Norm Chow on Neuheisel: Keepin' it Classy

by Bellerophon on Jun 15, 2011 1:50 PM PDT

Current Utah and former UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow was recently interviewed by Rivals' Tom Dienhart and despite getting the opportunity to take shots at his former boss, Norm kept it very professional:

"Rick wanted to do things differently," says Chow, whose Bruins offense ranked last in the Pac-10 and 100th in the nation (316.7 ypg) in 2010. "He wanted more of a hand in the offense, which he certainly is entitled to.

"It worked out for everybody. Was he mad that I left? He said he didn't want to lose us, but he wanted to make some changes and probably is pretty happy it worked out like it did."

Norm took a lot of heat during his time in Westwood for an ineffective, conservative offense that no one was excited about. Despite the hype, Norm wasn't able to replicate the magic he had at his prior stints at BYU, NC State, and U$C.

Now, he's found himself working under Kyle Whittingham at a successful Utes program coming off a 10-3 season, looking to challenge for the inaugural Pac-12 South crown (esp. with U$C ineligible). Things worked out pretty good for him and it's no secret that Rick is on the hot seat in Westwood. Despite a golden opportunity to take a shot at his old boss, Norm kept it very classy with his comments on Neuheisel.

I think it speaks volumes about Norm as a man. We may not have agreed with how he ran our offense when he was here, but he certainly deserves our kudos for, as Ron Burgundy would say, keepin' it classy.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Good for Chow

Nice article and definitely agree that he could have thrown CRN under the bus, but didn’t. After the last few rough seasons (which for some reason never fully materialized with positive results as hoped), I hope it works out for Chow back home at Utah (and even better for us, of course).

by Go Bruinz on Jun 15, 2011 12:40 AM PDT reply actions

The latter is my worry

I see us getting blown out in Utah next year as it works out for Chow.

by DCBruins on Jun 15, 2011 6:36 PM PDT up reply actions

Kinda.

Tought to throw CRN under the bus, when the offense with mostly his control was ranked 100… I think they are both smart not to throw dirt at each other, it would have hurt both their careers.

by Bruin'96 on Jun 15, 2011 10:12 AM PDT reply actions

Of course he could have...

It wasn’t his call to switch to the pistol when his expertise is west coast and spent the last few seasons recruiting players for this type of offense. Plus Chow is at the end of his career it wouldn’t exactly hurt it if he decided to blame everything on Rick. It just isn’t Chow’s style. I’ve always found him to be a classy individual and a man of integrity. I’m not surprised at all he took the high road. Sadly, things didn’t work out here and I wish him luck success in his new gig except for his game against us.

by makenji on Jun 15, 2011 5:37 PM PDT up reply actions

No

Even with the pistol and our injuries, too many basic mistakes by the players in his care. Sure the pistol didn’t help, but the excuses need to stop. Integrity yes, good offense not really.

by Bruin'96 on Jun 15, 2011 6:12 PM PDT up reply actions

What's the difference between an 'excuse' and a 'cause'?

I hear many fans write off reasons explaining how things went wrong as ‘excuses’ and frankly I am baffled by it.

For example consider the switch to the Pistol: It very clearly hurt us in many ways because neither our players nor our coaches were familiar with it. Everyone had a learning curve. The cascading effects of learning & teaching a new system gave our coaches less time for teaching fundamentals and training back ups. It made our coaches even less effective. So when our starting QB was hurt, our back up QB had a limited playbook … and our offense was very sloppy and penalty prone.

Now, here’s the key point: understanding how switching to the Pistol contributed to last season’s Fuster-Cluck on offense in no way exonerates CRN & CNC for switching to it. They made the decision knowing that they were experimenting with something new and unknown while they were trying to rebuild our team. It should have been clear to them that this burden on the caching staff was going to have repercussions. It was a monumentally bad decision because they should have anticipated what happened.

Rather that write off the switch to the Pistol as an ‘excuse,’ I think it is exhibit A for making the case against CRN’s judgement.

BTW: How much blame goes to CNC and CRN depends on how much decision making power that each had – and we just don’t know that. (Despite what three wealthy and influential donors tell us)

by KnudsenRockne on Jun 15, 2011 6:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Mostly agree.

My only disagreement with your points is that our back-up qb was the one most familiar with running the playbook as he was the healthy one in spring and fall practice. Our starter got less chance to develop a rhythm with it. I think given the new offense, it was a mistake to start Prince, given his limited experience with the pistol. I know this is an old debate and I’m not trying to rehash it. I just think the point about the back-up having a limited playbook is off. I think it was the starter that had the limited playbook, yet the decision was made to go with him. Not arguing the decision. Just not sure I agree with your characterization of the qb relationship to the pistol.

I totally agree with the point of this post. CNC is a classy guy and I wish things had worked out better here. Good luck to him (except against us).

Go Bruins!

by uclaluv on Jun 15, 2011 8:46 PM PDT up reply actions

You're right about practice time but

The coaches said that Bre didn’t know the playbook as well as prince did. They were more restricted in what they could call.
.
If they were more familiar with the offense they’d have been better at teaching it to all the QBs. Bre would have been better prepared to run the offense.

by KnudsenRockne on Jun 16, 2011 7:52 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions

+1

I think Norm is behaving like Norm has always behaved, a generally very nice and gracious man. That said, he cant throw anyone under the bus regarding his time in Westwood. He was the OC of an offense that frankly during his tenure was the worst in my memory of following Bruin Football since Dennis Dummit and I cried after getting robbed by $UC at the end of the 1969 game…I was 8 so I get a little slack…

by WestlakeVillage Bruin on Jun 15, 2011 10:53 AM PDT reply actions

1969 ... when the first internet message was sent out from UCLA.

by LA Bruin on Jun 15, 2011 11:03 AM PDT up reply actions

If you can't recruit.......

Despite having an OC in Norm Chow, Coach Neuheisel has just not done his job in attracting the quantity or quality of talent needed to compete at a top D1 level. He can definitely talk the talk but he is yet to show us he can make a meaningful impact on the Bruin football program.

I can not understand why the athletic department administration fails to make progress with the redevelopment of the football program?

I seriously question:
a) whether the program is any further along today than it was when Bob Toledo left
b) does Dan Guerrero have the experience to guide a D1 football program
c) has Coach Neuheisel has lost credibility in the recruiting arena due to his prolonged lack of success?

I’m open to others views on the matter.

by iLOATHEscFOREVER on Jun 26, 2011 11:39 PM PDT up reply actions

Easy For Norm to Say

I don’t think his statements have anything to do with whether or not he has ‘class’. Norm was the problem with our offense last year. He had a different philosphy and did not want to change for the sake of the team. I still say good ridance.

by Keptycho on Jun 15, 2011 5:39 PM PDT reply actions

Interesting opinion ...

But there were a number of compounding problems with our offense – such as injuries,
sloppy play, poor execution, etc. It seems simplistic to attribute all of that to Norm Chow.

Also we don’t know how much authority Norm had over the offense – it sounds like Rick had
his say, too. It makes as much sense to blame it on a ‘lack of chemistry’ between Rick & Norm
as it does of philosophical considerations.

by KnudsenRockne on Jun 15, 2011 6:39 PM PDT up reply actions

Chow

I think he was highly overrated. His offenses were lackluster and never took any risks to change it up. At SC, he got the credit more than he should have, it now seems. His PR was great though. If saying another 7 win season and a low level bowl are going to be OK, then the bar is really lower than it’s ever been. Sad.

by 1970 on Jun 15, 2011 5:52 PM PDT reply actions

Careful: if Utah wins it all, with a strong offense, it'll make Chow-bashers look foolish.

Based on the histories of UCLA & Norm Chow it is more rational to blame UCLA than Chow.

by KnudsenRockne on Jun 15, 2011 6:45 PM PDT up reply actions

Agree.

Chow was really just a bad fit for what we needed. I wouldn’t be shocked if he does better at Utah, as a program thay are currently ahead of us, which is sad to say.

by Bruin'96 on Jun 15, 2011 7:13 PM PDT up reply actions