JR: Welcome back. My guest is in his second season as UCLA head coach. The Bruins are 3-1, they take on Oregon Saturday. Rick Neuheisel joins me. Nice to have you Rick, how are you?

CRN: I’m great, Jim, thanks for having me.

JR: You got it Rick. Now, it’s always been said that you can’t go home again but that’s exactly what you did. What’s it been like since you returned?

CRN: Well, it’s been awesome. Just being back in college football’s been great – being around the young guys, being around the great stadiums, but to do that back at my alma mater’s been a dream come true.

JR: Rick, talk about building UCLA. They really haven’t been dominant since you’ve been there as a player, you’d have to go back to the mid-1980s. Why do you think that hasn’t happened yet, and what are some of the challenges the program faces in getting back?

CRN: Well, at the end of the day it’s about recruiting. You have to get out there and you have to get into the homes of the great players, the great student-athletes, and in Los Angeles we’ve got 20 million people in between where I’m sitting right now and the border. So there’s plenty of homes to get into, we just have to get them in here to see this great campus, and to see all the things that are going on here at this great campus, and then to remember what kind of a program we had here in the early 80s, when we went to three Rose Bowls in four years, and four straight New Year’s Day games, and all the things that were going on when Aikman was here and became the first pick in the NFL Draft. There’s a lot of great history of UCLA football. Cade McNown had us on the doorstep of a national championship in 1998, so it can be done again, and it just takes the energy and the excitement, and I guarantee I bring a lot of that to this deal because I love this place.

JR: Alright, so it sounds good, but when a kid then says, "Coach, I like that, but I really want to go to USC – I really want to be a Trojan," what do you then say?

CRN: Well then I say, "You have to compare, you have to go spend a weekend on that campus, then you have to come spend a weekend on this campus. Then you have to look at the depth charts and see where opportunity lies. And then you have to look at the coaching staff here at UCLA, see the résumé, and look at it as a corporation. Don’t you see this corporation getting ready to take great strides and head where SC already is? And if you’re excited about that, and want to be on the ground floor of this major corporation, then that’s when you can make the big money."

JR: Rick, at the end of the day, do you try to get in the top 25 and make that a perennial play? Or can you play with USC head to head – can you put that program in the same class that the Trojans are in and stay there?

CRN: I believe that absolutely we can. You know, people look at the USC program the last seven years and give them all sorts of credit, and they deserve it. Pete Carroll’s done an unbelievable job. If you look historically – I came to UCLA as a freshman in 1979 – there’s been 30 games played [between UCLA and USC] since 1979 – the records are USC 15, UCLA 14, and one tie. So they’re very even. What we have to do is go into the homes and sell UCLA, sell what this program means. There’s 103 national championships here. We can do it in football, but we need kids to buy into it. We need to show them why we’re serious about it, show them why we can get it done, and then we need to produce on the field, and I think we’re starting to do that. We’ve got a bunch of young players who are believing in this program, believing in what can be. We’re 3-1, and we’ve got a great opportunity this week against a nationally ranked team in Oregon, and we’ve got to get it done. Like the old adage from the movies, if you build it, they will come, and I promise you we’re going to build it.

JR: Alright, talk about Oregon, they started off the year and got off to a bad note, they lost, but they’re already back to #13 overall. How impressed are you with the way they’ve battled back?

CRN: Well I think Chip Kelly’s done an unbelievable job. I mean, I can’t imagine a worse start for your head coaching career. To have all that go down in Boise, and all the publicity surrounding the running back, but to battle back in 4 straight home games, get 4 wins against really good teams – Purdue and Utah, Cal was I think sixth in the country at that time, but they beat them. That’s a heck of a job, and they’re going to come in here – they’ve had some injuries and some question marks as to who’s going to be playing, but I promise you, that’s a proud program and we’re going to have to play our best to get it done.

JR: Now, you started the season saying that you were going to run the ball or die trying. Is that still the plan or are you looking to open things up a little bit?

CRN: Well, we have been running the ball better than a year ago. Now, we certainly were at the bottom of the totem pole a year ago so that’s not saying enough, but we still want to control the ball on the ground. It helps our defense by keeping them on the sideline, letting them rest and get after it, but we need to get more explosive, and we’ve been working on that on the practice field, and hopefully with our quarterback situation settling itself out, I think we can get some explosive 20-yard-plus plays back in the offense.

JR: Next up, Oregon. Rick, I appreciate the visit. Nice to have you back on the show.

CRN: Jim, it’s always great to be with you. Congratulations on 1,000 shows.

JR: Rick, thank you very much – appreciate you saying that, and we’ll do it again soon.

and rick, its 104 :-)