Coach Rick Neuheisel’s hot seat is well worn
UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel tried a preemptive strike a few weeks ago at the Pacific 12 Conference’s football media day.
He opened with a joke: “I’m excited to be here. As a coach on the proverbial hot seat, I’m excited to be invited to any of these things.”
Laughing it off?
Not quite.
In the game of college football monopoly, Neuheisel may have just one dice roll left. After three seasons in which UCLA has looked no better off then when he was hired in 2008, fans are restless.
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero has done nothing to alleviate the pressure, saying as far back as last winter, “Rick knows there is maybe one shot to straighten this thing out.”
So this could be win or go home.
But that doesn’t mean it’s definitely a farewell tour.
Former UCLA coach Terry Donahue survived the hot seat in 1980 by beating USC to cool things down. More recently, Arizona Coach Mike Stoops, with Athletic Director Jim Livengood blocking, held off a pitchforks-and-torches mob.
“When your back is against the wall, you have no choice but to succeed,” said Donahue, the Bruins’ coach from 1976 to 1995. “It’s like Cortez, who had his men burn the ships so they wouldn’t retreat. There is nowhere else to go, so come out fighting.”
Neuheisel is 15-22 at UCLA, the worst three-year start by a Bruins coach since Harry Trotter went 2-13-1 from 1920 to 1922. Neuheisel also is winless in three games with USC.
His predecessor, Karl Dorrell, beat USC once and was 22-15 in his first three seasons, including a 10-2 record in Year 3.
Neuheisel was 4-8 in 2010, his third season, and while firing offensive coordinator Norm Chow and defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough redirected some finger-pointing, UCLA’s fan base is not united behind him.
Neuheisel, who always pitches with positive spin, would rather the season not be about him and says he’s not worried about the future.
“If UCLA decides there is a better football coach for their program and I’m telling you right now, there isn’t then that’ll be what happens,” he said. “That will not mean that I’m going to go hungry. That will not mean my family will go hungry. I will go find another job. I’ll do something and I’ll be good at it.”
Donahue faced a similar situation in 1980, and the heat was at full boil just before UCLA played USC.
“The word on the street was if I didn’t win that game, I was out,” said Donahue, who was 0-4 against USC heading into the game.
UCLA beat USC, 20-17, ushering in a decade of success in Westwood. The Bruins won three Rose Bowls and finished in the top 10 five times during the 1980s.
As to whether he would have been fired, Donahue said, “Who knows if that was accurate, but that was what the press was reporting. [Athletic Director] J.D. Morgan never talked to me about it.”
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