Will Rick Neuheisel make it through the weekend as UCLA’s coach?
How about the month?
If you ask me, Neuheisel shouldn’t have been allowed to return for the second half of the Bruins abysmal performance against Arizona Friday night. But that’s apparently not the plan, according to UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.
Certainly Guerrero watched the game in which UCLA was thoroughly dominated 48-12, so you have to believe he’s formulating an exit strategy when it comes to Neuheisel. Yet Guerrero appeared to offer a vote of confidence for a coach who is 18-26 in three-plus seasons at his alma mater and has never even sniffed a Pac-10 championship.
Here is what Guerrero said to reporters after the game:
“Rick is my coach. I don’t know who is talking about him being relieved early, but it’s certainly not me. He’s a great Bruin. I want to see him succeed. We’ll evaluate at the end of the year like we always evaluate and make determinations (of) what we’re going to do at that point. But right now, all this talk about him staying or him going, that does nothing for our team that is trying to regroup and go out there every week and play hard and try to win football games.”
OK, we’ll check back in at the end of the year. But let’s look at some damning evidence from last night that says maybe the end should be now and not later.
UCLA had everything to play for in Tucson. The Bruins were 2-1 in Pac-12 play and controlled their destiny in the South division.
Instead of coming out fired up to play, UCLA looked as dejected and detached as any team I’ve seen in years—no offense to Ohio State’s performance against Miami. The chance to win the Pac-12 South was probably minuscule considering the Bruins really do suck.
But Arizona was supposed to be even worse. The Wildcats hadn’t recorded a victory over an FBS program in more than a year, and they fired Mike Stoops on Oct. 10 for the dismal 1-5 beginning.
Arizona led 42-7 at halftime after Nick Foles and Juron Criner just torched the UCLA defensive backs. The biggest shock, though, was the way Arizona’s offensive line manhandled the Bruin defenders and allowed a dormant running game to explode for 254 yards on 46 carries.
Then there was Arizona’s defense, which looked like the old Desert Swarm for the 1990s.
The only time the Bruins even appeared to give a damn was right before halftime when a blench-clearing brawl occurred.
Watching Neuheisel on the sidelines and as he met Arizona’s interim coach Tim Kish on the field after the game, Slick Rick looked bloodied and beaten. His players didn’t respond for the embattled coach, and he made it clear he had thrown in the towel when he chose to go for a field goal instead of trying for a touchdown on fourth and goal with less than five minutes to play.
This is not the same trash-talking coach who rode into Los Angeles ready to take on USC for California supremacy.
Nope, this is a guy who can’t figure out where it all went wrong and doesn’t know how to fix the problem.
So I’ll ask it another way, “Should Rick Neuheisel still be the coach at UCLA?”
