Rick Neuheisel@@CE@@ and Chip Kelly were both in the same room early Thursday evening, but at different times and with their careers headed in opposite directions.
Both coaches spoke at the podium in the Pittman Room@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=22183@@ on the second floor of the Casanova Center. Kelly arrived first, out of his comfort zone and in a sharply tailored suit but still entirely in control — the coach on the rise.@@awk@@
He was in and out quickly, taking the customary questions about matchup issues and the redecoration of Autzen Stadium and such. The interview session ended with him posing in front of the newly minted Pac-12 trophy, but taking pains to keep his distance.@@taking pains?@@
“I’m not touching it,” he said.
Superstition, perhaps. Things have been going too well for Oregon’s head coach to take any chances. The time for holding the trophy would come — hopefully — late the next night.
It would be another 40 minutes before Neuheisel arrived. Strong winds in Los Angeles kept UCLA and its lame-duck head coach grounded to the point of delay. At 10 minutes to five, after driving straight from Eugene’s airport, the fired head coach finally arrived at the podium. He would take his pregame questions now — almost certainly for the last time as UCLA’s coach. The sun outside was setting now, a chilly December day growing colder by the minute.
First, the obligatory platitudes.
“Chip Kelly should be congratulated for the juggernaut he’s created here,” Neuheisel said. “It’s a great opportunity for us to be in this, the inaugural game, and we look forward to putting our best foot forward.”
It was only a matter of time before the reporters pounced, before they saw the blood in the water and asked about his painfully awkward new situation. On one hand, there was excitement: His team was playing in the first-ever Pac-12 Championship Game with a Rose Bowl bid on the line. And yet, he had already been fired earlier in the week. Even if his 32-point underdogs somehow pulled off the upset, he wouldn’t be coaching in Pasadena. This was the end of his tenure, the end of a four-year career at his alma mater he hoped would last much longer.
“The axe falls on my head,” Neuheisel said. “I’m big enough and sturdy enough to accept that assessment. I don’t necessarily have to agree with it, but I accept it. And I hope nothing but good things for UCLA football in the future.”
There haven’t been any preliminary calls from others schools to gauge Neuheisel’s interest in a job. He has received a few sympathy talks from “well-wishers” as he calls them.
You’re doing a nice job handling the adversity, they say. And that’s about it. What more can anyone say in a situation like this? What do you tell a man on the firing block who already knows his fate?
It’s all been a bit surreal for Neuheisel this week. He gets to coach in a historic game for the Pac-12, but it will also be his last. He loves UCLA like no other school but now finds himself fully aware the feeling isn’t mutual.
What can’t be taken away from him, though, is this moment. Right now. When he drove up to Autzen Stadium on Thursday evening, it was UCLA’s banner that hung at the front of Autzen Stadium, right next to the words “Pac-12 Championship 2011.”
“We’re playing in the Pac-12 Championship Game, the very first one,” Neuheisel said. “They can never take that away from us.”
At long last, the conference ended, and Neuheisel was almost free. Darkness had fallen outside as he completed one last task for the day: posing for photos in front of the trophy, just as Kelly had an hour earlier. Neuheisel, though, had no superstitions, placing his arm casually on top of the trophy as the flashbulbs popped. Maybe it was happenstance, a natural pose and nothing more.
Or maybe there was a purpose to this. Maybe he realized this would be his one and only chance to touch the trophy he was hired to win.
Upon arrival in Eugene, fired UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel at a crossroads
Daily Emerald
December 1, 2011
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