It’s official…we’ve moved

http://www.guttylittlebruins.com

See y’all there!

-WWW/BlackJack

Moving on…and out (Farewell post)

WeWantWalker.com was started for two reasons

1) First and foremost, we believe that DeWayne Walker is going to be an unbelievably successful head coach at the Division-I level.

2) A few websites out there attacked not only his proven ability as a football coach, but attacked him PERSONALLY without ANY merit whatsoever. The things they were saying were not only completely untrue, but they were embarrassing to read as a bruin fan. I still can’t believe that there are bruins writing this.

I had been sitting here watching this kind of thing happen for way too long. Websites like BN and DD would say something completely baseless and…

 No one was there to respond.

Now there are plenty of boards with plenty of smart, logical, and decent bruin fans (Bruinzone, BRO, Bruinville, and BruinGold come to mind). Yet the voices of reason on those boards weren’t part of a larger community, a larger unified voice.

And thats how WeWantWalker started. My first post wasn’t about DeWayne Walker, it was a promise to not shut out opinions that I disagreed with. Wow, what a novel concept, eh?

And my second post? It was an edit of the first post…where I made it very clear that anyone who made personal attacks on this website without merit would not be welcome. Wow, you’re thinking, where do I get these ideas???

Great men deserve great respect. When you hear what other coaches (including Coach Neu), recruits, and reporters say about him, you get an image of Coach Walker as a tireless worker, a smart and polite man, and someone who values integrity like we all should at UCLA.

The reason people have called Walker a “shameless backstabber” and a “hack” among many other names is obvious: they know they have no facts to work with and that they need to resort to personal attacks. Deep down inside, I KNOW they respect DeWayne Walker. If they don’t, they need one of these:

 

 And those kind of people are an embarrassment to UCLA. And it is my job to keep them in check. I was laughed at by those sites when I first launched…I was called a “silly” site and the initial post describing my site was called “try not to laugh.”

I’ve been around a week and a half and I’m getting more than half the traffic that BN gets. I don’t think those guys are laughing anymore.

So last night when I got the news that Walker was going to be retained, I pumped my fist through the air and woke up my neighbor. I was especially ecstatic because UCLA kept DeWayne Walker even though he was being courted by MIAMI, LSU, AND, TEXAS. We just won a fight with Miami, LSU, and Texas?  UCLA football? Things have changed pretty quickly huh?

And so I’ll end this post saying that I have plenty of faith in Coach Neuheisel and that I look forward to the future.  

As for my new website, it’s going to be what you might expect out of me. We will allow different points of view, we’re not going to allow personal attacks (unless they are REALLY funny), we’re going to have humor, and we’re going to be informative. We’re going to be a watchdog.

Most importantly, We are going to take back the Bruin Blogosphere. One gutty little bruin at a time. 

 

-BlackJack (proud founder of wewantwalker.com and guttylittlebruins.com) 

P.S.  I want to thank all you who have expressed admiration for the principles that drove this site.  I have taken those comments to heart and at times when I thought this might have been a bit overwhelming, these very comments have kept me going.  I hope to see you all on the new site.

 

 

 

 

We got our man.

DeWayne Walker has been hired by Rick Neuheisel. I’m still awaiting details on the contract, but I would bet its for $400-450,000 and at least 2 years.

Tomorrow we’ll have our farewell post.

I’m also going to come out and say that I think its a 99 percent surety that Eric Scott is going to be retained as well. Where do I get that from? Another hunch:

1) Scott is a UCLA Alum. I think by going after Ken Norton Jr., RN was trying to establish a UCLA vibe amongst his staff as best he could. This type of behavior would include going after guy’s like Scott

2) Walker knows and likes Scott and will put in a good word for him

3) Scott is an unbelivable recruiter and I’m sure RN knows this.

If I’m right, that makes me 3 for 3.

Anyway, thats all for now. Tomorrow is the farewell post, which ive been working on for quite a while and a new beginning at another address.

I want to thank all of you for your support. I really think we made a difference and I hope we can continue to make a difference.

DeWayne Walker will be a fantastic coach at the D-I level.  But right now, I’m just happy he’s our defensive coordinator.

-WWW (also known as BlackJack)

BREAKING: NEUHEISEL HIRES WALKER

UPDATE: Linebackers Coach Bullough and DL coach Todd Howard are also staying. No word on Gary Deloach, the DB coach…did I miss something here?  

The fantastic folks at Bruin Report Online have done it again. Walker has been hired by Neuheisel.

DeWayne Walker, UCLA’s defensive coordinator, will stay on at UCLA under new head coach Rick Neuheisel. Walker, who was courted by Washington and Texas, was thought to be leaning toward leaving UCLA in the last couple of days.Neuheisel met with Walker today and the deal was struck.  

I’m on cloud 9 right now.  I don’t know how else to say this, but I really really really believe in this man.I’m assuming RN agreed to give Walker full autonomy over the staff. I’ll have details on compensation and staff soon. 

Seriously, I’m awesome and a master of game theory.

more very soon.

Now I’m hearing a lot of chatter going the other way.

Walker is getting a lot play from more than UDUB. Other bigass teams have gotten involved and thrown their hats in the ring…this could get interesting. I think we will know in a few hours. stay tuned. I apologize for the nature of these reports, they aren’t exactly professional, but I think you’d rather have them then not have them. 

Ken Norton Jr./DeWayne Walker/Staff Autonomy

The following is a dialogue between myself and Bpbruin which I felt was worthy of a bump to the main page.  These are very pertinent, very relevant questions and I try to answer them to the best of my ability, with bpbruin providing his own share of great answers: 

 

 

Why I think Walker will Stay

This is my response to MagicalBruin on why I think Walker will stay. 

 

When I read that sportingnews.com report that Walker would be going to Washington, I didn’t believe it. Not because I’m a DeWayne Walker fan, because it makes so little sense. Aside from what you are hearing in the press, there is very little reason for me to believe that Walker would go to Washington. Here is why:

 1)Rick Neuheisel wants to do whats in the best interests of the program. He wants to keep the recruiting class. When he meets with the recruiting class he’s going to get a sense of how strong their ties are with Walker and want to keep him on even more

2)Neuheisel is, like Carroll, a politician.  He will easily compromise having Ken Norton on staff if that means that he can keep Walker and the recruiting class intact.

3) Most importantly, Walker wants to stay in LA. He’s from LA. His son is a ucla commit. His family loves UCLA and he has relatives that have gone there. His wife loves arcadia.  He doesn’t want to uproot unless it’s an opportunity he can’t give up (Head coaching job).  Walker might have bigger plans (as he should, the man is a goldmine) but part of those bigger plans, I think, include sticking around.

I can see Walker going to U-dub for the following reasons:

1) Washington was the worst in the pac-10. He can turn around that defense pronto and prove to everyone else who doesn’t visit this site that he’s awesome

2) more money, longer contract.

3) RN won’t let him keep his own staff.

On balance, I think there are more than enough reasons for him to stay. But we’ll see… 

 

In term of facts, all I have is “chatter” which may not bee to reliable and the fact that Neuheisel really wants Walker to stay and is willing to compromise. You’re not dealing with Stalin here, you’re dealing with RN. Dude is a lawyer. come on.

 I could be wrong, but I tend to be good at thinking through these things deeply, dynamically, and interactively.  I didn’t have faith in these prognostications until 4 people told me that I think exactly like an AD.

In fact, if I was Dan Guerrero I would have hired Rick Neuheisel not Walker.

Why? Because I want to cover my ass and hiring rick neuheisel, a coach with experience who i can control, covers my ass more than if I hire a coach like Walker with no HC experience.

 In fact, five years ago, I guarantee you DG would have hired Walker, but the fans and boosters weren’t going to have any of the “No head coaching experience” thing anymore.  They wanted a name, and they got it.

They didn’t get the better coach though, IMHO. They got the safer one.

Anyway, I’ve gotten off topic. but I think common sense dictates that Walker stays.

Walker to Washington? To UCLA? To Washington? to UCLA?

Lot of things going around, especially that sportingnews report that “confirmed” that walker is going.

I’m hearing a lot of chatter, but I think right now I’m willing to come out and say that the deal is practically sealed. I’m pretty sure Walker is going to end up staying. Thank God.

I could be wrong, but I really like what I’m hearing. We’ll see. God, I hope he stays.

Update

For all those waiting for that farewell post, I want to wait out Walker’s decision when he decides to either stay in Westwood or leave.

I think we’ll know by the end of the day.