Dan Guerrero

Steve Virgen

Home is a place to find comfort, a place of peace. Dan Guerrero

returned “home” July 1, 2002 and soon found the complete opposite.

Last summer, the former UC Irvine Athletic Director became the AD

at UCLA, where his every move seems to be judged and critiqued by

alumni, fans and the media. In the fall, he made his first important

moves: firing football coach Bob Toledo and hiring Karl Dorrell, who

had never held a head coaching job. Soon Guerrero will be ready to

decide on the Bruins’ men’s basketball program, which has always been

a hot topic in the media, locally and nationally.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with The Daily Pilot Wednesday,

Guerrero, a former Bruin baseball player, offered his thoughts of his

first seven and a half months on the job. Thus far, Guerrero has met

the challenges of facing what he called, “media scrutiny,” as well as

grand expectations and the high demand of being the Athletic Director

of UCLA.

“It’s been great to see the enthusiasm and expectations here,”

Guerrero said in his office, two stories above the UCLA Hall of Fame

in the Morgan Center.

“That’s been exciting for me.”

Dealing with the media

In regard to media exposure, Guerrero went from the undercard to

the main event when he became the UCLA AD after a little over a

decade with the Anteaters at UCI. He also, as he put it, “hit the

ground running,” when he went through his first experience with UCLA

football.

There were rumblings and some fans, as well as the media,

questioned the hiring of Dorrell. Yet there was also praise from

alumni and the university.

For Guerrero, the exposure was to be expected.

“It’s a byproduct of what the university has accomplished over the

years,” Guerrero said. “Every Monday after a football game, we have a

big press conference and the football coach is there in front of

20-25 people on any given Monday. Basketball is the same thing.

That’s just expected. Is it different (than UCI)? It’s much

different. There’s no question about it. In a lot of ways, it’s

exciting. It’s exciting to know that on any given day the successes

of your team will be highlighted, and on any given day if there’s a

transgression that will also be featured. That obviously keeps you on

your toes.”

The UCLA men’s basketball situation

Guerrero quieted the media about a month ago. As losses mounted on

UCLA head coach Steve Lavin, rumors of a retirement arose and talk of

a coaching change also took center stage. But Guerrero gathered a few

members of the local press and stated it was not his philosophy to

make changes in the middle of the season. Since then, the media heat

has generally cooled.

“Philosophically, I have never thought making a change in the

middle of the year will guarantee any different kind of success,”

Guerrero said. “Do you never say ever? Well, something could happen

that could require we take a drastic step like that. But by and

large, I’ve always believed that it’s best to go through a season,

evaluate it and make decisions at the end or whatever. They (the

media) have respected that.”

Guerrero did not discuss the coaching situation with The Daily

Pilot. When reminded UCI men’s basketball coach Pat Douglass has been

among a handful of names brought up in published reports of a new

UCLA coach, Guerrero said, “Those are names. There’s always going to

be names.”

There’s no doubt, Guerrero and Douglass built a special working

relationship at UCI. Douglass refers to Guerrero as the man who gave

him a chance to coach NCAA Division I basketball. Douglass also calls

Guerrero “the architect,” who brought budgetary assistance to UCI and

opened the door for the reinstatement of baseball and new facilities.

“More importantly, we were able to collaborate and came up with

what the basketball program needed in order to grow,” Douglass said.

“That allowed us to compete in the Big West. He allows you the

freedom to coach. But at all times he is aware of the overall image

of the department that reflects the boosters, alumni and the program.

Not a lot of people gave me the opportunity to coach at the Division

I level. I’m indebted to him for allowing me to show my talents in

the Big West conference.”

Two weeks ago, UCI Athletic Director Bob Chichester discussed his

reaction to Douglass’ name being rumored as possibly becoming the

next coach at UCLA.

Chichester said he took it as a compliment, and “a testament to

what Pat has done here.”

The process of hiring Karl Dorrell

If one was trying to envision what Guerrero will do with the UCLA

basketball program, analyzing the hiring of Dorrell would be the

proper route. Most Bruin backers were expecting a big name or a coach

with loads of experience to take over football, but Guerrero went

with the lesser-known Dorrell. That might eventually be seen as

textbook Guerrero. He hired Douglass and UCI baseball coach John

Savage, whom were not NCAA Division I head coaches previously and

they have been providing their teams with success and prominence.

UCLA football, which lost to USC, displayed a lack of confidence,

Guerrero said, and there had to be a change. After the regular season

and before the Bruins prepared for their bowl game, Guerrero fired

Toledo.

“First of all coming to the point that I had a make a decision to

renew the football coach was tough, because I had developed a

relationship with Bob and his family,” Guerrero said. “I felt that he

was a very good man who unfortunately was caught up in a situation

that, in my opinion, wasn’t conducive for the future of UCLA football

to be successful. There was an aggregate of things over the course of

the years. There wasn’t just one player, one game or one season. It

was basically the climate that I saw.

There was an erosion of confidence in the general sense that

existed in the program, that I felt needed to be changed in order for

us to build a program in a way that we all expect.”

After Toledo was gone, Guerrero began the process of finding the

new coach of UCLA football.

“The process of hiring a new coach was just like finding the CEO

of any corporation,” Guerrero said. “You find someone who is the

right fit for the job. It’s very common for the media and the fans to

throw out a number of names. And I’ll always take input. It’s always

healthy to listen to people.

But the bottom line is I had to put the person who was the right

fit for UCLA.

And what that meant was, first and foremost, a man of integrity.

An individual who is very passionate about coaching the sport, an

individual who can develop relationships with our student-athletes,

and develop them as players. Also, an individual who had great

coaching experience. It doesn’t necessarily have to be head-coaching

experience. In this particular case, would that have been preferred?

Possibly.

In this particular case, Karl was ready, whether it was a

collegiate program or in the very near future a NFL program. And the

fact that he was a Bruin was something special. He was very

successful against our crosstown rival.

(Beating USC), that was something burning in his heart. As I went

through the process of hiring candidates, he continued to stand out.

I was happy we were able to bring him on board.”

Guerrero expected there would be questions of the hiring. Dorrell

was a position coach (wide receivers) of the Denver Broncos, and had

never been a college head coach.

“A lot of people thought to bring in a ‘proven coach’ or a big

name,” Guerrero said. “But any decision you make relative to a coach

is a leap of faith. There are no guarantees that any coach is going

to be successful.

Whether you pay a coach $200,000 or $2 million, there’s no

guarantee that the person is going to come in and turn things around.

So what you do is look at core values. You look at a core philosophy

that is consistent with the philosophy that you have or that is right

for the university. Whether that individual who is someone who can

demand a large salary or not, that person has an opportunity to prove

himself. That’s why I felt Karl was the right person.

“He’s ready to prove himself.”

The importance of building relationships

At Cal State Dominguez Hills, UCI and now at UCLA, relationships

have been key under the leadership of Guerrero. Guerrero said he

believes establishing relationships are in conjunction with being a

leader. At UCI he developed communication and even friendships with

coaches and any others who were part of the athletic program. Even

people behind the scenes.

Todd Lee, the associate head coach of the UCI men’s basketball

team, is one such person. Lee, who was an assistant coach up until

the summer of 2001, learned much about leadership from Guerrero. Now,

most colleagues, including Golden State Warriors Coach Eric

Musselman, agree Lee is ready to become a Division I head coach.

“Dan was a big influence in my life,” Lee said. “In my time being

around coaches, administration and players, I think he is the

greatest person I’ve been around. He’s very good at what he does,

professionally. He’s a very good family man. He cares about people.

He’s loyal. He gets the best out of his people.”

Creating trust was the first duty on the agenda for Guerrero when

he started at UCLA. It was pleasant for the Bruins to know he was an

alum, but they needed to know more. So, for the first four months

Guerrero said he familiarized himself with the members of the

university, the community and the athletic department, including the

football program.

Guerrero said he uses, “the old adage: If I didn’t have the title,

would they still follow me?

“I think that’s really important because ultimately in order for

you to succeed long term, people have to buy in and they have to have

faith,” Guerrero continued. “I’ve always enjoyed talking to coaches

and developing relationships with them because it’s their profession

and they take great pride in their craft. Those who want to be

successful work very hard and they know that if they don’t develop

relationships with their players they’re not going to succeed, as

well. Success is manifested by the relationships that are established

in the organization.

I had a lot of talks with Todd about leadership and his career and

things of that nature. I’ve always viewed him as a shining star and

just a real important cog to the success of that Irvine basketball

program. Pat was the architect of putting that whole thing together,

but Todd was a major piece in making that happen.”

It’s all part of the job

When Guerrero breaks away from the financial or technical side of

the job, he works in a social sense. He’ll attend home games, or

sometimes go out on the road. He recently went with the men’s

basketball team to Georgetown.

While he was there, Guerrero met with several legislators and

representatives from the U.S. Department of Education and they

discussed the state of Title IX. Then, later at night, Guerrero

attended a dinner reception that included UCLA alumni from the

Washington D.C., New York and Boston area.

Guerrero also has to attend Pac-10 meetings and he’s on the NCAA

Division I baseball championships committee.

In two weeks, he will travel to the White House with UCLA men’s

soccer team and Coach Tom Fitzgerald. President George W. Bush

invited the UCLA squad, which won a national championship this past

season. Guerrero was also there when the Bruins won the national

title in Dallas.

Last month, Guerrero also had the opportunity to see UCI men’s

volleyball in action, when the Anteaters played at Pauley Pavilion.

“It was wonderful,” Guerrero said of the experience. “I couldn’t

lose. To see them play at center court, two ranked teams, it was

really a joy. UC Irvine played great. They defended tremendously.

They played with a lot of confidence. John (Speraw) has done a great

job with those guys, pulling it all together. I was obviously

disappointed that UCLA lost, (yet) knowing full well that down the

road Al (Scates) would get them playing the way he wants them to.”

When asked what he does with his free time, Guerrero chuckled,

because in his business there’s hardly free time.

“If I’m not working, I’m with my family,” Guerrero said.

“Those are the two joys of my life. There’s no question about

that.”