Rick Neuheisal’s first go at UCLA was made for the movies – high school stud walks onto UCLA team, rapidly ascends to holder on field goals. Then, as a senior, the Bruins are desperate for an infusion of life into an 0-3 team … and Neuheisal takes over at QB and peels off six wins in a row, beating USC along the way and getting UCLA to the Rose Bowl. Then, he got food poisoning right before the game! And still started! And they won! And he was the MVP! Great story … as a player. As a coach? If you live by the motto “all college coaches cheat, it’s just that some get caught” then Neuheisal isn’t that bad of a guy. But, he has had his problems (and we’re not talking about that rinky-dink NCAA college hoops gambling thing that got him shit-canned in Washington – even though he later collected a $4.5 million settlement), namely, a boatload of cheating offenses while in Colorado and Washington, from illegal players, to illegal recruiting tactics. So the question is, why would UCLA give this cheater a second third chance? Answer: He’s a ‘name’ hire, and UCLA can’t go out and get some schlub to recruit against USC and Pete Carroll. Really looking forward to seeing these two punks go at it for the best talent in SoCal.

Now, onto a crappy slate of bowl games. So far, we’re a whopping 8-for-13. At one point, we were 6-for-7, but really crapped ourselves with lame picks like Arizona State (frauds!), Maryland, and Connecticut. A team to watch today – FSU, serious dogs against Kentucky, and Clemson, which is supposed to have no chance against this vaunted Auburn defense (if you listen to the “analysts” at ESPN).


Neuheisal says the right things, but will he do the right thing? (LA Times)