As the coaching search is on hold for X-Mas here is what we know via the public reports wrt to the search for next UCLA football coach:
- Philadelphia assistant John Harbaugh got an interview;
- Reports indicate that Louisville assistant Steve Kragthorpe was approached but he didn't reciprocate the interest;
- Norm Chow was interviewed, but he apparently pulled out for the time being from the process;
-
Al Golden from Temple (who knew Gene Block from UVa) got a second interview;
- Rick Neuhiesel got a second interview;
- DG pursued Mike Bellotti with serious interest but MB turned us down;
- DeWayne Walker is expected to get a second interview
We had heard that Mike Leach might have been interested in UCLA. But we have no clear information on whether UCLA or Leach ever had any direct and serious conversations. Same goes with Bronco Mendenhall. And Chris Petersen at least in public poured cold water on any talks of him coming to UCLA.
So where are we?
The way I am seeing it right now the only names we hear in public arena as remaining options (who have received or about to receive the second interview) are Golden, Neuhiesel, and Walker. Yeah, there may be another coach, who we might not have heard about, but I am not holding my breath.
If these are the final three then that would set of whole another set of questions re. the search process and why it required paying thousands of dollars to a firm connected to a Donahue crony to come up with that kind of list, which is not any better than the list of Riley, Robinson and Dorrell. Like I said, I will leave that discussion aside and wait till the conclusion of the search process, and work with what we know for now.
It seems like DG could have offered the job to Neuhiesel by now. But instead he made a run at Bellotti. He could have ended the process and offered RN the job again, when Bellotti turned us down. Instead he is now holding out and waiting to give Walker a ridiculous second interview.
May be I am off but the way this is shaping up it seems like DG is looking to give this job to anyone but RN. May be he has another candidate in mind but I am not seeing it.
As for why DG is balking at offering the job to RN? Perhaps he feels like giving RN the job will make it appear as if he is giving into the demands of heavy hitting alums and boosters. It could be also of him being conscious about his own image among his NCAA colleagues (NCAA bureaucrats) as speculated by Bob Keisser in the Long Beach Press Telegram:
Guerrero is so well considered among his peers on the NCAA's administrative level that he may someday be a candidate to replace Myles Brand as the NCAA President. He served on several NCAA committees when he was at UC Irvine. He's a card-carrying member of the Sports Ethnic Fellowship and Institution of International Sports, and is on the board for the National Conservancy for Academics.
He chairs the Pac-10's compliance committee. He's part of the NCAA Fellowship Leadership program designed to assist the hiring of minorities and women. He's chairman of the NCAA men's basketball committee for enhanced academic performance. He has a stipend in his UCLA contract that rewards him for improving the department's grad rates.
Is it any wonder why he never was interested in Neuheisel, who had NCAA issues at Colorado and Washington and sued the NCAA, winning an out-of-court settlement?
Neuheisel can't get a job because of his resume. Guerrero might think having Neuheisel on his resume would end his chances of someday becoming the NCAA's ultimate BMOC.
Whatever it is, DG is certainly in a holding pattern wrt to RN because it will be a huge gamble on his part.He chairs the Pac-10's compliance committee. He's part of the NCAA Fellowship Leadership program designed to assist the hiring of minorities and women. He's chairman of the NCAA men's basketball committee for enhanced academic performance. He has a stipend in his UCLA contract that rewards him for improving the department's grad rates.
Is it any wonder why he never was interested in Neuheisel, who had NCAA issues at Colorado and Washington and sued the NCAA, winning an out-of-court settlement?
Neuheisel can't get a job because of his resume. Guerrero might think having Neuheisel on his resume would end his chances of someday becoming the NCAA's ultimate BMOC.
But Walker would be a bigger gamble. Not only it would be a bigger gamble, going with Walker will expose DG as an incompetent liar, going against everything he articulated the day he officially fired Karl Dorrell. And then there is the factor about going with Walker will essentially alienate thousands of alums and students, who are already completely fed up, jaded, and cynical wrt to how the Morgan Center bureaucrats have run a proud football program into the ground through decades of incompetence. It will make the environment around UCLA football even more toxic and polluted than it already is. And DG will not be able to pass the laugh test if he tries to sell us with the promise of growing potential of yet another "up and coming" assistant coach with zero head coaching experience.
In other words one hand we have RN pushed hard by influential alums/boosters and on the other hand we have DeWayne, pushed hard by beat press morons and group of shills/sockpuppets on various message boards.
Right now I'd pick RN if the choice was down to those two but would prefer another candidate with credible head coaching experience (a resume that has something little more than reviving a Temple).
So the way it seems right now what DG can do is either take the gamble on RN (who at least would get me interested in UCLA football) or deliver us another candidate such as Leach, Mendenhall, Jones, or Grobe, who we can all get behind in BN.
Who is it going to be? And do you still have "faith" in Dan Guerrero? Discuss.
GO BRUINS