Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

One of our favorite UCLA Bruins beat reporters, Miguel Melendez of Inside UCLA has transcribed an excellent KLAC radio interview with former UCLA Bruins football head coach Rick Neuheisel.   In keeping with Neuheisel’s role as Pac12 football analyst, the discussion touched on topics relevant to Pac12 football, especially the resurgent UCLA football program under Head Coach Jim L Mora.  One Neuheisel sentence in particular stood out to me:

One of the things I’m trying to do for Jim is make sure people understand that UCLA is leaving a lot on the table with respect to what can be done to build a great football program, especially when you’re playing your home games 30 miles away from your campus. - Rick Neuheisel

Rick’s head coaching stint failed to return the storied university to football prominence, costing him his job.  His replacement was Jim L Mora.  A lesser man might have walked away, disillusioned at the real lack of support from AD Dan Guerrero and the Chancellor, Gene Block.  That’s not Rick Neuheisel.  Rick has never stopped bleeding UCLA Blue and Gold; he is a Bruin through and through.  His Bruin career is vintage Hollywood, complete with a feel good, story book ending.  He was Rocky before Stallone.  Yes, the story is that good.

It is clear to me that Rick has taken the bully pulpit approach to help his beloved UCLA get to where he knows it needs to be, despite the lackluster effort of the AD and Chancellor.  Rick is helping his replacement, Jim L Mora, get the support and facilities Mora needs to return UCLA to it’s rightful place among the elite programs.  Rick Neuheisel has placed his love of his alma mater before his own pride and ego.   Although he couldn’t coach UCLA back to prominence, he may well succeed by bringing intense public pressure on the Chancellor and the AD to do what’s right for the program.

I’m betting on Rick Neuheisel, the former UCLA walk on and Rose Bowl MVP, to succeed.

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

Ever since being relieved form his duties as head UCLA football coach, Rick Neuheisel has done a great job of not attacking his alma mater and handling his dismissal with incredible poise.

Except, DUH, this wasn’t going on forever. Now, Rick is saying that UCLA didn’t give him the commitment he needed to succeed in the Pac-12. From the Daily News:

“It’s disappointing this time of year not to be in a training camp, especially when you’re given what I thought was not the requisite amount of support at UCLA.

“I take full responsibility for not moving the needle as far as getting more wins, but you need a partnership at this level, and there has to be a commitment, and that wasn’t the case.”

Well that’s a telling tale and, quite honestly, pretty cheap.

Look, the UCLA fan-base is crazy for Rick Neuheisel as a representative of the school. His act got tiring as a UCLA football coach, but the prognosis is that he’s a great dude and loves UCLA so much.

But this is petty. Rick was probably given a little too much love from the UCLA fan-base early in his career and has probably heard fans convincing themselves that UCLA was not supportive of him during his tenure, so this statement is probably a derivative of all those discussions.

At the same time, why put your foot in your mouth (again), Rick? You’ve done such a damn good job of taking the higher road and refusing to comment on things like this, so why bring it up now?

At best, Rick is looking like he’s bitter over his dismissal from UCLA. At worst, he’s refusing to take responsibility for the piss-poor decisions he made while he was coach.

Last time I checked, a “partnership” wasn’t required for a coach to under-utilize the transcendent talent he recruited by implementing a defense like the oft-maligned pistol, nor did it have anything to do with keeping your team constantly unprepared and undisciplined.

Rick’s tenure at UCLA was disastrous to say the least. Although the lack of commitment from the university likely resulted in Neuheisel having a small amount of capital to spend on a legitimate coaching staff, that’s not an excuse you can use for consistently inconsistent (we know, we know) play during his four-year tenure.

Rick, we ask you, please, just continue to be classy the way you have been. No need to deflect.

GO BRUINS!!!

UCLA has a rich tradition of athletics; dating back to 1950, no school has had as much success nationally as UCLA has. From basketball to volleyball, to golf and tennis, UCLA trumps any and all universities that think they’re worthy to compete.

So of course, UCLA has accumulated a ton of beloved figures as a result of this rich tradition. Considering the prominence of UCLA in terms of athletics, it’d be difficult to pin-point just one sports figure.

We have our opinions, but we thought it’d be cool to give you, the reader, a chance to determine who the most beloved figure in sports, via a 16-person bracket. There will be a 1-4 seeding, with four No. 1 seeds (March Madness style). You will determine the winner via polls, which will be up for approximately one week.

The criteria for this list is that all players are enshrined into some Hall of Fame institution, whether it be the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, or the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.

Of course, we realize we’re not perfect, so you, dear reader, will also have the chance to nominate some of your most beloved UCLA athletes. You can do so by commenting on this post (or any other featuring head-to-head poll battles) between now and the end of the tournament. Four nominated Bruins will be selected (if that much are nominated), and will face off in a mini-tournament to go up against the 16-figure bracket champ.

Every head-to-head battle will discuss the argument for both and will include the poll for you to vote on.

Here is the bracket.

Group 1

#1 John Wooden vs. #4 J.D. Morgan

#2 Pooh Richardson vs. #3 Michelle Kwan

Group 2

#1 Lew Alcindor vs. #4 J.J. Stokes

#2 Rick Neuheisel vs. #3 Randy Cross

Group 3

#1 Jackie Robinson vs. #4 Gail Goodrich

#2 Terry Donahue vs. #3 Al Scates

Group 4

#1 Bill Walton vs. #4 Walt Hazzard

#2 Troy Aikman vs. #3 Reggie Miller

In the coming days, you’ll see posts such as “UCLA’s Most Beloved: John Wooden vs. J.D. Morgan.” The first post will be set tomorrow, as well as the accompanying poll. Be sure to vote!

GO BRUINS!!!

He also seems to be down for good comedy, smart fun and has good taste in movies. So much so, that he decided to parody the Dark Knight scene where the Joker murders some fat Batman imposter.

Check it:

YES. GORGEOUS. GIVE THOSE TO AN OSCAR RIGHT NOW. RIGHT NOW.

In the video, Jerry Neuheisel is supposed to be the fat guy impostering Batman, but in this case, it’s his father he’s imposter’ing, because why not? And the conditions? Rick Neuheisel has to stop giving two-a-days because they suck, and there’s also a nice little slight at “relentlessly positive.”

I encourage you to watch the entire thing, because it’s pretty fun and actually dead-on accurate. Also, it’s Jerry Neuheisel wrapped in toilet paper. Why he didn’t break out AND RUN, BITCH, RUN?!??!?

Good stuff. More please.

H/T: Reddit!

(H/T: The Mighty Bruins)

Everyone seemed super positive about the way NFL Pro Day went, and that’s what we expect. These guys may be leaving, but we sure as hell hope they get drafted, and drafted high.

Of course, the big story here is that UCLA closed its NFL Pro Day, and while this is old news, I’m still bitter about it. What it says is that UCLA players are, perhaps, a little afraid of scrutiny. Little character things like that are red flags for NFL scouts. (I’m sure if you forgot to clean your mustache of the bread crumbs from this morning’s strudel, NFL scouts are writing that down, too.)

Regardless, we’re happy to hear that Pro Day was all nice and dandy, even if no one got to see it. By the way these guys are talking, they’ve definitely inherited Rick Neuheisel’s “relentlessly positive” philosophy.

Currently, DraftSite.com doesn’t have any Bruins projected to get picked up in the draft, which is a damn shame. You’d figure a bruiser like Derrick Coleman or a smart player like Tony Dye would be projected to go somewhere in the draft, but apparently, that ain’t happening.

The good thing with football is that undrafted free agents have a good amount of success in the NFL. Not as much as draftees, mind you, but it isn’t totally impossible to blow some faces away while on a team’s practice squad. This isn’t basketball, where undrafted players that play well are heralded as saviors and are a symbol of hard work, because it tends to happen in the NFL.

Regardless, we’ll be praying that the scouts love them, because we sure as hell did.

GO BRUINS!!!

As I ponder the season that the 2011 version of the UCLA Bruins’ football team has had, I can’t help thinking that there were fifty teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision that would have dearly loved to have had six wins and gone to a post-season bowl game.

That’s one of the few positive spins I can think of, however, as this year has been filled with more frustrating inconsistencies and disappointments, so much so that it cost Rick Neuheisel his job as the Bruins’ head coach after four years.

Jim L. Mora was hired in mid-December to right the ship, but a discussion of the high and low points to this season is in order right now:

HIGH POINTS (yes, believe it or not, there were some):

1.   UCLA 31 – California 14, October 29th

After a debacle that saw the Bruins come completely unglued in their humiliating loss to Arizona the previous week, UCLA fans were forming a virtual lynch mob for Neuheisel as they faced Cal at the Rose Bowl.

That lynch mob was disbanded that evening, at least for the time being, as the Bruins showed some guts and came through in beating their older UC brothers from Berkeley, which was highlighted by Tevin McDonald’s three interceptions and running back Derrick Coleman’s three touchdown runs.

Here is a clip of McDonald’s three picks:

3 interceptions by UCLA Tevin McDonald on YouTube

2.   UCLA 29 – Arizona State 28, November 5th

After their win over the Golden Bears, the next week saw UCLA with their biggest challenge at home, a date with an Arizona State Sun Devil team that was riding high with a 6-2 record, a top-25 ranking, and a firm seat on top of the Pac-12 South with an eventual date in the conference championship game on the horizon.

As the game unfolded, however, it was apparent that someone forgot to tell the Bruins about ASU’s resume as they played the Sun Devils even, holding a lead at halftime and not giving up when they took a 28-23 lead in the fourth quarter.

UCLA’s last drive wasn’t pretty as it was punctuated by fumbles and a pass interference call, but Derrick Coleman’s touchdown with less than a minute left, and the subsequent missed field goal on the last play that would have won the game for Arizona State, secured the upset for the Bruins.

It was another case of the team playing with absolute guts and heart, which was very pleasing for the Bruin Nation to see.

The following is a clip of Coleman taking on ASU’s volatile linebacker Vontaze Burfict on a key play and coming out on top:

Derrick Coleman vs. Vontaze Burfict HD on YouTube

(more…)

Besides Jim L. Mora being introduced as UCLA’s 19th head football coach at the Morgan Center on campus on Tuesday, here’s what has been up with that team as they get ready for the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco on December 31:

According to the Los Angeles Times on the gridiron front:

Marques Tuiasosopo, who interned for Rick Neuheisel this season, will work with the quarterbacks this month and may be hired as quarterbacks coach on a permanent basis by Mora – obviously if all goes well in the game against Illinois, the job will likely be as good as his.

“It’s strange. I came down here to help out a coach who I played for. Now I have a great opportunity,” Tuiasosopo said.

Mora has wasted little time in assembling a staff, hiring Adrian Klemm as his run-game coordinator and offensive line coach while bringing in Steve Broussard as wide receivers coach. Broussard served in that same capacity at Arizona State this year.

Linebacker Patrick Larimore, who was voted defensive most valuable player at the team banquet on Monday, with Nelson Rosario being chosen as offensive MVP, had surgery on this right thumb and is questionable for the bowl game against the Illini.

If the Bruins are to have a good chance at doing something on New Year’s Eve that they struggled mightily in this season – stopping the run – Larimore must be in the lineup.

Offensive guard Chris Ward will definitely be out in the game at AT&T Park as he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. He’s scheduled to be ready for spring practice.

(more…)

Ever since UCLA hired Jim L. Mora to take Rick Neuhiesel’s place as its new football coach, I’ve noticed that quite a few of you, particularly on sites like Bruin Report Online and Bruins Nation, have been quite upset over this hire and have posted things that, in my view, are a little ignorant.

I won’t go into the details of those posts, but they have been along the line of wanting to get rid of this man and wanting to throw him under the bus, mostly due to his lack of college coaching experience and his less than absolutely stellar record as coach of the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks - and he hasn’t been the Bruins’ coach for a week!

Not only that, he has yet to be formally introduced as of this writing; he’s scheduled for a press conference at the Morgan Center on campus today (Tuesday).

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am getting quite tired of the Negative Nellies and the Debbie Downers that are predicting sure doom over this hire.

How do you know that Mora will fail in Westwood? Do you have a crystal ball or time machine? Are you clarvoyant or have ESP?

If you don’t, then while you certainly have the right to your opinion and are entitled to it, it’s definitely bad form to criticize Mora before he has even coached a game, or has even held one practice with his players.

I strongly suggest that you let Mora get acclimated and see what he does, who he hires as his assistants,  and how he works with players such as Brett Hundley, Randall Carroll, Andrew Abbott,  Cassius Marsh, Malcolm Jones, and Johnathan Franklin (if he stays), before condeming him.

In other words, don’t knock him ’til you try him!

Let me sum this all up for you in this way:

GIVE MORA A CHANCE!!!

You never know – he may be the one to turn things around.

He may be the one that will even things with USC.

And maybe, just maybe, he will be the one to make UCLA consistent contenders, if not champions every year, in the Pac-12 and the BCS.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m going to give Jim L. Mora that chance.

And if you are good members of Bruin Nation, you will join me in doing the same.

Sincerely,

Derek Hart, UCLA Class of 1991

According to the Los Angeles Times, a source from UCLA’s Morgan Center, who isn’t authorized to speak on the subject, has stated that UCLA has reached an agreement with former NFL coach Jim L.Mora to become the school’s 19th football coach.

A formal announcement is expected, and Mora is scheduled to be introduced as the Bruins’ new head man at a news conference next week.

Unlike the previous head football coaches that have graced the Bruin sidelines since the late 1940s, Mora has no direct ties to UCLA as a player or an assistant; his father was on Dick Vermeil’s staff in 1974 and he used to attend the Bruins’ games as a youngster, but that’s all.

Mora, who had expressed interest the Bruin job and met with officials twice, comes to Westwood after spending two years as an analyst on the NFL Network. This is his first head coaching position at the collegiate level, having only been a graduate assistant with the Washington Huskies, his alma mater, in 1984, but he does have quite a bit of NFL experience, spending a total of four years combined at the helm of the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks.

He went 26-22 as the Falcons coach from 2004-2006, including reaching the NFC championship game and winning the NFL Coach of the Year award in ’04. His only season as the head man in Seattle was in 2009, when he went 5-11 and made way for Pete Carroll soon after.

The 50-year old Mora also spent time as an assistant with San Diego, New Orleans and San Francisco as well as Seattle, where he was in 2007 and turned down the Washington Redskins’ coaching job.

The son of the former New Orleans Saints’ coach takes over a Bruin program that hasn’t done too well in the 21st century; its 13 straight years without a Pac-10/12 championship or a Rose Bowl appearance is the longest in school history, as is not being ranked in the polls for 75 consecutive weeks.

The only time UCLA has won more than eight games in that span was in 2005, when they went 10-2 and beat Northwestern in the Sun Bowl.

And don’t get me started on how the Bruins have fared against crosstown rival USC this past decade, losing to the Trojans 12 out of the past 13 years, including a 50-0 humiliation this year – do you think Rick Neuheisel would have been relieved of his duties if UCLA had won, or was even competitive or played the Trojans close?

I reckon that there will be at least some fans who won’t like this hire, pointing to his mediocre record in the pros and lack of coaching experience in college, but one must keep in mind that Pete Carroll didn’t work out so great as an NFL head coach either, and had an epic and historical run at USC, leading them to a seven-year dominance.

OK, the Trojans ended up in scandal and sanctions, but that’s besides the point; if Carroll can achieve what he did on the field at ‘SC, I see no reason why Mora can’t do the same at UCLA – and without any of his players breaking any NCAA rules, either.

Provided that he is given the proper support from Dan Guerrero, his athletic department, and the administration, of course.

Personally, I’m glad that UCLA now has a coach in place, as it will certainly help with recruiting and keeping the high school commits that the Bruins currently have.

And I believe that Mora should be given a chance.

As of this moment, not well.

So far in the two weeks since Rick Neuheisel was told that his services as the head football coach of the UCLA Bruins were no longer needed, three men have said no to athletic director Dan Guerrero’s overtures:

1.  Boise State coach Chris Peterson, for the third time no less as he had already turned down the Bruins twice in previous years.

2.  University of Houston coach Kevin Sumlin, who beat UCLA in Week One of the season, and…

3.  University of Miami coach Al Golden, who had interviewed for the job in Westwood in 2007 but was passed over for Neuheisel.

There’s quite a bit of specuation as to why these three coaches treated UCLA like a nerdy kid in high school asking a girl for a date…

It’s well known that Peterson is seen as a king in Boise and has a great set-up there, complete with a big contract and all the trimmings. Plus his family’s happy in that small town environment, and as Peterson’s a small town guy, he probably didn’t want the challenge of coaching in a big city and the pressure of competing with the likes of USC for recruits and everything else.

As for Sumlin and Golden, I don’t think they wanted the pressure either, and they probably don’t want to live in Los Angeles or be at a school where the perception is that football isn’t given top priority and the support it needs, but that’s just me.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Guerrero’s next target, who like he did with Peterson is prepared to offer a $20 million dollar deal,  is former Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks coach Jim Mora, Jr.

Mora has had so-so success in the NFL, going 26-22 in two years with Atlanta and having a 5-11 record with the Seahawks in 2009, before he was replaced by Pete Carroll the next year. The only time he coached in college was as a graduate assistant with Washington in 1984.

If someone from the Morgan Center – the headquarters of UCLA’s Athletic Department – came up tome and asked for my suggestions as to who should be hired as the next Bruin football coach, I’d give them these names and strongly suggest that they hire one of them, in order of preference:

1.  Pat Hill

This former Fresno State coach, who was recently fired after a 15-year tenure in the Central Valley, has the toughness that the Bruins really need right now.

His motto of “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” is a good one, and his Bulldog teams showed over the years that they were not scared of anyone, even taking invincible USC to the fourth quarter in a game at the Coliseum in 2005, the Trojans needing an epic touchdown run by Reggie Bush to squeak by the Bulldogs by a touchdown.

A $20 million deal would be a significant raise from his Fresno State salary, and his no-nonsense approach would wake the Bruins up. Plus I think he would relish the challenge of building up a BCS team in L.A. and taking on USC in their own back yard.

2.  Herm Edwards

This is an NFL guy with much enthusiasm and energy who, though his overall 54-74 record wasn’t good, coached in the league for eight years, leading the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs.

For those folks who point to his won-loss record, I recall another guy whose tenure in the NFL during the late 1990s wasn’t so hot, never lasting more than three years in either of the two places he coached.

He was then hired by a certain crosstown school in 2001 and went on a historic run – yes, I know it all ended in scandal and sanctions, but you can’t take away that team’s dominance.

His name? Pete Carroll.

And if he could work out with USC, Edwards could work out with UCLA – and wthout the scandals, either.

3.  Randy Shannon

Although he’s not a West Coast guy, Shannon has college coaching experience, heading his alma mater at the University of Miami from 2007-2010 after playing linebacker for the Hurricanes during their glory years and leaving “The U” with a winning record.

The biggest plus with this man is his background working with defenses – before becoming the ‘Canes’ head coach, he was their defensive coordinator for six years, where in five of those years his defensive units finished in the nation’s top ten, including 4th out of 120 FBS schools one season.

That’s great news for a maligned Bruin defense that gave up 200-yard rushing days numerous times this year; Shannon would get that straightened out in a jiffy.

Plus at a mere 45 years old, he would be more able to relate to the players, and as he hails from the Miami area he could provide a pipeline to some of the best high school players in the country, as South Florida is famous for providing that.

And he’s a straight arrow coach who, compared to other ex-Miami coaches like Dennis Erickson and Jimmy Johnson, kept the program relatively clean.

Though unfortunately I’m not an influential booster and have no say over who UCLA gets, I strongly feel that the Bruins consider these coaches, particularly Hill.

Since his job may well depend on who he hires to come to Westwood, Guerrero would do well to look these guys up, gather their interest, and make an offer to one of them.