The UCLA football team came into the season slated to finish
sixth in the conference. The Bruins finished tied for fourth.
This only made first-year Athletic Director Dan Guerrero
curious.
“Should UCLA be preseason ranked number six?”
It was a rhetorical question asked right after the firing of
head coach Bob Toledo following the close of the regular
season.
In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the tension built
up and boiled over. Even a 7-5 regular season could not save Toledo
from the Guerrero guillotine.
It wasn’t necessarily the 2002 season that did Toledo in.
UCLA shot out to a 3-1 start in nonconference play, with the only
loss coming against a very good Colorado team.
In the Pac-10 opener, the Bruins came from behind on the road to
defeat Oregon State. The game marked the emergence of redshirt
freshman Tyler Ebell as the feature back.
The Bruins then came a field goal away from beating Oregon and a
healthy quarterback Cory Paus away from beating Cal.
At that point, the team got desperate. “We’re
overdue,” junior defensive end Ryan Boschetti said. “If
we lose this third game in a row, which isn’t going to
happen, you’re going to see a lot of people jump off the
ship.”
Instead, the Bruins, whose goal coming into the season was team
unity, set sail on a three-game winning streak, beating Stanford,
Washington and Arizona.
With Paus’ season over because of an ankle injury
sustained against Cal, freshmen Drew Olson and Matt Moore platooned
effectively and grew up a little on the field.
But then the Bruins were routed 52-21 by eventual Orange Bowl
champion USC. After losing for the fourth straight year to the
crosstown rival, Toledo’s hot seat turned Trojan red.
After the Bruins were stomped 48-27 by Rose Bowl-bound
Washington State, Toledo’s face turned white.
It was the totality of his performance since the 1998 loss to
Miami that cost the Bruins a spot in the national championship game
that caused Guerrero to act.
Off-field player problems, including a handicapped parking
placard scandal, barroom fights and an NCAA extra benefits
violation, seemed to signify that Toledo had lost control of his
program.
His play-calling, lowlighted by a doomed fake field goal in the
Oregon game and a failure to call timeouts in the USC game, seemed
to show that he couldn’t even manage a game efficiently.
Toledo and his staff also failed to adequately develop enough
highly recruited players. The Bruins lost many seniors in the
off-season and were left with bare bones and low expectations.
“Last year, our goal the whole time was to be
undefeated,” senior defensive end Rusty Williams said.
“That (was) not one of our goals this year.”
The 2002 team managed to avoid any distracting off-the-field
incidents down the stretch, as the seniors kept the players in line
on and off the field. The Bruins pulled together after
Toledo’s firing and won the Las Vegas Bowl over New Mexico
with interim coach Ed Kezirian at the helm.
New head coach Karl Dorrell now takes over a young team with
potential for improvement. Sophomore wide receiver Craig Bragg has
become a gamebreaker. Ebell, Olson and Moore all have star
potential. And freshman tight end Marcedes Lewis should fill in
nicely for out-going senior Mike Seidman.
Linebacker Spencer Havner, cornerback Matt Ware and safeties Ben
Emanuel and Jarrad Page are also young talents.
The future is bright for 2003, and Toledo is gone. Now, the
question is, coincidence or not?