The Son Also Rises (to be a Bruin)
by tasser10 on Jul 31, 2011 6:37 AM PDT
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PrintIf you remember, Rick Neuheisel's son was signed to a grant-in-aid last February.
Inevitably, some people questioned the decision. The first question was, is Jerry good enough to deserve being on the UCLA football team? The second question was, is it a wise decision by Neuheisel to have his son playing for him? Ever the optimist/comedian, CRN points out an interesting fact:
“First recruit I had to sleep with his mom to get him,” Neuheisel said. “Don’t ask her (his wife Susan) how that went.”
To answer the first question, Jerry is a 3-star recruit according to Rivals, and a 2-star recruit according to Scout. I will venture to say that UCLA has offered scholarships to worse players in the past. Furthermore, there was at least one other Pac-12 coach (Dennis Erickson) who would have offered him a spot. Coach Erickson would have some experience with that, since his son Bryce is the current RB coach at ASU. The thing is, he does not even take up a scholarship. In that sense, his presence on the team could not possibly be worse than that of the Law Firm, McLeod Bethel Thompson (who was a walk-on and is now with Sacramento State).
To answer the second question, frankly I think it is moot right now. Jerry is buried in the depth chart and would likely remain so unless there is a a meteoric rise in his ability. It is very unlikely that he will be involved in game planning, or that he would even appear in a game at this point. Again, you never know, but in any case you always need players for the scout teams and there are worse things to do than getting a player with his pedigree.
The bottom line is that this is a very different situation than the Cody Hawkins/Dan Hawkins disaster in Colorado: Cody Hawkins was good enough to compete for the starting job, on that team and on others. The dilemma in that case resides in the fact that their relationship could have clouded Dan Hawkins' judgment, and people will question that judgment at the first sign of trouble. I don't think such a dilemma will ever arise with CRN and his son.
Finally, there is a third question that many people simply fail to ask: what does Jerry want? Well let's see, you grew up with two Bruin parents who love their alma mater and bleed blue and gold...and there's that thing about a great campus, a wonderful education...so is it any surprise that Jerry would say:
‘Dad, I want to go to UCLA whether you’re there or not.’
Now how could you turn away such a smart kid? My guess is he might have become a Bruin even if he didn't get to play football...
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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I remember Coach Kathy Olivier's daughter was on the women's basketball team
Don’t remember much else about her, not sure what the story was there
Head coach with son or daughter on the team.
Then head coach got fired, making awkward position for all. Not sure if the daughter stayed or left UCLA.
Rick is on the hot seat, so this could happen again.
I don't see how Olivier's example applies here
Olivier wasn’t a Bruin alum who won the Pac-10 conference and took her team to a Final-4, which would be equivalent of what Rick did. Olivier didn’t have the connection to UCLA as Rick did.
Holy crap I had decided MBT was too irrelevant to mention
Almost fanshotted this, and then I see him mentioned in this post.
Technically, McLeod is currently on an NFL roster, even if it’s unlikely he’ll stay there. Maybe Jim Harbaugh can make him look like Andrew Luck?
Jerry came to Westwood and he saw that it was good.
He thought about the time when he first stood by the dorms and looked east across the IM field and past Royce Quad and saw the white clouds against the blue sky and how they looked like the puffs of smoke from the Italian guns in the mountains that time that they tried to get through the pass but the generals messed everything up, and how the movements of the people on Bruin Walk as they tried to avoid the people with leaflets reminded him of the rondas and the pases of the bullfighter Manolo in that season in the ring in Madrid when he almost reached greatness until the American girl and the coronada ruined that, and about the young English student who wrote and wrote but was too afraid to really write so that his teachers told him not to write anymore and the great ideas he knew but couldn’t write about never came out and so he went to medical school instead because it was a safe choice and so all those stories died, and about the setbacks on the football field and on sorority row and in the line at Diddy Reese and at Morgan Center and all those other things that he knew, but that still he knew that Westwood was a place that held some great hope like the roar of the lion outside the tent that night who knew that the hunter would come for him again tomorrow but would still not lie down and allow himself to be killed without putting up one last fight because that was how he was and he would not give up even though he knew that he would be killed anyway because that’s how those things always went in the end.
Yes. Even with all that, it was good. And then he had a drink. And it was good again.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
by gbruin on Jul 29, 2011 9:09 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Hemingway
I take it you’re a fan? lol.
by truebluebruin19 on Jul 30, 2011 8:57 PM PDT up reply actions
Just riffing with tasser's title
And Hemingway has been my favorite writer since reading The Sun Also Rises in high school. I think that book is hilarious.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
That's some sentence
297 words. Bulwer-Lytton-worthy.
Other inspirations might include:
Don’t Let the Son Go Down on Me – Elton John
California Son – Ramones
House of the Rising Son – The Animals
Hopefully, not too many of these:
Walking on the Son – Smash Mouth
Blame It on the Son – Stevie Wonder
When the Son Goes Down – Arctic Monkeys
Zounds--297 word sentence
Greg—you just killed the concept of a short declative sentence. Killed it. Cold blooded murder. You will do hard time, my lad.
That being said—utterly brilliant!
NEPOTISM
Not always bad but lined with pitfallsw. Ally Olivier was a gtood kid who did not cost a scholarship. She got excellent grades and played very little. Did she belong on the team, why not when she did play she did have some court sense and at a smaller school could have played more. I saw Jerry play twice and have seen worse at UCLA maybe he never plays but afreebie with a bit of talent is not a bad thing.
Potential
Jerry has potential and Loyola High is a good school, especially in football. He played some tough schools while a student there. I hope he shows us what he can do and is capable of doing. I am glad he is on our team. Go Jerry, Rick and BRUINS!!!
by Forever a Bruin on Jul 31, 2011 1:20 PM PDT reply actions
Does anyone know if there was any friction between NC and RN over whether or not Jerry would play for the Bruins?
I didn’t realize Jerry would not be taking up a scholly, but this was one of two theories running around in my head. The other was that someone had naked pictures of someone elses wife.
Named AtQ resident ‘Master of the Possible Guru,’ by Famous Duck 7/19/11
And Cliff Harris was like, "VRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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