At the end of his postgame press conference, following the UCLA football team’s deflating 45-26 loss to the California Golden Bears on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel gave an anecdote for the Bruins’ season.
Neuheisel told the press that there once was a desert, and somebody had enough vision and belief to build hotels there. Next thing they knew, the city of Las Vegas was born.
The point of the metaphor was to let everyone know that while the Bruins are in the midst of struggles, highlighted by a three-game losing streak that has all but wiped away the good feelings generated by a 3-0 start, there is still hope that one day the UCLA football program will make its way into the college elite.
“This is not so desolate as a desert,” Neuheisel said. “There’s enough here to get it done, and we are going to get it done come hell or high water. That’s what we’re going to do, and that’s all I know how until somebody tells me now it’s somebody else’s turn.”
Judging by the way the Bruins have played thus far in Pac-10 conference play, it seems that dream is still a ways away.
On Saturday, the Bruins dropped their third consecutive Pac-10 game, falling to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in conference play. Following a rousing 3-0 start to the season, the Bruins have fallen back down to Earth, with the loss to Cal being the most recent and emphatic example. On a day when their offense was able to put up 26 points on 448 yards, it was the Bruins’ normally stout defense that put the team in an early hole by allowing 35 points in the first half.
“These are difficult times,” Neuheisel said. “And in difficult times the key is for everybody to know that there’s a plan and that the plan will begin in earnest tomorrow and that we will come back.”
Despite a rough start to conference play and a road that does not get any easier with tough games at Arizona and Oregon State in the next two weeks, the players were adamant that there is still a sense of confidence in the locker room.
“Three losses in a row is something that you’re definitely not expecting with the talent that you have on this team,” senior cornerback Alterraun Verner said. “But we know that we still have a whole half of a season to go, we still got six more games. It’s not like this was the last game and we lost. So we still got a lot to play for, and I’m going to keep on saying that until game 12.”
Senior linebacker Reggie Carter was similar in his assessment of the Bruins’ season thus far, referring to it as a “long race.”
“We still have six games left. We lost three already so 9-3 doesn’t look bad if we win these last six,” Carter said.
Prior to the start of the season, Neuheisel said that he felt that if the Bruins failed to make it to the postseason then he would consider the season a failure. After the game, Neuheisel admitted that qualifying for a bowl is not a worry of his right now.
“In preseason you’re always asked what your season goals are,” Neuheisel said. “I said I’d be disappointed if we didn’t get to the postseason. But that can’t be my concern now. My concern now is the Arizona game and rebuilding back the confidence of a bunch of young players.”
Neuheisel pointed to two of his previous coaching seasons as examples of when his teams have faced adversity.
First there was his third season at Colorado in 1997 when the Buffaloes finished with a 5-6 record after being picked to be the top team in the country.
Then there was the season at Washington in 2002 when the Huskies fell to 4-5 after suffering three consecutive losses. Yet the team rebounded and won the final three games of the season in what Neuheisel admitted might be his “most rewarding season as a coach.”
“That’s what the job is: You keep looking for the positive, you keep grinding away, you keep telling kids this will work and this will happen, and you give them the tools to go out and execute correctly,” Neuheisel said. “They’ll hang in there with us. That’s the only way I know. I know one thing: You don’t get it done if you stop trying.”
Sophomore wide receiver Taylor Embree said that the pieces are in place; the only thing the Bruins have to do is execute.
“We have signs of greatness,” he said. “We just have to capitalize on everything.”