UCLA head football coach Bob Toledo was fired Monday, two days
after the Bruins (7-5, 4-4 Pac-10) finished the season with a 48-27
loss to Pac-10 champion Washington State (10-2, 7-1).
UCLA ends 2002 tied for fourth place in the conference, and will
play without Toledo in the SEGA Sports Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 5.
“I felt a change in leadership was necessary,” said
first-year UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, addressing the
media Monday.
Ed Kezerian, the assistant director of Academic Services, better
known to those outside the program as the guy waving a towel on the
sidelines, was named interim head coach until the end of the Las
Vegas Bowl.
“I did not want to create a situation where going into
next year the first transgression that one of our kids may have, or
the first bad call a coach would make, would dredge up some really
negative things in this program,” Guerrero added. “Our
student-athletes didn’t deserve that.”
Toledo, 49-32 in his seven years as UCLA’s head coach, put
together a 20-game win streak but has gone 24-24 in the last four
years and presided over such off-field scandals as the misuse of
handicapped parking placards, DeShaun Foster’s extra benefits
suspension, Cory Paus’ DUI, and a summer of fighting
incidents.
After UCLA’s loss to Washington State on Saturday, Toledo
said that he felt one of the reasons he should be retained was that
he had a young group of talent to work with. Yet, that very fact
may have been part of his undoing.
“We have a great young team. I felt it was important if I
was to make a decision about this program that I do it now,”
Guerrero said.
The 52-21 loss to USC ““ a year after a 27-0 shutout to the
Trojans ““ may have been the last straw.
“We want every one of those games to be
competitive,” Guerrero said. “What is important in the
last two games (against USC and WSU) is that our players were
prepared and played hard and what that shows is the gap between our
program and those two programs that exist. We need to close that
gap.”
Kexerian, who played at UCLA and served as an assistant coach
from 1982-1992 is not UCLA’s final solution.
“I am here to support and facilitate administrative
things, not to coach,” said Kezerian. “Having been at
UCLA in so many capacities, this is the icing on the cake for the
next two weeks."
Offensive coordinator Kelly Skipper and defensive coordinator
Phil Snow will be in charge of bowl practices and the game plan for
the Las Vegas Bowl.
Players had positive words about their coach after they were
informed Monday morning of the decision. Their greatest concern was
with what will happen to the assistant coaches.
“I bet you if Cory doesn’t get hurt, we win a couple
more games and we don’t have this conversation,” senior
defensive end Rusty Williams said.
“Everybody is bummed out. He’s a great coach and I
wish him the best,” junior defensive tackle Rodney Leisle
said.
Toledo expressed interest in coaching UCLA in the SEGA Sports
Las Vegas Bowl, but Guerrero felt it would not be in the best
interest of the program.
“I came to UCLA with class and dignity and I will leave
with class and dignity. I have nothing but great things to say
about UCLA,” Toledo said in a statement.
UCLA will not promote from within and began a national search
today. According to Guerrero, he has not contacted any candidates
but he has been contacted by several interested parties.
Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, University of
Washington head coach and former UCLA quarterback Rick Neuheisel,
former Minnesota Vikings and Stanford head coach Dennis Green,
Denver Broncos assistant coach and former UCLA receiver Karl
Dorrell, Chiefs assistant coach Greg Robinson, Pittsburgh coach
Walt Harris, Colorado coach Gary Barnett and Iowa coach Kirk
Ferentz all have been rumored to be possible candidates.
UCLA will have to buy out Toledo’s contract and deal with
a market where head coaches are often paid over a million dollars
per year.
“We certainly understand what the market is,”
Guerrero said. “We will make every effort to make it an
attractive offer.”
Toledo had six years remaining on his contract after a contract
extension last year from then-athletic director Peter Dalis. The
contract buyout consists of one year of the full salary of $578,000
and five years at the base salary of $153,000. There have been
rumors that various boosters offered to buy out the remainder of
Toledo’s contract.
Toledo was the first football coach fired at UCLA in 40
years.
“The tough part of this whole thing was it was Bob Toledo,
and he is a good man,” Guerrero said.
“We want to have a national caliber program here,
certainly top 25 every year,” he added.
The Bruins last finished in the Top 25 in 1998 when they were
ranked No. 8.
“If you think about the program in the general sense and
what we are trying to accomplish it is all about having the right
environment,” Guerrero said. “In the final analysis it
was not a healthy environment.”