Day One. Meeting One. Question One.
Rick Neuheisel, still with that new-car smell as UCLA's football coach, wasted little time getting to the point in January. In his first meeting with the Bruins, he had all the seniors raise their hands and asked, "What does rebuilding mean to you?"
Neuheisel already had an answer for them.
"It means, 'To heck with the seniors, we're rebuilding for the future,' " Neuheisel said. "I don't think that's right."
With that, Neuheisel headed down the path many first-year coaches follow, trying to lead his team away from a bad case of senioritis.
The Bruins, who scrimmage today, have 19 seniors on scholarship, 11 of whom could be starters in the fall. The group ranges from quarterback Ben Olson, who has one chance left to reach the lofty projections set for him, to Marcus Everett, who was granted a fifth year of eligibility, to cornerback Michael Norris, who has waited in line to be a starter.
Yet the prospects of a marquee season seem slim. A team with 25 seniors and 20 returning starters circled the drain last season, finishing 6-7. That sent Coach Karl Dorrell packing and brought Neuheisel back to his alma mater.
"Coach Neuheisel has been very adamant about rebuilding is not something we're looking to do because it is not really fair to the seniors," Olson said. "I look at it very much the same way, not only as a senior but if I was an underclassman. It isn't really fair to those players who have given so much to the program for four or five years."
Neuheisel has said of his seniors-to-be, "They all came here to win and take the program to a higher level. Why would we wait?"
Olson, considered one of the nation's top recruits out of high school, has missed parts of the last two seasons with injuries. He will be working under his fourth offensive coordinator since coming to UCLA, yet he sees more opportunity than urgency.
"I want to choose to look at it in the positive way," Olson said. "I had a chance to learn three different offenses in three years, and this will be my fourth offense. I'm kind of used to learning a new offense, so I should be able to pick up things quickly."
That he'll be working with offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who has developed two Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks, only accentuates the positive for Olson.
Finding that motivation is driving all the seniors-to-be.
