Letters: Winless Bruins can zero in on a new athletic director

First and foremost, I wish Dan Guerrero a speedy and full recovery.

He was a great fundraiser and gets a pass on the Chip Kelly debacle because every Bruins fan cheered that decision. However, the most important job of any UCLA A.D. is to protect and maintain the legacy and excellence of our basketball program and in that he failed miserably. For that reason alone, personal issues aside, he needed to be replaced.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles
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“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

“I think it’s a consistency thing.” —Chip Kelly

Stan Alexander

Arcadia

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So Chip Kelly said he is still learning the personnel and trying to figure out how best to use his players. Maybe he will get it before his current group graduates and we begin the next window with the same excuse..

Bob Goldstone

Corona del Mar

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The only thing worse than the Bruins’ 0-3 start is Coach Kelly’s historically dismal high school recruiting, a process seemingly too demeaning for such an acclaimed offensive wizard. The last recruiting cycle was so pathetic that Kelly was in a knockdown-dragout with College of the Mines for a player with “intangibles.” Seriously!

In Kelly’s first year, he managed to chase away 30-plus scholarship players from the Jim Mora era. Toss in two lousy recruiting classes and the former genius now says he doesn’t have the athletes to run his once-potent Oregon blur. He does, however, have almost four years left on a huge contract, a huge buyout and a rapidly withering fan base.

There is only one solution. Kelly should quit. Go focus on family or use health problems as an excuse. He should take his non-blur offense, sullied reputation and bloated ego back to New Hampshire and save the Bruins’ football program.

Jeff Green

Long Beach

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By any chance were Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s quarterback skills recommended to UCLA by college admissions consultant “Rick” Singer?

Wes Wellman

Santa Monica

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UCLA athletic officials defend sports scholarships for non-competitors. The department couches a ticket giveaway as appreciation to loyal season ticket-holders. The Bruins are ranked No. 102 in the country (CBS Sports 130, 9/15/19), and Kelly speaks of it as “a consistency thing.” Is the athletic department part of UCLA or UC-BS?

Mario Valvo

Ventura

Error raid

So Graham Harrell likes the plays he called in overtime against BYU that led to the game-ending interception. That just about says it all about the leadership for the Trojans’ football team.

Brad Orrico

Granada Hills

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After losing to a mediocre BYU team, Clay Helton stated “This is a nonconference game early in the season.” Apparently Helton is fine with just competing for a championship of the weakest Power Five conference in the country and not to be a factor in the playoff system.

USC will continue to be a national afterthought until USC removes Helton and brings in someone with a national pedigree. That person is Urban Meyer. Pay him whatever it will take to bring him out of retirement and then USC football will be on its way to competing for a national championship every year.

Bruce Olson

Upland

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A message to Trojans Nation:

With a new athletic director coming in the near future for USC, don’t get your hopes up for hiring Urban Meyer. Why? USC has traditionally paid its football coaches on the cheap. With Clemson’s Dabo Swinney making over $9 million per year, and Nick Saban earning over $8 million a year at Alabama, does one think that the Trojans faithful will pony up the big bucks it would take to bring in someone like Urban Meyer? Not in my lifetime.

Chris Sorce

Fountain Valley

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What is Dylan Hernandez’ problem? Did Clay Helton steal his cafeteria money? Who criticizes a coach for saying his players work their tails off? Who doesn’t credit the coach when his team kicks Stanford’s tail —and without the starting quarterback?

Worse than than, Hernandez is apparently unaware that USC is a university instead of an NFL team (even if it looked like one under Pete Carroll). Hopefully, USC football is back now to being an NCAA program, rules and all. And hopefully, the university is back to prioritizing students and education, not its fundraising, image, or football, as its primary mission.

Scott D. White

Claremont

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I must take exception on two points to Russ Ewald’s well-researched letter lauding Jess Hill as an example of a former Trojan athlete being a great athletic director.

Point One: A single case of success does not make up for many cases of failure, plus Hill himself was part of a department responsible for the “5 game seniors” for the 1957 USC football team.

Point Two: 1959 is not 2019.

I attended USC from 1957-63.

Ralph Martinez

Arcadia

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In USC’s first three games, the television networks have missed much of the first quarter. As a passionate and longtime Trojan fan, I’d just like to ask if they can extend it to the fourth quarter?

Jack Saltzberg

Valley Village

Boo who?

Kenley Jansen is listed as a pitcher on the Dodgers’ roster. Not a closer. Pitcher. It’s time for Dave Roberts and the Dodgers’ brain trust to put the team first and start using him as a pitcher, not a closer. If they continue to stick with this current plan, Dodgers fans will end up in the same pool of tears from the last two years.

Vincent Martinez

South Pasadena

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How classless for Dodger fans to boo Kenley Jansen. Do they think that he is not trying? I am pretty sure that he is doing the best that he can. After several stellar years of relief pitching, and despite a good early September, he may have lost effectiveness. It happens to every great closer (other than Mariano Rivera).

I, for one, applaud him for putting what is left of his balky heart into each appearance (or have fans forgotten that he has come back twice from heart problems?).

Andrew E. Rubin

Los Angeles

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Kenley Jansen’s struggles are the most visible, but the Dodgers’ bullpen problems go well past him. As a group, the pen allows a whopping 39% of inherited runners to score, the second highest mark in all of baseball. With a pen this unreliable, maybe it’s time for Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts to rethink their analytics-driven strategies of prematurely lifting starting pitchers because of pitch count, third time through the lineup, or some other metric. With the playoffs around the corner, we can’t afford a repeat of Game 4 of last year’s World Series when the Dodgers pulled Rich Hill throwing a one-hit shutout and a 4-0 lead, only to have the bullpen give the game away.

Bob Antonoplis

La Cañada

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The Dodgers have a pretty good team and that’s the problem. Pretty good won’t be good enough to win the World Series. Hope I am wrong but I don’t think so.

Jay James

Pico Rivera

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If the Dodgers’ front office had caved to pressure from some fans and sports columnists, we would have traded Gavin Lux for Felipe Vazquez and today’s letters section would be filled with comments bemoaning one of the worst trades in MLB history.

Mike Eberts

Los Feliz

It’s a triple!

As the season comes to a merciful end for the Angels, one thing has become clear. The name “The Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim” has the letter “A” in it’s name three times for a reason.

Russell Beecher

Canyon Lake

Acing it

At first sight, it appears that Serena Williams’ priority is to win her next Grand Slam match competing in her first love, tennis, but if one looks at all of the pictures that show her big smile with her daughter, I think her priorities are in the right place and her “new” first love is her daughter.

I wish her the best in the quest of her next Grand Slam win, but if it doesn’t come, I think she will be just fine.

Russell Morgan

Carson

SoFi, so good

It’s official, the Rams and Chargers will play at SoFi Stadium. So is SoFi a a new fast-food chain, a pay-day lender, a discount mattress store or a cure for hemorrhoids? Can’t wait for opening day so we can all SoFi together. I hope it won’t hurt.

Mel Frohman

Los Angeles

Nay sayer

I didn’t think it was possible, but Santa Anita makes Michael Vick look like an animal lover.

Barry Smith

Thousand Oaks

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