, they’re still trying to identify the victims.

Karl Dorrell must be high-fiving people till his arm hurts.

FIGHT ON!

UCLA has hired Rick Neuheisel as its new football coach, replacing Karl Dorrell.

UCLA people love this guy. They’ve been blowing Neuheisel’s meat whistle ever since the announcement.

As a USC man, I say this: Great hire!

Neuheisel will fail for all of the reasons listed here. Excerpt: “Neuheisel’s one great genius turns out to be his ability to make people think he’s a genius.”

FIGHT ON!

The Orange County Register has an update on last week’s arrest of UCLA assistant football coach Eric Scott on suspicion of felony burglary:

UCLA officials said Monday that the background check on receivers coach Eric Scott was conducted by the university and not an outside agency, as previously stated.

But, again, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and Coach Karl Dorrell were unaware that Scott had been arrested four times between 1996 and 2005.

The Bruins coach, who was arrested for a fifth time last week on a charge of residential burglary, previously had pleaded guilty or was convicted of misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon in 2005 and misdemeanor disturbing the peace in 2002.

OOPSIE!

UCLA: University of Coaches Looting Apartments.

Coach Scott is on administrative leave at this time. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions regarding his guilt or innocence based strictly on his extensive list of priors.

Kudos to J.D. Booty (391 yards, 4 TDs), who took a lot of criticism this season, had a mediocre first half, including a fumble, then came back after halftime and took over the game.

I got some delayed gloating from a UCLA grad about denying USC a national championship shot. Let’s keep it simple: either you’re good enough to win a national championship or you’re not. The Trojans lost to Oregon State and UCLA. They weren’t good enough.

Still, it’s better to go to the Rose Bowl and win it than to go to the Emerald Bowl and get your rear ends kicked by the 8th-place ACC team.

And the victory over USC may be a mixed blessing for Bruin fans, who will now likely be stuck with Karl Dorrell for at least one more season.

FIGHT ON!

I’m glad it was a blowout. Most of the season, I had to listen to “what a great job Karl Dorrell, Drew Olson and the Bruins are doing.” I didn’t think they were doing a great job at all. They were 9-1, but given all the last-minute, come-from-behind wins over bad teams, they were pretty close to being 5-5. Hence the lack of respect in the polls and the 21-point spread on this game, which turned out to be way too low.

The Bruin mantra after last year’s game — a 29-24 defeat, but the first non-blowout in years — was that the program was “moving in the right direction.” Again, I didn’t see it that way at all. The Trojans moved the ball at will, bogged down repeatedly near the goal line, and wound up kicking five field goals. The closeness of the score was a bit of an anomaly.

This year, the Bruins are taking their 9-2 record as evidence of “moving in the right direction,” despite the fact that a 66-19 loss is the worst since the first two games in the series — 1929, when USC won 72-0, and 1930, when the Trojans won 56-0 — after which the rivalry took a five-year break to give the Bruins more time to practice. So, far from “moving in the right direction,” I would say that Karl Dorrell has set the Bruins back 75 years.

And really, the game was not as close as the 66-19 score indicates. UCLA left the starters in the whole game and scored a couple of touchdowns in the last four minutes against Trojan reserves. They were exposed as what they are: A 5-6, maybe 6-5, team masquerading as a 9-2 team.

Now for the good news: In all the Bruin excitement over last year’s narrow defeat, Dorrell was rewarded with a contract extension through the 2010 season. I can only echo what I said at the time, and when he was hired:

Great move! Five more years of Trojan victories!

Five more years! Five more years!

Fight On!

A crazy thing happened after this year’s USC-UCLA football game . . . because the Bruins were able to keep the score close for the first time in years, UCLA coach Karl Dorrell was rewarded with a two-year contract extension.

“The progress the program has made under Karl’s leadership is clearly evident,” said athletic director Dan Guerrero.

Keep in mind that Guerrero fired former coach Bob Toledo two years ago after back-to-back 7-win seasons, including a victory in the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl. Now after back-to-back 6-win seasons under Dorrell, including last week’s Las Vegas Bowl loss to Wyoming, progress is “clearly evident.”

Not in terms of winning football games, but Guerrero hired the guy, so he’s got to say something.

Dorrell is now locked up through the 2010 season, and I echo what I said when he was hired:

Great move! Six more years of Trojan victories!

Six more years! Six more years!

Fight On!

He says, “UCLA hired a new coach: Carlos Burrell!”

By which I think he means Karl Dorrell.

That is a great, great hire.

I say that as a USC grad who was sorry to see Bob Toledo go. They might never beat the Trojans again . . .