Boom! Neuheisel Fires Bullough and Moore

So standing pat made no sense. But now we are essentially starting from scratch on the defensive side, and our young players will have to learn a completely new scheme. With only a year left on his contract, CRN may be starting from scratch. The program is in dissarray. Why would a recruit pick the Bruins in this state? As much as many on BN will enjoy the thrill of having their wish of getting CB’s head, it will be a long offseason with who knows what next year. We can only hope that the young talent will begin to mature, and the team will improve next year based on a larger percentage of better players. Its a good thing we beat BYU yesterday.

Maybe they can help us land a big name coordinator. Howard played with and for Phil Bennett at Texas A&M back in the day. It would be great DG could channel some of the same powers he used for CBH and get Bennett out of Pitt. Hes being looked at for the Miami opening, but shoot why cant we land him?

And I dont know what rumor is worse, Walker as DC again or Dorrell being looked at as head coach for the Denver Broncos…

it would have taken to make the case against Walker. You did a great job and I’ll not write the Fan Post I thought might be necessary, yesterday, when I was stunned to see support for Walker showing up on BN.

Simply stated, as a DC, Walker was mediocre at best. His shining moment? The Immaculate Interception. Without that moment, sc was marching to score to end the game, in the same way so many other teams had done against Walker’s soft D schemes.

Frankly, Walker does not have the character I want in a UCLA DC. He threw players under the bus to make up for his own deficiencies. And, as you mention, his “manipulations and rumor mongering” during the process to hire the replacement for CTS were not the actions of a man with sufficient integrity to lead our student athletes.

There is no fact based case that would justify bringing Walker back. For the life of me, I cannot see why anyone who was here when he was here would even consider the hire.

And, if CRN even considers Walker, I think it’s time for me to jump on the dump CRN bandwagon and push for Mike Leach.

People of substance can calculate self interest. It is not in CRN’s best interests, or those of this team and program, to even consider bringing Walker back. If CRN cannot see that, I will lose complete confidence in him.

Can we all agree that Walker is not the right person for the job and move on? Or, do we have to go back and dredge up all of the old posts that focused on the empirical data to show that he was not getting the job done?

Look at the overall talent on those teams. It was awful. Yeah, Walker had issues and bad moments (Notre Dame chief among them) but overall I was happy with him. I don’t want him back, because I agree that it would be running in place, but I don’t think he deserves this hate. You say the rumors of him going to LSU and Washington, along with this rumor, are “self created”. I’m sorry, but where’s the proof of that? Just because a rumor doesn’t happen doesn’t mean that it was started by the subject, and unless you have actual proof that he created these rumors you shouldn’t say he did.

Also, using his HC record isn’t the best way of saying he’s a bad DC candidate. Not only is being a HC miles different from being a coordinator, but I’d like to introduce you to one Gene Chizik. He went 5-19 (in his first HC job) in two years at a traditionally terrible program. Sound familiar? If you’re wondering where he is now, check the sidelines at the national championship game. He’ll be wearing the Auburn hat.

I’m not saying Walker is Chizik (though I see plenty of parallels). But I am saying that a) it’s not fair or smart to judge a defensive coordinator by his performance as a head coach at a terrible football school, and b) that talent matters more than people acknowledge when it comes to coaching performance.

I don’t want Walker back. But I also appreciate the time he put in as a Bruin and I’m not going to trash him just because he couldn’t turn mediocre talent into superstars.

back in Westwood! At least we know he would coach up the players and get the most out of them, but more importantly he could make adjustments! Something that was lacking under Bullough

One of the signatures of the Walker/Bullough D’s was the lack of pressure on QB’s. Is it any wonder our opponents converted on so many 3rd and long yardage situations? Their QB’s just sat back and waited for a receiver to get open. Not even the best coverage guys can cover for ever.

Long was aggressive and very tough — two qualities we really need.

One interesting name to keep tabs on is Texas’ Bobby Kennedy. I know what you’re thinking: “why would a guy leave Mack Brown and Texas for UCLA?!”

Looks like a lot of people on BON want him fired. The complaints from Texas fans look very similar to the complaints on here about Moore. And there are rumors there that he’s headed to Colorado anyway.

He might not be able to coach (or he might), but what wr wouldn’t want to come play for him. CRN could help.

From Coach Neuheisel’s comments, it sounds like they could be sort of re-working some things with regard to position coaches on offense. As seems to be well understood, Norm Chow doesn’t have what it takes be an overall leader as a Head Coach, that may also likely be the case with regard to leading the entire offense.

That said, maybe Rick is thinking about changing Chow to QB and WR coach and bringing in a real leader type for the OC position (or even thinking about taking on the role himself). That would certainly work for me.

As for the DC position, Randy Shannon would be great, but it would take a miracle.

“Now, I don’t think it really matters if we run a 4-3, a 3-4 ….”

We could have used both an 8-7 and a 7-8 and still ended up with a 4-8 record, because NOBODY COULD TACKLE. (Pardon the shouting. Sometimes there is too much phony analysis and coach-speak. Coach K said it for me: “You have to line up and whip the guy across from you.” We didn’t do that.

From Gold’s blog:

On the decision to fire Bullough:
“I just felt – and certainly Chuck as organized as he is had counterarguments – I thought we needed to have a couple of alternative schemes that might be able to keep us as a more consistent defense. He’s a 4-3 guy, believes in a 4-3. It was certainly beneficial, in my opinion, to try to keep same system in place that DeWayne had. I thought we did some really good things, but at end of day we weren’t consistent enough in stopping the run. I thought some of the players we have might fit in alternate schemes. In my opinion, Chuck was not the guy to be an expert in that department.”

So if Bullough was fired because he could not come up with alternate defensive schemes, then I don’t Walker would fit the bill since he still is a 4-3 guy.

But not surprising given how indecisively he has coached his first three years. Wracking my brain I cannot remember a single time he acted decisively or aggressively in his schemes or play calling on either side of the ball.

So we have the spectacle of two slow fires some two weeks after the end of the season with no replacement for either in hand and the spectacle of CNC twisting in the wind while CTSS further analyzes his direction as if he has not dwelled enough on all of our problems during the past year. Meanwhile, recruits are making decisions while we are in limbo.

It is possible, but not probable that an in-demand DC difference maker would want to come to UCLA under these tenuous circumstances. Maybe we can get lucky, and someone qualified to take over for CTSS next year is willing to take the plunge, but again, that is doubtful.

This is what happens when a failed coach has to fire his failed assistants to stay on another year. Maybe he can get lucky, but so far it looks like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone.

There is a bright side, I suppose. Anybody but CTSS in charge of the defense has to be an improvement. Oh, I forgot. CTSS will still be in charge, right?

I never said he’s not a hard worker or not recruiting now, but are you saying the man can’t walk and chew gum at the same time? He can’t decide to fire or keep CNC because he’s on the phone recruiting? It took two weeks after the season was over for him to realize the DC and WR coaches had to go?

He admitted his indecisiveness when he said at his own presser he was still “thinking about” coaching changes on offense, obviously referring to CNC. Did he say I have a replacement for the people I fired but they’re in a bowl game, so I can’t name them?

Other schools like Miami, Texas and Pitt, canned their people quickly. They have a sense of urgency. A few have already made new hires and others are conducting well advertised searches. They obviously thought these actions out before the season ended just like CRN should have, ideally.

So the man took two weeks to fire two coaches who, judged by the performance of their players were terrible, and he’s still openly thinking what to do about his OC, letting him twist in the wind, and you say I have to listen to the head coach’s phone calls and look at his appointment book personally before I can conclude he can’t make up his mind or is indecisive?

So far none of this seems to have affected Hundley, and maybe it will affect none, but it mirrors the way CTSS runs his program. I don’t think that’s a good thing in general.

Is CTSS’s public and slow decision making fair to CNC? I don’t think so. Is it good for recruiting? I don’t think so. Is it fatal to ultimately getting the right guy? Probably not, but it is consistent with how CRN calls plays and runs his program: indecisively.