For Bruins, a Bad Loss or Simply a Bad Team?

Desperately searching for the silver lining in UCLA’s embarrassing loss to Stanford, the best I could come up with is this:

Neither of the Bruins’ two top quarterbacks will turn pro early.

Wes Wellman

Santa Monica

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Except for a couple of freak plays, UCLA would be 5-0 in Pac-10 play, not 4-1 after their loss to Stanford. I know what the previous Toledo edition of the Bruins did when faced with adversity: folded. But what are the Dorrell-led Bruins going to do? This is what every Bruin fan wants to know. This is your challenge, Coach Dorrell.

Chris Samsell

Burbank

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“We are the best team in California and the real deal in the Pac-10!” exclaimed Mohammed Said Sahaf, former Iraqi information minister and now spokesman for the UCLA Bruins.

Why do Bruin fans continue to rationalize this impending downward spiral? The Bruins will probably go 0-4 to finish the season, yet the faithful will tell me this team has endless potential and should have gone undefeated, if not for a few bad breaks.

Do you hear yourselves?

Stop this crazy masquerade. Your offense and special teams are horrible.

Chris Gagliano

Redondo Beach

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When Dan Guerrero hired his new football coach, he said the decisive factor in Karl Dorrell’s favor was how impressively he interviewed.

Having witnessed Dorrell’s completely uneventful offense and similarly bland personality, I’ve figured out that the interview topics were salary, salary and salary.

Mark Backstrom

Newport Beach

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Bruin football economics:

Simple economics will tell you that if you hire a world-class coach and pay him $1 million a year, you should be able to fill an additional 10,000 seats at $25 per ticket. This will more than sufficiently offset the $400,000 in salary UCLA was not willing to pay to secure a coach with credentials and experience.

With a world-class coach, there is comfort in knowing that an offense will be put on the field that is capable of blocking, running, catching and scoring points. When you hire a $125,000-experienced coach and pay him $600,000, you get a man in way over his head. At least Toledo made a 7-5 record exciting for the viewer.

Jeff Black

Beverly Hills

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Mike DiGiovanna needs to check his facts after opening the Nov. 2 article, “UCLA’s Loss to Stanford Is Especially Frustrating,” with “So much for the Rose Bowl.”

Despite the loss, UCLA will still go to the Rose Bowl by winning its last three games, and possibly can get there even without beating Oregon.

Had the Bruins won against Stanford, to advance they still would have needed to beat Washington State and USC. So, a win would not have alleviated much, and the loss did not cause much damage. So, in effect, the game was inconsequential and almost a nonevent. So much for DiGiovanna.

Hershel Remer

Los Angeles

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Yo, Karl Dorrell, since we don’t seem to have the need for a designated “special teams coach,” can I handle the punt return defense team this week?

Jim Singiser Sr.

Hacienda Heights