Westwood, Ho!

He was a guy who felt this might be his only chance to be a head coach at a major program. He was a guy who loved the college game instead of simply enduring it.

He approached the job not with arrogance, but gratitude.

That, and a determined desperation to make it work.

"I said to myself, this could be my last go-around," Toledo said. "I was going to be like Frank Sinatra. I was going to do it my way."

His players play like Toledo talks.

When Toledo was wooed by one college and three NFL teams after the 1998 season, the administration made its second-most important move by keeping him.

2. The retaining of Gary Bernardi and hiring of Randy Taylor.

Two background men, one forefront theme.

Recruiting.

Thanks to the leadership of Bernardi and Taylor--both of whom were snubbed by USC--the Bruins now get the best academically fit players in Southern California.

They now compete nationally against other academically tough schools such as Michigan and Notre Dame.

While they've always had decent luck with running backs like Tustin's DeShaun Foster, they are now getting big linemen like Corona's Shane Lehmann, San Diego's Ken Kocher and Alta Loma's Kenyon Coleman.

"I've always had a soft spot in my heart for linemen," said Taylor, a former Illinois center and the football operations director in charge of recruiting.

Not to mention, they are even recruiting USC legacies.

Ronnie Lott's son, Ryan Nece, is a UCLA linebacker.

Don Mosebar's nephew, Matt Mosebar, is a UCLA offensive lineman.

"Ten or 15 years ago, people would think of UCLA as a basketball school, but not anymore," said Bernardi, tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.

Bernardi, a former local high school star, was once an assistant to Larry Smith at USC. When Smith was fired, Bernardi had three interviews with John Robinson in hopes of being retained. He was not.

A year later, in 1994, he joined Terry Donahue's staff, then later was one of the first people retained by Toledo.

Taylor was one of the first people hired by Toledo. A former operations worker at Nevada Las Vegas and San Diego State, he had been running his own marketing company for several years when he decided he missed the game.

He dropped a resume at USC, which was once his favorite team.

He later dropped a resume on Toledo's empty desk when he couldn't find anybody in the office.

USC never called him. Toledo did.