The picture is starting to become a little clear now. I was wondering what was going on watching our last football game against Petey and his Trojans. You guys remember the whining coming from Petey, his coaches and his primadonna quarterback every time he was getting lit up by our defense? It was comedy. After all it was coming from a team which relishes illegal hits its thuggish linebackers on opposing QBs (while they are not allegedly beating up their fellow students on campus). The crying and whining was unseemly and it reflected the mentality of a program feeling insecure and under pressure.
Well reading today’s article few more times over it kind of makes sense. The whining that was coming from that last game is continuing, especially now that they are losing elite recruits to us and facing a head coach who is going all out to battle for recruits in LA. In response Norton responded with stupid, baseless comments (which will stand out as classless lies if Norton cannot disprove the assertions in CRN’s press release) in today’s LA Times via their obedient beat reporter lapping up everything coming out of Heritage Hall. Coach Neuehisel’s response to Kenny and Petey’s BS was pitch perfect example of how to school slap down hard amateur idiot on public relations.
I wonder if Norton made those allegations on his own and set up that interview with the Trojan beat reporter without consulting his head coach and the Trojan PR department. Based on the report it seems like Petey was into shaping the report with Kenny. From the article (no link for a piece which in light of CRN’s response appears to be tabloid garbage):
[S]unday, Norton referenced Neuheisel's troubled tenures at Colorado and Washington, saying, "It's kind of a pattern of what happened in the past."
Neuheisel, apprised of Norton's comments, said, "I have no comment to that. I've had no contact with Kenny."
Norton also said he has had no recent contact with Neuheisel. "It's important that it's known that I'm here and I'm staying here," Norton said. "I just think the recruits should know that. The fans should know that."
The first day football recruits can sign national letters of intent is Feb. 4.
"I've found over the years what you say in recruiting kind of tells who you are," Carroll said. "The truth always comes out in the end."
Does Kenny (we will call this position coach “Kenny” from now on) really want to throw out the “character” card coming from a program which has the stains of Bush Gate, Rent Gate, Racist Facebook scandal, and a unmatched list of allegations concerning assaults and violence? Seriously Kenny actually dropped the word "pattern"? lol Kenny wants to play the “character” game coming from a program which is currently the running joke in the entire world of college football when it comes to a program appearing to be running without any institutional control? Really?
What CRN did today via his smooth press release is basically toying with an amateur. He schooled Kenny on PR relations. Read the release again. It’s really perfect.
He first gave Kenny a lesson on class and loyalty in showing his respect and support for Dewayne Walker. Coaches around the country will not miss that.
Second, he basically gave Kenny the middle finger (calling him out as “Kenny”) letting him know that at our school (which enabled him to punch his ticket into the NFL) we don’t need to resort Pete’s school of negative recruiting to get elite players [he probably could have mentioned that we don’t have room for dog-abusers in his staff too]. Oh and as mentioned earlier he flatly denied Kenny's allegations.
The last part of the statement is priceless. Read it carefully. RN doesn’t totally shut the door on Kenny being “considered” as one of many candidates if the job were to be open. Yet he basically humiliates Kenny by putting the burden on him to prove the allegations he made in his comments, and also telling him that even if he wanted that gig he would have to get in line behind other candidates. It’s humiliating and it will probably result in Kenny never getting a realistic shot at the DC gig in his alma mater, relegating him to permanent status of Pete’s Poodle, where he will be stuck as a position coach for rest of his tenure, specializing in taping up his fingers. It’s ultimate professional humiliation for Kenny.
The only shot remaining for Kenny to return to UCLA is to come out and say how he was played like a little boy by some higher ups in his current football program which led him to making those stupid comments (with a little assist from his Humanitarian head coach) in the local paper. That is Kenny's only shot if he ever wanted to make a return to UCLA. So effectively he is now all boxed in. Ooops. lol
It’s too bad. I know there were many Bruins who would have given Kenny a chance to come back (not necessarily as a “DC” but as a position coach with a nice title of “assistant head coach” setting him up for move upwards). But Kenny decided to throw it all away with one stupid PR move, exposing him as man of questionable character and integrity to a community he was once part of. As mentioned above, if Kenny cannot rebut CRN’s statement today, he will be done and stuck as Pete’s poodle for an indefinite amount of time. Also, with his bonehead move, Kenny also wasted the “character” card Petey and his program were waiting to use at the first sign of feeling heat from Neuheisel’s UCLA program.
Too bad Kenny. You should have known better before getting into a PR war with the Neu UCLA. You got schooled.
GO BRUINS.
UPDATE - N: Kenny responds!
``I can't respond until I see it for sure,'' Norton said of the statement. ``I wasn't going to just make something up. Something is being said about me. My issue is they were talking about this stuff to recruits.''
Asked about what would happen if UCLA offered him the defensive coordinator's job next week, Norton said, ``no comment.''
Uhm, why can't you come out and just say that you no longer are interested in being UCLA's DC Kenny? ROFL.
Meanwhile Petey is getting the sense he got clowned. He is not saying much in this stuttering nonsense:
``I'm not upset. I'm just glad the air is cleared. The bottom line is it was obvious Ken had to say something. It only happened with guys we were recruiting.''
Uh hum. Sure Petey. Those are the words of a PR loser who realizes he just gave Rick Neuheisel and UCLA the center stage in media during the "dead period" of recruiting, while he could have had the team focused strictly on the Rose Bowl. Nice brilliant move Petey. Can you please try again? Let's have more of this during the "dead period" right into signing day. This is fun. GO BRUINS.