This was the year to turn things upside down.
The NCAA momentarily lifted the L.A. football monopoly for the Bruins, imposing an array of debilitating sanctions on USC.
Surely, this was UCLA’s best chance in a decade to establish itself as the bullies in town. This was the Bruins’ best chance to beat a weakened version of USC at the end of the season.
“We have made strides over the past couple of years to earn the right to be talked about as a great team in all facets,” coach Rick Neuheisel said at Pac-10 Media Day.
“(My goal is) to be better than we were last year.”
By just about every statistical measure, heading into UCLA’s final game against USC, the Bruins are not better or even the same as last year.
They are worse.
Worse in record, worse in points scored, worse in points allowed, and the list continues.
The team’s problems have compacted over the last two weeks, and now the Bruins are left with one game to salvage their season.
Sleepless in Seattle
UCLA loses by 17 to a Washington team that amasses only 68 yards passing.
Cameras catch Neuheisel berating third-string quarterback Darius Bell on the sideline after throwing an interception.
“It’s not berating,” Neuheisel said days later. “It’s quizzing.”
Bell was never supposed to burn his redshirt season for one series, but injuries to Kevin Prince and Richard Brehaut thrust him into a must-win game on national television.
Neuheisel is upset with Bell for the interception, so in comes fifth-string quarterback Clayton Tunney. (The fourth-stringer, Nick Crissman, is also injured.)
Tunney throws an interception.
“It’s one thing to read the plays,” Tunney said. “It’s another thing to hop in there on national television. I wanted to play, I wanted to be in there, but I’m not sure if I was prepared.”
Tunney’s most experienced receiver, Taylor Embree, could tell something was off in the huddle.
“Anytime your starting quarterback goes out you feel a missing piece,” Embree said. “When Darius was in there, he was calm, and I thought when Tunney went in there he did a good job. The only thing you’re missing is a voice. That’s expected. The other guys are backups.”
So whose decision was it to pull Bell for Tunney?
“Tunney was (Neuheisel’s),” offensive coordinator Norm Chow said. “It doesn’t bother me at all. By that point in time, (Neuheisel) was so disappointed in what Darius did. He made the wrong check. But what can you expect? The guy had never played before.”
Facing the fallout
Reporters quiz Neuheisel about the state of his program at his Monday press conference after the Washington loss.
“We’re all in this together,” he says. “We’re not happy at all with the way things have gone. We’re not making excuses about it.”
Journalists zone in on what sort of coaching changes Neuheisel might have to make once the season is over. Chow agreed to a new contract last summer, but could Neuheisel still fire his offensive coordinator?
“I’m going to evaluate everything in our program at the finish line,” Neuheisel says.
So will Chow be back?
“Contractually, absolutely,” Neuheisel answers. “I don’t want to talk about who will be and who won’t be on our staff next year. I honestly haven’t even started to think down that road.”
Later that day, the same reporters ask Chow if he even wants to come back.
“Sure,” he says simply. “I’d like to come back. I have an agreement.”
And if not?
“It’s certainly (Neuheisel’s) prerogative to do that ““ to let us go,” Chow says. “I’m a big guy. I’ve been around this business a long time. I’ve been fired before. So whatever happens, happens.”
Saying goodbye to a bowl
UCLA gives up 55 points to the Arizona State Sun Devils, who are led by their second-string quarterback. The Bruins drop to 4-7 and have their postseason chances wiped out. They will finish this campaign with at least two fewer wins than the year before.
“This is a little bit of setback,” Neuheisel says. “But I think when the dust settles, we’ll look and see exactly why we took a step back.”
Then the coach begins candidly discussing what he considers to be true.
“We’re not up to Pac-10 championship standards,” he says. “That’s a fact.”
And then he begins to make promises.
“I’m going to work as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life,” he says.
Finally, the coach becomes introspective.
“Am I hurt, disappointed, angry? Absolutely,” he says. “All of the above.”
Then there’s Chow, who is always soft-spoken and sometimes terse. Despite scoring a solid 34 points, the Bruins still lost, and he’s still being asked about his job security.
“You’re the coordinator,” he says. “You have to take the blame.”
The past
Three years ago, the mood was different.
An exuberant Neuheisel strutted into a press conference in a blazer wearing a wide winner’s grin.
He had his dream job, back at his alma mater with his family there to smile with him.
“We are going to build a program our supporters will be proud of, both on and off the field,” he said in his first statement as the new head guy. “I can’t wait to get started.”
Gone were the days of Karl Dorrell, the even-keeled if uninspiring coach who fans wanted fired two years after a 10-2 season and who, in his five-year tenure, finished with a winning record of 35-27.
In his place was Neuheisel, a complete foil of Dorrell, the peppy, eternally optimistic former UCLA quarterback who promised to fight USC tooth and nail for every recruit.
He was exactly what Bruin fans wanted.
Now, some of them want to start over.
UCLA is 1-5 in its last six games and 15-21 during Neuheisel’s tenure. It seems that the struggles can be chalked up to two major offensive issues: quarterback injuries and attrition on the offensive line.
Quarterback carousel
A brief history of UCLA’s revolving door at quarterback would likely fill an encyclopedia.
Dating back to 2007, UCLA has been forced to play its third-string quarterback substantial minutes every season because of injuries.
In 2007, quarterbacks Ben Olson and Patrick Cowan split time depending on who was healthiest. When neither was healthy, it got ugly.
When neither was healthy, McLeod Bethel-Thompson came off the bench. His four interceptions and lost fumble against Notre Dame didn’t please the coaches, so the next time they needed a backup, they called on Ossar Rasshan, who saw time under center in four games.
The team’s final two games synopsize the season: By the time the team wrapped up the season with a loss to USC, Cowan was starting again ““ until a huge hit knocked him out of the game in favor of Olson.
Then in the team’s Las Vegas Bowl tilt against Brigham Young, Rashan started and was replaced by Bethel-Thompson.
And that was just 2007.
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero fired coach Karl Dorrell, and in came Neuheisel, ready to right the ship.
Right.
Flash forward to 2010. The Bruins have suffered through a 4-8 2008 season under junior college transfer Kevin Craft and a somewhat better season in 2009 under the twice-injured Prince. By the fall of 2010, Prince, now a redshirt sophomore, had the experience to take hold of the team from the get-go.
If Prince had not suffered a strained oblique muscle that kept him out of almost all of fall camp, such a plan might have worked. Missing camp meant Prince had some catching up to do, and he never quite got up to speed before he injured his knee against Texas. And that knee injury would eventually require surgery, ending Prince’s season.
Enter Brehaut, who took a hit to the head while sliding against Washington, and that’s how you get to Bell and Tunney, third- and fifth-string, respectively.
And to spare a similar rehashing of problems with the offensive line, suffice it to say that a Mormon mission, a set of suspension and numerous injuries wiped out the team’s offensive line, leaving the Bruins with a makeshift group with next to no experience.
An inexperienced offensive line means poor protection for the quarterback, and when the quarterback is also inexperienced ““ well, you get the Washington game.
It’s really as simple that.
With reports from Ryan Menezes, Bruin Sports senior staff.