When will Rick Neuheisel get fired?
If not today or tomorrow, surely it will be soon.
Actually, UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero will probably wait until the end of the season to fire his head football coach. That’s what he did when he fired Karl Dorrell, Neuheisel’s predecessor.
After Neuheisel — who led Washington to a Rose Bowl win in 2001— was hired in December 2007, billboards went up in the Los Angeles area with the coach famously declaring that “The Football Monopoly in L.A. Is Officially Over.” Neuheisel may have been right about USC’s decline in dominance, though unfortunately for him, the monopoly moved north Palo Alto and Eugene, not up the 110 to Pasadena.
In his fourth season coaching at his alma mater, Neuheisel does not exactly have an impressive record. He’s at 18-26, with a 3-4, 2-2 record this season.
His steaming hot seat boiled over on Thursday night, when the Bruins were embarrassed, 48-12, on national TV to an Arizona squad that was 1-5, winless in the Pac-12 and fresh off firing its head coach.
The squads also had a brawl at the end of the first half that resulted in six UCLA players getting suspended.
The Bruins’ final game is at USC on Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. That game will probably end sometime between 10:15 and 10:45. Postgame interviews will take another 20 minutes or so. By midnight Neuheisel could be gone, though Guerrero will likely wait until the following day. But it’s inevitabe.
“Slick Rick” is indeed on a slippery slope.
— Jonathan Kuperberg
Will Stanford earn a spot in the BCS Championship?
Yes.
That’s the simple answer. The more complicated one is that the Cardinal will need some help over the next few weeks but not from anyone incapable of lending a hand.
Either No. 1 LSU or No. 2 Alabama will certainly lose, with the two both scheduled for this season’s “Game of the Century.” The loser is unlikely to get a title rematch. No. 3 Oklahoma State needs to lose, and the Cowboys might when they visit Oklahoma, whose own spotless campaign is freshly ruined by then-unranked Texas Tech.
The only other teams looking down at Stanford in the BCS standings are undefeated Boise State and Clemson, neither of whom have better resumes if all three win out. If Andrew Luck keeps his team running all the way through the Pac-12 Championship, his decision to stay in school will have paid off.
Oregon is the only regular season game that should worry Card fans. Stanford, sans injured star linebacker Shayne Skov, is not as stout a defense. LaMichael James, miles away the Pac-12’s most dangerous tailback, could run wild.
But what team has the talent or schemes to contain the Cardinal attack? This is a power running team that also has the best player in college football under center. Washington is not a powerhouse defense but was one of the conference’s better teams against the run until Stanford racked up a school-record 446 yards last Saturday. Head coach David Shaw said he had a better group of tight ends than some NFL teams, and it’s not an outlandish claim.
When the Cardinal can win by 44 with a sub-200 yard game from Luck, every opponent should be worried.
— Jack Wang
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Wow way to beat around the bush. Lets talk about other coaches that may get fired and others that will probably play in a National Championship game, but lets not address the problems at Cal- their head coach. Neuheisel may get fired because he set his bar to high and hasn’t come close to reaching the expectations. On the other hand all Cal was asking was that Tedford get Cal to a Bowl Game. Even if Neuheisel gets fired he can for now say that he has been to and won a Rose Bowl, something Tedford and Cal seem along ways from achieving.
Stanford doesn’t need any help on going to a National Championship from teams in other divisions, if they win the remainder of their games which would include USC, Oregon, and Notre Dame they will go to the BCS Championship game. Why? TV Ratings. This would be the prelude to the Luck Sweepstakes.