Some good news for a change

Coming off a weekend where UCLA lost to $UC in football, Texas in football, and in which the Kings blew a two goal lead, and the Lakers and Broncos played like crap, today brought some good news finally.

Building on the momentum of the Illinois to the Rose Bowl announcement, fortune delivered the end of the Karl Dorrell era. I tried to stay on Dorrell's side as long as possible, and going into this season, I had high hopes that he'd be able to stem the tide of negativity and put up a great season, inlcuding a BCS bowl and victory over $UC. And while injuries certainly were a factor, particularly in the Notre Dame game, they certainly weren't against Utah, and that was the game that forever changed my opinion. They came out listless and never seemed liked they cared, and they got hammered by one of college football's bottom feeders. Against Notre Dame, they still could have won the game had they had a halfway competent third string quarterback (oh wait, they did, but they had converted him to receiver, even though he never played at receiver). And despite the struggles of McLeod Bethel-Thompson, that game could have been won if the coaching staff hadn't consistently set him up for failure.

Make no mistake, the problems that beset this year's Bruin football team were almost completely due to poor coaching. I think Karl Dorrell is probably a hell of a guy, but he's not a very good head football coach. At least not yet.

And the good news keeps coming. The Super Furry Animals just announced a North American Tour which will be hitting Chicago in February. This will mark the fifth or sixth time I've seen SFA, one of the best live acts still in business.

Oh, and I got promoted.