Dorrell and Players Lament the Losses

Without a game until Dec. 4, the Bruins completed their short practice week Thursday and afterward, Coach Karl Dorrell reflected on what could have been this season.

“We are one of the better-positioned teams in the conference, but we could have been at least two or three notches higher, given some opportunities that we really didn’t take advantage of,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but we’ve learned from that. We could have won at least two more games ... but we wouldn’t be the team we are now without going through that process.”

The losses Dorrell was referring to were 48-42 at Arizona State and 31-29 to Washington State. The Bruins, 6-4, are one defensive stop and a two-point conversion from being 8-2 heading into their showdown against USC.

“We definitely could have a record like that right now,” senior cornerback Matt Clark said. “Ben [Emanuel] and I were talking about that right after the Oregon game. We feel like we should have lost just one game [to California].

“The Oklahoma State game was our first of the season and we really couldn’t stop the run with our new D-line. It was their first start and didn’t have a lot of experience.”

Many Bruins said they believed that if they played the Cowboys again, the result would be different.

“I believe that when we’re ready to play, we’re pretty good,” Dorrell said. “Where does that stack up in the conference? The biggest challenge will be in a couple of weeks when we play the conference’s best team. We’ll find out how we measure up then.”

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After sitting out two days because of a sore foot, Emanuel, a senior safety, returned to practice. Dorrell held out running back Maurice Drew (ankle) and safety Jarrad Page (hamstring).

“The injured guys are coming back gradually,” Dorrell said. “We’ll be almost full force on Monday when we return to work. This week was good to get some of the mending process done with some of the good guys and it allowed us to clean up some of our issues.”