Going to keep this short because news is moving incredibly fast. Rick Neuheisel was incredibly gracious this afternoon after the story came out. Unbelievably he went ahead and did the scheduled Pac-12 championship game teleconference making statement like this:
"I thanked Dan for the opportunity," Neuheisel said on the Pac-12's promotional teleconference for the title game, less than an hour after his firing was announced. "I don't need reasons. Certainly when you're UCLA coach, you'd like to play better against USC. When you lose in the fashion we did, that's a difficult pill to swallow."
Neuheisel also added that his UCLA experience as a head coach "won't be a bitter memory at all" and that he will do what can to ensure he is "not a distraction" in these final days. Too bad Dan didn't show that kind of professionalism by making it easy on everyone and moving on this yesterday. That kind of professionalism from Neuheisel only affirms the sentiment Meriones expressed on behalf of all of is when the story came out.
Now people need to hang tight. Obviously some media members will issue out panicked tweets about players transferring and "collateral damage." I wouldn't worry about any of that issues right now. That kind of stuff is part of a transition process. We have no doubt if and when UCLA hires a first tier head coach, those issues will be resolved.
Also, don't pay too much credence to BS ESPN reports like retread coaches such as Tom Cable or even Dewayne Walkerbeing interested at UCLA and Bruins showing "mutual interest." That kind of nonsense is garbage because if UCLA is dumb enough to make a stupid move like that, we will only tighten the pressure not just on Dan Guerrero but Gene Block as well. We have made pretty clear what our criteria are for a new coach. A retread like Cable will not fly. We will have an open thread up around 2:15 pm PST, when UCLA is having its presser.
Of course it's worth repeating that we have only accomplished one half of our goal of wholesale regime change. We are not going to relent on Guerrero until either he is gone or he shows series of concrete steps to reestablish both our football and basketball programs.
GO BRUINS.
UPDATE (N): Rick Neuheisel just tweeted:
Good stuff. Thanks coach. GO BRUINS.