Saturdays during the 2007 college football season were tough for new UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel.
After fulfilling his responsibilities as offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens and watching his sons play football, Neuheisel would go home, sit on the couch and start coaching.
Despite that Neuheisel had no team to coach while sitting in his living room, he would watch all the college football games and coach each one, just in case a call might come to welcome him back to the college game.
“I was a junkie, no question about it,” Neuheisel said. “Loved it, but sometimes I felt guilty because I didn’t want anybody to win. I was always hoping for opportunities so I could get the heck in. But I would go, “˜I’m a terrible person, here’s one of my buddies, and I’m not happy when he’s winning because there’s another job that’s not going to open up.’
“It was a bizarre feeling, but I couldn’t get enough of it.”
On Dec. 29, 2007, Neuheisel was named the football coach of his alma mater, four years after he was fired by the University of Washington for his alleged involvement in college basketball gambling pools and five years after the University of Colorado was put on a two-year probation for recruiting violations that took place under Neuheisel’s tenure.
In his opening remarks at the press conference at the Pac-10 media day, Neuheisel took time to thank all who were responsible in his hiring at UCLA.
“I want to thank Dan Guerrero and those at UCLA, Chancellor Block, for giving me the chance,” Neuheisel said. “I know there has been a lot said about me in the last five years. It is what it is, but the bottom line is I’ve been given another chance, and I’m going to make the very most of it, and I’m looking forward for the opportunity.”
Later in the day at the lunch table with an assortment of media members surrounding him, Neuheisel commented on how hard it was for he and his family to go through the controversial allegations in Washington.
“As a coach, you get to coach the next week, you get to go and win a game next week and stop all the talk,” Neuheisel said. “But when you’re not able to do that, you don’t have that. You just kind of have to weather it. What makes it even more difficult is that it’s your family and your wife and all those people that have to also deal with it, and they did nothing.
“Those things you wouldn’t wish on anybody.”
Now Neuheisel can forget his troubled past and look ahead to a bright future with the team he led to a Rose Bowl victory as quarterback in 1984.
Though Neuheisel said he remained optimistic about getting another chance to coach college football, he likened the moment he received the call from UCLA to the moment one must feel when he has reached the top of a mountain.
“Where I was in 2003 to getting this opportunity has been kind of like a climb ““ you’re trying to climb back,” Neuheisel said. “And to get that call, you wait for that fax to come across the machine ““ it’s pretty special. And you have a lot of flashbacks of all the stuff that went on, but now you’re excited about all that’s lying on ahead.”
What lies ahead for Neuheisel is his newly inherited team, which posted a disappointing record of 6-7 last season and failed to live up to the lofty expectations placed on it at the beginning of the season.
On Thursday, an assortment of West Coast media representatives picked UCLA to finish fifth in the Pac-10, yet Neuheisel said he doesn’t pay attention to such expectations.
“I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the expectations,” Neuheisel said. “I really haven’t because I don’t want to fall prey that it’s OK not to be good. Nor do I want to put a number on what it is for us to call ourselves successful. I just want to make sure that we’re getting better and that I feel momentum when we go into homes in December. That’s my goal.”
Neuheisel also noted that he felt it was an injustice to the seniors on the team to lower the expectations for the season.
“I think it’s unfair to anybody who’s worked hard getting to the point where it’s supposed to be their banner year in existence in a college,” Neuheisel said. “They get to carry the flag now. To say, “˜Well, this is a rebuilding year,’ I think it’s unfair to them.”
As far as his own expectations for the upcoming season, Neuheisel was short and to the point.
“I want to win.”