Usually, when a coach gets fired, their team struggles, but competes for the rest of the season. Not Arizona, not tonight, as Arizona leads UCLA at the end of the 3rd quarter by a score of 45-7. All of this is transpiring less than a week after Arizona fired Mike Stoops after getting off to a 1-5 start to their season.
For that very reason, it has become fairly apparent to me (I've known it all season, actually) that Rick Neuheisel is obviously not the guy that should be running the UCLA program.
We are half way through his 5th season as head coach at UCLA, and he is about to fall 8 games under .500 for his career, which has a high point of winning the Eagle Bank Bowl, in which they actually had to rally to beat Temple.
The reality is, that despite getting rave reviews for his recruiting class, it appears that those classes were overrated. He coaches in a hot bed of high school talent, yet he cannot seem to keep the best talent at home. He recruits Southern California, probably one of the top 5 high school talent areas in the country, only against USC, which has been under sanctions. That being said, he still can't keep the talent at home.
Watching this team, it appears that his kids have tuned him out. Nobody believes anymore. During a blowout loss to Texas, the boosters and money bags in the press box stopped talking about the game and started talking about potential replacements for Neuheisel. They no longer believe that UCLA's golden boy, Slick Rick, can get it done. The Alumni and boosters are so done with Neuheisel, that they sent a contingent to speak with Mike Leach in Los Angeles two weeks ago to gauge his interest for the job. Apparently, he is quite interested indeed.
He brought in Norm Chow. Chow was already done. It was a bad hire that Neuheisel thought would push him past USC. It didn't work. Chow was eventually moved out of the job.
He tried to retain DeWayne Walker as DC. Walker left after one season for the New Mexico State head job, and UCLA has still not found a steady replacement, and hired a UFL guy in Joe Tresey this season, which has been, in short, a fucking disaster.
Neuheisel ditched the West Coast Offense for the Pistol. It's been more like a cap gun, with absolutely no punch whatsoever.
He has had 4 years to develop a QB. He is a former QB, and had brought in Chow, a supposed QB guru, and has still never found a QB worth a luke warm bucket of piss.
When Bob Toledo and Karl Dorrell were both fired, more than wins and losses, it ended up being empty seats that were their undoing. UCLA failed to sell out the Texas game (fucking Texas, people), and the San Jose State game sold about as many tickets as a high school game, making the Rose Bowl look like an empty cavern. By the way, they barely defeated San Jose State.
How much more does Dan Guerrero need to see before pulling the trigger? How much more do we need to see of Neuheisel or Guerrero himself? In my opinion, they should both go out the door with a swift kick in the ass. UCLA needs an AD that understands running a football program, as Guerrero was hired from UC Irvine, a non-football school. The athletic department has slipped significantly under his watch, and this was his second terrible coaching hire, as his first hire, Karl Dorrell, was an abject disaster on the job.
The Move needs to be made, and not at the end of the season, but it needs to be made now. It matters not who comes in on an interim basis. If it were me, I would hire Leach now, and let him ride out the season. It may save part of the season, and it would surely put asses back in the seats for the remainder of the home schedule. Imagine if Leach came on board and could somehow muster a run with maybe a shocking win over USC? You cannot expect that from Neuheisel, because he has already lost most of us.
In closing, I have followed and supported UCLA for over 30 years. I have never been as depressed about this program as I am right now, because you always had hope that they would turn the corner before. Unless something is done immediately, I no longer have that hope. They just fall farther and farther behind, until they are where they are now, one of the most irrelevant teams in America. They are based in Los Angeles, and they are an embarrassment to the city, and that's on Neuheisel.
Just admit it Rick...it's over. It's just fucking over.
No comments:
Post a Comment