Rick Neuheisel's relentless optimism works: Rick Neuheisel inherited a UCLA team lacking talent and depth that was further burdened with one of the nation's toughest schedules. Then his team got hit with an epidemic of injuries. Then, after an inspiring victory over Tennessee to open the season, the Bruins got humiliated 59-0 at BYU, the first of three consecutive defeats. Neuheisel's critics like to twist facts and use pithy terms -- "Slick Rick!" and "Neu-weasel!" -- but they inevitably lose arguments when they disparage his coaching, particularly his ability to get his teams to fight. The Bruins fought and lost to Fresno State and they fought and lost at Oregon. Both opponents had superior talent, but the Bruins gave them a scare. Some teams quit fighting when they don't get results -- see all the Washington teams after Neuheisel was fired. But Neuheisel added a 19th fourth-quarter comeback to his resume with the Bruins 23-20 win over Stanford, and that suggests what once looked like a lost season in Westwood might just get found.