Roundtable: Neuheisel’s UCLA Legacy: Salvageable or a Missed Opportunity?

This is a make or break year for UCLA’s head coach Rick Neuheisel, and one that quite simply could be his last in Westwood. We decided to sit down and talk about his performance to date, in our very first round-table discussion about the UCLA Bruins.

Going into his fourth season with the Bruins, will Neuheisel lead the program to respectability or will his tenure be seen as a huge missed opportunity that the Bruins take a decade to recover from?

Shiloh Winder: It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Rick Neuheisel era won’t be viewed as a huge failure. Think back to 2008 Neuheisel rides in on a white horse as the golden boy returned home to UCLA to work the same magic he did at Colorado and Washington at his Alma Mater. USC has the NCAA hammer hanging over them, waiting to drop. In the year that followed, Neuheisel brings in the best offensive coordinator in college football in Norm Chow and one of the top defensive coaches in Dewayne Walker. As UCLA is solidifying the best coaching staff in college football, USC emerges from the NCAA’s wood shed with a 2 year bowl ban, 30 fewer scholarships to offer over 3 years, and an open door for any upper-classman who wishes to transfer somewhere else and play right away. It’s difficult to imagine a scenario better than this one for UCLA to build a top notch football program. You’ve got the charismatic head coach with a ton of name recognition, you have arguably the two best coordinators in the sport and your main recruiting rival has both arms tied behind its back. Three seasons later, USC has somehow maintained a significant recruiting advantage and Neuheisel’s record is 15-22, with an embarrassing 8-19 Pac-10 mark. Over the same stretch, USC is 29-10, and in spite of having 20 fewer scholarship players, still has more talent. Neuheisel will likely be fired following this season, but given the way the Bruins fumbled the opportunity of the last three years, it’s hard to say where the program goes from here.

Ryne Hodkowski: I think Neuheisel is certainly capable of leading the team to respectability. To me, that is making a bowl game every year, and constantly competing for a Pac-12 South title. If anything, this year seems as good as any for the Bruins to make a big splash, and win the division. They avoid Oregon, and host Arizona State. They are already an experienced team, and they should be better than the likes of Arizona and Utah. This is a team that has only missed a bowl game four times since 1996, two of which occurred in the last three years. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be in a bowl game every year. If Neuheisel does not make a bowl game this year, it is likely that Neuheisel will be fired. From that point on, it’s anyone’s guess. Their success would be determinant not only on
who they hired to be Neuheisel’s successor, but the development of the young players. They still have a lot of talent on their team, but it has yet to be developed. A new coach could provide the shot in the arm the team needs, but he could also see the team fall into a three to four year stretch without a bowl. If Neuheisel were to be let go, I think it would be seen not only as a missed opportunity to catch USC, but a disappointment to the rich tradition of the UCLA program as a whole.

Michael Castillo: When it comes to Rick Neuheisel, I think it’s pretty simple: he’s under performed. He was billed as a great recruiter, yet his most highly touted recruit to date, incoming freshman Brett Hundley was ranked 84th in the Nation according to Rivals, showing just how much USC’s advantage remains. He was thought of as a great play caller and motivator, yet in 2010 he completely lost the talent of both his offensive coordinator and his team, with the inclusion of the Pistol offense. So while he came into the job being touted as the savior, there’s really nothing more than talking being done here, something Rick has always excelled in. For me, it’s the absurdity of the Pistol offense that will forever label his tenure at UCLA. No, not in a tactical sense, but more for what it said about his coaching style and his belief in the personnel around him. The Pistol was a great idea in theory after its success in Nevada, and the need for more creativity in a speedy conference. Yet, by implementing the system, Neuheisel immediately put Norm Chow in a position to call plays that were far from his comfort zone, completely eliminating all expertise that Chow had. When you couple in that fact with the notion that none of the Bruins were players that were designed to excel in the system, it magnifies the blunder. Neuheisel was already in trouble with two mediocre seasons, so why take a step backward to implement an offense that would call for a drastic learning curve for not only coaches, but for the players, causing the need to recruit players suited to run it? For me, it’s as if Neuheisel already knew that he and Chow couldn’t be successful as themselves at UCLA, and therefore needed to pull straws and go for broke. A year later, I’m not so sure they’ve made much progress. Even if running backs like Jonathan Franklin continue to be successful in the Pistol, they’ll either have a legitimate Pistol-type quarterback that is just freshman(Hundley), or a guy with average experience(Prince) and an average skill set(Brehaut) when it comes to running such a complex spread-type offense. “Slick Rick” was given a golden opportunity at UCLA, especially with the demise of USC, and yet he’s missed that opportunity.

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