Rick Neuheisel has quite the view.
The second-year UCLA football coach occupies a corner office that overlooks Bruin Plaza, an always buzzing campus center point. Whenever he peers out the windows, he can find an endless stream of students taking the journey up and down Bruin Walk ““ a hike he knows well from his own days as a student.
“It hasn’t changed that much,” Rick Neuheisel said, reminiscing about his senior year of 1983.
The Bruins’ success against crosstown rival USC has changed, though, and it makes people around these parts of town want to revert back a few years. After beating the Trojans for eight straight seasons, the Bruins have won only once in the last decade.
Aside from taking their share of losses on the scoreboard, the Bruins’ recruiting efforts have been marred by this lopsided trend. But Neuheisel, an esteemed and enthusiastic recruiter, has a vision to match his picturesque office view.
“We’re gaining on it,” he said. “The arrow is definitely headed in the right direction.”
Despite a mediocre 6-5 record, the Bruins are gaining on the Trojans, at least in the talent category. A comparison of the two programs’ recent recruiting classes tells the tale.
UCLA’s group in 2008 was rated No. 10 nationally according to recruiting Web site Scout.com, with USC’s coming in at No. 9.
Last year, Neuheisel signed the fifth best class in the country and the best class west of the Mississippi River. USC was again ranked ninth.
“Everything about this rivalry is competition and emotion,” said redshirt senior linebacker Reggie Carter, who was part of the 24th-ranked class in 2005.
Neuheisel reflects on the state of his young program and sees it in transition. UCLA has yet to witness better days, and he wants recruits to see what he does.
“Kids you recruit want an opportunity,” Neuheisel said. “They want an opportunity to show that they’re ready to do this. We’re in a position as a program where it’s easy to convey that because we haven’t arrived.”
Sophomore safety Rahim Moore noticed an opportunity and snatched it right up. The 19-year-old ball hawk leads the nation with nine interceptions this season and has started in all 23 games since arriving in Westwood.
“When recruits come, we tell them how it is,” Moore said. “We do need them. We’re needy right now. This is the best place to go for opportunity. Every year, every spot is open.”
Without necessarily guaranteeing immediate playing time, Neuheisel can sell UCLA as a land of opportunity in a city that has been thoroughly controlled by USC coach Pete Carroll. He can promise recruits that they will at least get a chance. Sometimes that’s all a recruit needs to hear.
Neuheisel made a splash last spring when he landed current freshman receivers Randall Carroll and Morrell Presley, a highly recruited pair that had previously been committed to USC.
The duo’s switch sent shock waves through the city and suggested that Neuheisel had arrived on the Southern California recruiting scene. Neuheisel said that it wasn’t his intention to lure the two away from the Trojans.
“I was able to show them UCLA,” he said. “It sells itself.”
It’s not rare for college coaches to bump into one another at games during the evaluation period, and as evidenced by his signing Presley and Carroll, Neuheisel has not shied away from those leaning toward signing with USC.
“We’re trying to land the best and the brightest for UCLA,” Neuheisel said during his signing day press conference last spring. “A lot of the best and brightest are on (USC’s) list. I made it clear that I’m going after (those players) regardless.”
Neuheisel isn’t the only one recruiting.
Moore wears his UCLA football gear whenever he goes home or visits Dorsey High School, which sits less than four miles west of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Moore hopes that his play on the field shows others in the inner city that there’s a world beyond the cardinal and gold.
“People in the inner city are used to hearing about ‘SC so much, but when I come around they think about UCLA,” Moore said. “It gives people another view. They see a guy like Rahim doing his thing at UCLA, and they want to be a part of it, too.”
Five other underclassmen started alongside Moore on defense in UCLA’s 23-13 home victory over Arizona State on Saturday. Seven of the 11 offensive starters were either freshmen or sophomores.
“The tables are turning,” Moore said. “UCLA is about to go so far, and a lot of people don’t believe it. When it happens, for those that weren’t on us, don’t try to hop on.”
While a youthful roster comes of age and gains experience, Neuheisel hopes recruits begin to hop on in bunches.
Until then, he continues to spread his vision and has dubbed the current era “a very exciting time in UCLA football’s history.”