Gold: Neuheisel Fired Up UCLA At Halftime By Taking Responsibility

by Nestor on Sep 25, 2011 11:56 AM PDT

Pretty interesting nugget from Jon Gold:

Leading 21-3 with 1 minute, 41 seconds left in the first half, UCLA (2-2, 1-0) squandered a drive with poor time management, wasting nearly a minute on two running plays before trying to move the ball downfield. Unable to convert a 3rd-and-1 with 32 seconds left, the Bruins were forced to punt.

Only Neuheisel forgot to convey his intentions to punt it out of bounds and Beaver returner Jordan Poyer corralled a Jeff Locke punt and took it 85 yards for a momentum-swinging touchdown.

Neuheisel marched into the locker room and instead of lambasting his squad, he offered his apology, putting it squarely on his shoulders, asking his players, 30 years his junior, to lift him up, perhaps to save his job.

They did.

"We got his back," middle linebacker Patrick Larimore said. "All the players have his back. Sh*ts going to happen. People are going to make mistakes. He knows that, but for him to say that to us really fired us up. We knew we came out, had a solid first half - we didn't care, we were gonna come out here and fight for his ass. Fight 'til the end."

Uh, I doubt Neuheisel asked players to "save his job." That Gold adding his color to the story without substantiating it. However, it is good to hear from Neuheisel's own words that he took responsibility for the miscue. More from Gold:

"I told them, I take full responsibility for the punt return, that's on me, now you guys gotta pick me up, just like you pick each other up," Neuheisel said. "And we're gonna wrestle momentum back from them, and that's what happened."

I really appreciate this note from Neuheisel. That said we can't continue to see this kind of miscues. FWIW we always heard lot of mea culpas from Ben Howland too in last two years when he stuck with same rotation of players (who didn't really deserve to be on the court due to their lack of commitment to defense), only to have Howland do the same thing all over again. To be fair there were only 4 penalties this weekend, so that's an improvement from recent weeks. But the Bruins must clean up the mistakes. Getting this kind of mea culpa directly from Neuheisel to players could help. We will see.

Now if he can find a way to shed his conservative play calling perhaps Bruins will have a shot. I will have my full GPA breakdown tomorrow am.

GO BRUINS.

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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Comments

He can really take ownership of this thing...

…by saying it’s his bad that he hasn’t trusted these talented athletes to perform, put some trust in these kids, and stop playing not to lose and open up the damn playbook.

by Bellerophon on Sep 25, 2011 12:08 PM PDT reply actions

Agreed

by Nestor on Sep 25, 2011 12:40 PM PDT up reply actions

Also in agreement.

Been a Bruin since birth

by LongtimeBru on Sep 25, 2011 12:54 PM PDT up reply actions

Preach it brother!

The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Sep 25, 2011 2:50 PM PDT up reply actions

True story.

by Bruin'96 on Sep 25, 2011 8:50 PM PDT up reply actions

He took responsibility at halftime

for what he did indeed screw up…and look how much better we played in the second half! Oops…nevermind.

Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.

by KSBruin on Sep 25, 2011 3:24 PM PDT reply actions

That appears to be the problem.

Neuheisel admits it’s his fault. And then he makes it worse.

by BrendonBruin on Sep 25, 2011 4:15 PM PDT up reply actions

+1 The Second Half Tells the Tale

Help me! Help me! I’m drowning.

They dive in to help and he slugs them in the head and fights their natural rescue talent.

If you call to the lifeguard, you have to help the lifeguard save you. Not make it impossible.

Also, I’m slightly uncomfortable with a teacher asking his students to help save his job; it just bothers me.

It’s one thing to say “Sorry, I screwed up” — that’s ownership. But, in my mind, quite another to put the “save my job” rhetoric into the mix — overtly or covertly. I’ve seen some very bad teachers manipulate their students around tenure time. So long as the teacher or coach has coercive power, it’s not a fair thing to do.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Sep 25, 2011 5:35 PM PDT up reply actions

We don't know that he asked players to help save his job

As Nestor says, that may just be Gold’s coloring of the anecdote. If Neuheisel just fessed up and asked for team unity in helping overcome his error and win the game despite it, I think that’s all for the good.

Of course, if he did, in fact, ask his team to help save his job, then that bothers me, too.

by Bruinut on Sep 25, 2011 6:49 PM PDT up reply actions

yup

the extent to which ‘Neuheisel fired up UCLA’ seems demonstrated by the lackluster second half, in particular the 3rd quarter.

by VeniceBruin on Sep 26, 2011 12:36 AM PDT up reply actions

Taking responsibility for mistake

In rick’s mind, this means going conservative and trying to prevent mistakes, so we went into our run run run shell for the 2nd half and played not to make a mistake.

by silverlakebruin on Sep 26, 2011 8:40 AM PDT up reply actions

One Other Thought

The problem on that play wasn’t that we didn’t kick it out of bounds — although that would have been nice.

Shouldn’t we be able to tackle someone returning a punt? In my mind, that’s the real problem on the play.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Sep 25, 2011 7:55 PM PDT reply actions

Maybe I "misremembered"

But I thought CRN as he was being interviewed going into halftime said that he told Locke to punt it out of bounds.

And if a second half performance where they practically almost give up the game to OSU is their idea of being fired up, I’d hate to see what they look like when they give up. Oh wait… forgot about that Texas second half…

by UCLA4Life on Sep 25, 2011 8:19 PM PDT reply actions

My Recollection

Neuheisel said: “I wanted them to kick it out of bounds …” but apparently he “forgot” to actually tell anybody to kick it out of bounds.

by snorkeldorf on Sep 25, 2011 8:58 PM PDT up reply actions

Post Game Comments

CRN said that he tried to tell special teams coach Angus McClure but he was no longer up in the booth (guessed he was on his way down for half time). He wasn’t able to call time out on time and let Locke know. Still doesn’t excuse the players not being able to tackle the guy. It’s not like he’s Woods at $C…he wasn’t a game changer (only against UCLA).

by King J77 on Sep 26, 2011 8:36 AM PDT up reply actions

OSU on kick off's...

consistantly returned it out to the 30 yard line and beyond. Return team obviously needs work.

by GogetemBruins on Sep 26, 2011 9:08 AM PDT up reply actions

Locke Too Tired to Kick Into End Zone?

Over the years he’s been kicking off, he’s been a weapon because he has taken our questionable special team coverage off the hook.

Give him more duties, or a sore leg or (?) and he can’t force a touchback and it’s white knuckles time every time we have to cover a kick off.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Sep 26, 2011 9:11 AM PDT up reply actions

My recollection is similar

I may still have the game on Tivo, but I remember at the time thinking, that, regardless of what he did or didn’t say to Locke, he should not have thrown his punter under the bus to a sideline reporter which is how it came off.

by Minspa on Sep 26, 2011 10:44 AM PDT up reply actions