Neuheisel Makes the Right Call

Rick Neuheisel has finally put his stamp on the UCLA football program.  With the recent dismissal of three incoming freshman football players this week, Neuheisel made the most of this opportunity to show that while winning is important, it does not take priority over the integrity of the university…at least for now. 

Any fan of the football program at UCLA will tell you that they want to win (and beat ‘SC) more than anything.  This feeling is only stronger after having lived through the Bob Toledo late 90’s when Cade McNown led Bruin teams to top-ten finishes and a plus-20 game-winning streak while USC was mired in the incredibly average Paul Hackett years (West-Coast Offense Alert!).  Of course, any fan that remembers eight straight wins over ‘SC and all that high-octane offense will also remember the handicap parking scandal and player arrests for DUI, assault, etc..  Further, any fan that attended the school during that time might remember seeing athletes driving around in shiny black Ford Explorers:  “Are they sharing one car?”… “I don’t know but we beat Texas 66-3!”

Well, after a decade of our own mediocre coaching and recruiting, the program seems to be back on the winning track.  An improving record, nationally-ranked recruiting classes…and more arrests.  Now before calling me cynical, think about it:  When’s the last time you remember a UCLA football player being arrested or otherwise in real trouble?  Maybe the last time they were winning?  The fact that UCLA football team photos didn’t come in pairs (One front, one side, holding a ID plate with a height marker behind you) was one of the few beautiful truths fans held onto during the Karl Dorrell-Era (West-Coast Offense Alert #2!)  However, this generation of UCLA athletes just got an early start to the trouble.  The teams from the last decade had 10 wins and were a hurricane (and a tackling drill) away from playing for a BCS championship.  Those guys, on the field at least, were stars.  This team is coming off a 7-6 year with a win in the Buzzard-Bank bowl or something like that.  (Kids these days…always in a rush).

In any case, last week offered an opportunity for this new phase of UCLA football.  What is a coach to do when he has a program on the rise but isn’t loaded enough yet to lose three top-50 positional recruits?  If this were Texas, Florida or (ahem) USC, the answer is simple:  Call last year’s red-shirts and remind them to be ready for September.  Check their grades in their ballroom dancing class and make sure they’ll be eligible for the coming season.  Or just say that you never heard or saw anyone doing anything, ever.  This is what happens when your depth chart goes four-deep.  When it’s only two-deep or one-deep (read: O-Line), you might pause for a second:  “Maybe if they apologize real nicely, we can get them suited up for Kansas State!”

The fact that Neuheisel did the right thing here let’s UCLA fans breathe easy…at least for now.  There was nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing anything other than suspending the new kids.  As talented as they are supposed to be, they wouldn’t have bridged the gap between the local schools and wouldn’t have gotten UCLA much closer to playing a BCS game this year anyway.  In other words, the cost/benefit analysis suggests that losing these guys might mean a gain in what you already have.

In addition, it was the right thing for the kids as well (assuming it’s important that college athletes are a part of the school and not just 6’3”, 220-pound, 4.4 running ATM machines for the university):  They are in Summer school before their freshman year in college!  Stealing purses???  Really???...Shouldn’t you be getting a head-start in meeting freshman girls and all that fun stuff?  You have to be punished for that.  That’s a bad choice young man…but maybe that’s just me.  As a side, do you remember if you ever taught yourself a life-lesson as a teenager when you did something wrong?  I surely don’t.  I just remember that I got away with something.  If he had given them the Downey-Soft treatment, Neuheisel would have sent a clear message to the program and it’s fans:  The monopoly on football (and the recruitment of talented trouble-teens) in L.A. is over!  We will win now, recruit now, and if we pay later, it’s only because the NCAA is jealous and they all want to be Bruins!

The fact that Neuheisel took the long view here gives me some hope that what’s brewing over in Westwood is a long-term commitment to winning the right way and not just a measure against what would be lost or gained this coming season.  As a fan, I won’t mind a few 8-5 seasons (with some 11-2’s sprinkled in~) as long as the program is graduating players and is bringing in talented teenagers and helping them become educated adults.  Oh, and also as long as we’re not taking an offense that takes pros years to learn and trying to teach it to kids who will only be here for four at most (West-Coast Offense Alert #3!  Sorry, Karl.  You’re a good man but a bad head-coach).  So I for one say “right-on and not fight-on,” Rick.  You took the chance to make your mark at the university and made the right choice. 

Hopefully, these young men made a young-man’s mistake and will learn from it and bounce back.  Hopefully, this is the course you’ll keep whether the team is at the bottom, on the way up, or at the top.  8-5/9-4 sounds good to me this year.  Of course, if we were 11-2 last year and we’re favored to win the Pac-10 and our starting QB gets caught stealing a laptop…let’s suspend him ‘indefinitely (wink)’ and hope he gets it together…Oh wait, he got busted for possession of pot after being suspended?  Well, maybe if we get him into a treatment program with some community service…and what’s the name of that kid from Florida who didn’t have the grades?  Let’s get him a tutor and…