After eight losses, the second losing season in three years, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel has fired two assistant coaches.
Defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough and wide receivers coach Reggie Moore have both been relieved of their coaching duties, effective immediately.
[Updated at 3:26 p.m.: “This is always a difficult thing to say goodbye to colleagues, but more importantly, friends. People that you’ve come to really admire but at the end of the day you have to make decisions that you think are in the best interest of the program and so I let both Reggie and Chuck know this morning that I was going to go in a different direction,” Neuheisel said.]
Bullough had been on the UCLA coaching staff for five years, while Moore began coaching the receivers when Neuheisel took over the program three years ago.
[Updated at 3:26 p.m.: Bullough’s 4-3 defensive scheme was handed down from former UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, now the head coach at New Mexico State. Neuheisel cited Bullough’s inability to stray from the 4-3 as the main reason for the move.
“I just felt like we needed to have a couple of alternative schemes that might be able to make us a more consistent defense … I thought we did some really good things but at the end of the day we were not consistent enough at stopping the run and I thought that some of the athletes we have in our program might fit better in some alternate schemes and Chuck was, in my opinion, not the guy that was going to be the expert in that department,” Neuheisel said.]
Lots of speculation had mounted after UCLA’s season-ending 28-14 loss to USC about who would be let go and when the decisions would be made. Then rumors began to materialize about Neuheisel’s assistants becoming impatient about the amount of time it was taking Neuheisel to make the decisions.
[Updated at 3:26 p.m.: Neuheisel said that the late date of the USC game followed by the short window that he had to make recruiting visits were the reasons he took two weeks to make any staff decisions.
“We had to utilize that time to get out and recruit and I wasn’t sure at the time I was going to make any moves so I couldn’t sit around and determine that I wasn’t and lose a week of recruiting so I took the necessary time to make what I think is the wisest decision,” Neuheisel said.]
The Bruin defense ranked 86th out of 120 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivison) teams in points allowed, giving up 30.3 points per game, the highest total in Neuheisl’s time at UCLA.
UCLA receivers ranked 116th in receiving yards, averaging 141.1 yards per game. The receiving corps was a group that many thought would be a strength of the UCLA offense in the pre-season with lots of promising, young talent. The Bruins will have all of their receivers back next season, as there were no seniors on this year’s roster.
[Updated at 3:26 p.m.: Neuheisel said that he’s done making moves on the defensive side of the ball with the exception of hiring a new coordinator and he believes that the other defensive assistants’ (defensive line coach Todd Howard, linebackers coach Clark Lea and secondary coach Tim Hundley) jobs are safe.
As far as the offense is concerned, Neuheisel said he’s still evaluating the offense, including offensive coordinator Norm Chow, but that he’s going to “move quickly” and that he could potentially take over coaching the receivers himself.
“I’ve certainly coached the receivers before in my life. I’ve coached the quarterbacks before in my life,” Neuheisel said. “There’s a lot of ways to throw the balls up in the air and figure out how it’s the best staff to put forth and that’s why I’m being careful.” ]