I’ll admit that when I was at UCLA’s press-conference introduction of new football coach Rick Neuheisel, I was amazed by the man’s ability to speak. I might even be persuaded to confess that I was inspired.
Basically, he had me at “hello.” He had me at “hello.”
And then I read The Seattle Times’ series on all of the dirty little deeds his players allegedly committed in his time at the University of Washington ““ robbery and rape, to name a couple ““ and his weak, noodle-armed way of dealing with it.
The player accused of rape was suspended for half a game, and another player was suspended a full game for violating team rules.
Of course, we should give Neuheisel the benefit of the doubt.
So that set the stage for my next moment of listening to the man speak.
Watching Neuheisel announce his two coordinators, DeWayne Walker and Norm Chow, at halftime of the Arizona basketball game on Saturday, I couldn’t help but think of him as slimy.
He worked the room like a politician, eliciting cheers and firing up the crowd.
Smarmy so-and-so, I thought.
But then I started to think a little bit about what I read (which happens rarely enough that I had to take some time to treasure the moment).
How much of what went on in Washington was Neuheisel’s fault?
Rereading the series ““ which I’d call a recommended read for anyone who gives two hoots and/or a holler about UCLA football or college football in general ““ I was struck by two things:
First, a pervasive bad attitude may be a prerequisite for a Rose Bowl berth.
And second, the story was not an indictment of Neuheisel, whatever the intentions of the writers.
That’s not to say Neuheisel is not partially at fault for what occurred. The coach is responsible for what goes on in the program ““ how the players get disciplined, who can play, who can’t play ““ and upholding the integrity of the university.
That’s part of why he gets paid the big bucks.
But the huge part of his job, the part for which he is paid the majority of his million and change, is winning football games.
That’s the nature of the beast. College football at a big-time university like Washington is not about developing student-athletes, no matter how many people would like to believe that it is.
What if players are getting out of control and breaking the law? Yeah, it’s a black eye on the face of the university. If that kind of stuff happens too often, it’ll land the team on probation or worse.
But as former UCLA coach Karl Dorrell proved, go 6-6 too often and you’ll be fired just the same.
Neuheisel won football games at Washington. He went to the Rose Bowl.
True, he went to the Rose Bowl with malcontents and alleged criminals on his roster. But he took his team there, and I’m pretty sure that brought Washington a fair chunk of change.
It’s a little sick that driving into the wall of a retirement home, allegedly raping or choking someone, or being arrested for multiple DUIs can all be essentially ignored as long as football games are being won.
But that seems to be the system at the major university football programs. To pretend it’s unique to Neuheisel, or the University of Washington in 2000, is silly.
The questions we have to ask (technically you don’t have to, but this is why I am paid the big bucks) are:
Will that kind of cavalier attitude toward discipline fly at UCLA, which has known five years of Karl Dorrell, who has been nearly the picture of integrity?
Will a matured Neuheisel and tougher admission standards at UCLA keep out potential delinquents?
Neuheisel will have to figure out exactly how his program is going to be run.
He may have learned lessons from the past, but what lessons are those? The man was fired from Washington for lying about an NCAA Tournament basketball pool, not because he had disciplinary issues.
It will be an interesting run for Neuheisel at UCLA. If he does choose to run the sort of no-discipline, no-accountability, recruiting-violations-heavy program he has been associated with in the past, I guess we, as UCLA football fans, can only hope he keeps it on the down low.
Because in the words of the venerable Uncle Kracker: As long as no one knows, then nobody can care.
E-mail Woods at dwoods@media.ucla.edu if you think Walker and Chow will stay for more than two years at UCLA. Also mail whatever hallucinogens you’ve been taking.