Yes! let’s all do the eight-clap together now. Let us also withhold any criticism of Neu’s moves as he assembles his coaches and decides on his offensive scheme. This is assuming Walker stays on as DC. If not, then the next effort has to be a top notch DC. Go Bruins!

Yes, this is really great news. I couldn’t be more pleased and will be getting season tickets for the first time this coming week. I believe this will go done as an historically important decision for UCLA. I have only one question which is just a matter of curiosity and not of great importance now. Did UCLA decide they wanted RN some time ago but dragged this out for the sake of appearance so as to pacify and mellow out the Walker supporters? Or were they actually going in a different direction as it seemed on Friday contacting other prospects like Mike Riley and John Fox but due to the mounting negative reaction about the amount of time the search was taking along with a strong surge of positive support for RN in the UCLA community they decided to change course and go with RN? I’d be interested in what others think about this.

Yes, this is really great news. I couldn’t be more pleased and will be getting season tickets for the first time this coming week. I believe this will go down as an historically important decision for UCLA. I have only one question which is just a matter of curiosity and not of great importance now. Did UCLA decide they wanted RN some time ago but dragged this out for the sake of appearance so as to pacify and mellow out the Walker supporters? Or were they actually going in a different direction as it seemed on Friday contacting other prospects like Mike Riley and John Fox but due to the mounting negative reaction about the amount of time the search was taking along with a strong surge of positive support for RN in the UCLA community they decided to change course and go with RN? I’d be interested in what others think about this.

Dan Guerrero has now gone 1 for 3 on his major hirings…He better hope Howland stays until he’s eighty years of age, or else someone will soon be starting, www.dumpguerrero.com

Roger,

It is all about the money. There are big name coaches who would come here and coach, but they want the money the large schools pay. Rick got nearly $400,000.00 more annually out of them than what KD ever got.

None of the other candidates were ineterested, why should they be. The salary paid Dorrell was like minimum wage on the coahes market. Sun Belt Conference coachs make that amount.

I am sure glad to have Rick back at any price.

What’s the matter Fred W,you miss KD and think Dw was the cure.

No, I just have always hoped and believed that UCLA would take the high road in athletics and academics.

I don’t believe that Neuheisel Lane is the right direction to take…

As the Zen Master said,’We shall see.’

I was firmly a Walker supporter (definitely not a Dorrell supporter) but I am now firmly behind Neuheisel and the UCLA Bruins. I too am excited to start this new era. GO BRUINS!

Fred…you can take the high road and play winning athletics. As you know, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, the service academies and Notre Dame (Willingham, Davie) and the Ivy League DO FIRE coaches that don’t win. I am not a Rick fan, but UCLA football does need him at this time. And he has MUCH to prove. And no coach will be under as much scrutiny as RN…..he has “zero tolerance.” Fred, I would have been as concerned as you if UCLA had done a Petrino or Saban with some big booster flying him around in his private jet and paying off his multi-million dollar buyout from another school. And UCLA is NOT Florida State!

BruinBuddy, I don’t think it was about the money. One of the reasons we felt like we could do bigger and better this time was that DG noted that money wasn’t an issue. Reports were that we had as much as 2M a year earmarked for this hire, and potentially more than that. Maybe we can use that extra money we didn’t give to RN and use it to get Norm Chow as our OC

I simply refuse to believe that the only two choices for a great school like UCLA, were a coach without head coaching experience, and a two time NCAA felon…

Between those two, personally I would have taken the former.

And now we have the answer to that age-old question:

Why is Fred not an AD?

Because Fred doesn’t want to have deal with two time NCAA felons like Rick, or alums who would choose winning at all costs, over doing the ethical thing.

All I can add is, I’m certain that DG is making sure that coach Howland takes his yearly physicals…

Now that we have a HC, you will be able to determine who the Trojan moles of this site have been. Those that want to keep the “ncaa baggage” crap in the story etc etc etc.
NCAA felon???? As Trojan mole, Big Dave would say…..
puhhlease!!!

Now, let’s not leave anything out of Slick Rick’s background, it’s TWO TIME, NCAA FELON….And that should have been far too much baggage for a great institution like UCLA.

Guys. Can we please stop arguing about past questions? It’s time to move forward. Go Bruins!!

If you want a good coach, then you spend the money and get one. UCLA went cheap when hiring KD and look at the mess we are in?

Slick Rick is back and so is UCLA Football! Go Bruins!!!

Two time felon? Are you counting the time that he was unrightfully let go from the Wash gig? I coulf be wrong but didn’t Neu win a large settlement for wrongful termination? I’m just saying…

Headline in the Eugene Register Guard this morning:

WANNA BET WHO’S BACK? Along side a photo of Neuheisel.

I have probably participated in a hundred (or more) betting pools in my lifetime. Every Superbowl game and every March Madness tourney, someone grabs me and has me write my name in the little squares on the grid. I have played 25 cent poker in a room over my garage with a high profile circuit court judge. One Sunday night, at the old Stardust sportsbook in Vegas, I saw a network football announcer place a 3-team parlay bet on the next week’s games. Yet, no one was standing at the ready with a bucket of tar and a bag of feathers to brand any of us unworthy scoundrels.

Why is it that Rick Neuheisel gets tagged as a “high-roller” and “two time felon” for participating in a neighborhood basketball tournament pool when he brought his participation to the attention of university athletic department and NCAA officials, and was granted approval by those entities?

Further, is he a “felon” because he provided recruits with free boat rides across Lake Washington to the UW campus? Or, was it because he drove past the homes of recruits and waved to them, in violation of NCAA rules that prohibit personal contact with said recruits? Violations, yes. But, a felon whose name should be mentioned in the same sentence with Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. Don’t think so.

Rick Neuheisel appears to be one of those guys to whom others cannot stand to lose. You know, like the rich kid down the street with the new BMW, a gift from daddy, who cruises past your house smugly smiling at you sitting in your Kia. Except, Rick hasn’t gotten anything for nothing. He was a walk-on football player at UCLA. Yet, he managed to work his way through the maze of bluechip, hot-shot high school recruits who were given free rides, to become the starting QB. And, not just ANY starting QB. He became the QB that led his team to a Rose Bowl upset and was named MVP of the game.
He tried his hand at the pro game, but when that didn’t work out, he went into coaching. And, sandwiched in there somewhere, Rick happened to be intelligent enough and industrious enough to earn his JD at SC.

I have come to the conclusion that the reason there is so much vitriol directed toward Rick has nothing to do with his past “transgressions.” No, the simple truth is, those who have to compete against him are jealous, envious, and fearful. Jealous of his success, envious of his intelligence, and fearful his team is gonna kick their team’s ass. So, they dredge up these incidents from his past and call him ridiculous names like “two time felon.”

I’m just laughing and being very thankful he is on our side.

I think it is important to be realistic. Pete Carroll did not have a stellar first year at USC. I remember Fresno State killing USC in the Freedom Bowl 24-7. Even the next year, the best Pete Carroll could do was get back to the Freedom bowl, not really a bowl of great significance.

Ben Howland had a terrible first year at UCLA and his second year, while an improvement, still resulted in a one and done tournament.

I am happy that we got a real coach for a change, but lets be realistic and give him a chance before we start to the nukeNeuheisal.com site.

Please strike the above about USC. I meant to say In 2001, USC got beat by UTAH 10-6 in the Las Vegas bowl. I guess my alzheimer’s disease is progressing. But in 2002 they did win the Orange bowl. I guess I was a decade off.

SORRY.

We finally get a decent coach and the moles flat out can’t handle it. Amazing. If they are not moles, then they are one of two choices: politically correct dweebs who’ll settle for more mediocrity, or just very ignorant individuals, with IQs that wouldn’t get them into UCLA in the first place.

We finally get a decent coach and the moles flat out can’t handle it. Amazing. If they are not moles, then they are one of two choices: politically correct dweebs who’ll settle for more mediocrity, or just very ignorant individuals, with IQs that wouldn’t get them into UCLA in the first place.

I supported Walker’s hiring. I played football at Yale and just finished at UCLA law a few years back. I have to believe my IQ is on par with yours. You need to get real. There were a lot of reasons to hire Walker. I’m completely fine with Neuheisel’s hiring and happy to start a new era of UCLA football. However, in saying that, I fully understand that there will be A LOT of negative media publications regarding UCLA’s hiring of RN. This isn’t about DW not getting hired. We all know RN can coach. I think we’re in good hands. This is about UCLA hiring a coach that is a magnet for drama. Lets hope he can doesn’t go with his former “win at all costs” way of doing things. That isn’t UCLA.

Points, well taken, but you are still an Ivy Leaguer at heart, where sports have no way near the importance that they do at a USC, Michigan, Alabama or UCLA. Hey, I didn’t create the culture. I just want to root for a winner.

Fred W - I graduated from UCLA in 1975. What year was it that you graduated from U$C?