Bob Toledo

With Bob Toledo as offensive coordinator, Texas A&M set the Southwest Conference rushing record with 3,629 yards two seasons ago and a school scoring record with 404 points in 1993. With Toledo as offensive coordinator, Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave finished second in the Pacific 10 Conference in touchdown passes, with 60 for his career, and Chris Miller twice passed for more than 2,200 yards in a season. So is Toledo a rushing or passing coach?

He stood on a box surrounded by nobody. He spoke to a Rose Bowl that had been nearly emptied. When Rick Neuheisel gave his traditional postgame pep talk to the UCLA football fans from the sidelines Saturday night, I was walking down through the opposite stands, but I stopped to listen, because he sounded so futile and he seemed so alone. I only heard half of it. The rest was drowned out by boos. "We will get (booooo). ... We will (booooo). …You can't get any farther down than (booooo)

1996 Record: 5-6, 4-4, tie for fourth in Pac-10. High point: A 48-41 victory over USC in double overtime in the finale made for a pleasant off-season. Low point: Three losses to teams ranked No. 6 or higher -- Tennessee, Michigan and Arizona State -- in his first five games as coach. Bottom line: Toledo, a default choice as coach, enjoyed a honeymoon period and began to develop sophomore quarterback Cade McNown into a winner. 1997 Record: 10-2, 7-1, tie for first.

If you blinked, or sneezed, or dashed out for a Labor Day latte, you missed it. The UCLA Bruins went from toast on Monday around 7 p.m. to toast-of-the-town by midnight. After a win over Tennessee, and a postgame fireworks show, UCLA rocketed from number nothing to No. 23 in the Associated Press media poll. The national title game this year, for your information, is Jan. 8 in South Florida. You bring Kirk Herbstreit and I'll bring the sunscreen. Oh wait . . . there are 11 more games.

"You guys owe it to yourselves to play 60 minutes . . . with great effort, great intensity. It's the last time we're going to walk out that tunnel together, guys. The last time we're going to walk out as the 1996 UCLA football team. I'm proud to be a part of it." --Bob Toledo, addressing the Bruins just before last fall's USC game * Jolie Oliver is as much a part of UCLA's defense as Weldon Forde, Shaun Williams or Brian Willmer.

Two-a-days. Morning football practice, followed by afternoon practice, followed by meetings, with the body never quite resting, never quite being rejuvenated. Two-a-days. Welcome respite for Bob Toledo. They are a welcome break for a man who, since he became UCLA's coach Jan. 4, has met graduates even the alumni office can't find, has told jokes, preached the gospel of Bruin football and spread the message. He likes them. He also knows what's coming, beginning Sept. 7 at Knoxville, Tenn.

The next thing Bob Toledo knows, he'll be accused of everything short of putting that iceberg in front of the Titanic, though, come to think of it, having his UCLA offense compared to that of the notoriously conservative Terry Donahue might be a greater personal affront. Why, just look at the trick play he's running now. A naked reverse. Toledo has suddenly become the scourge of Bruin faithful, especially those with extremely short memories.

Practice has been loose enough for occasional trash talk, focused enough that from the stands you can hear the lacy spin of a fingertip catch. A big game is two days ahead. (It's an 11-game season. They're all big games.) Now the head coach stands at midfield, sermonizing in the early-evening Westwood haze. As he speaks, the UCLA Bruins kneel in unison, forearms staked into empty helmets, heads bowed. Afterward, a reporter asks for the gist of the prayer. 'Prayer?" Bob Toledo answers, surprised.

You are the head football coach. You make the call. It is seven days before the season opener, a statement game against the nation's No. 3-ranked team. You wake up to learn that, a couple of weeks earlier, your star tailback pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possessing one ounce or less of marijuana. You summon the tailback to a Saturday morning meeting. There is anger, scolding, an apology. You ask if he was smoking the marijuana. He says no.

For most of the last six years, those helmeted kids from a basketball school have improbably bullied opponents, wowed fans and impressed voters nationwide. But now the UCLA football team has done the impossible. It has won the neighborhood. When it comes to college football, Los Angeles clearly belongs to the Bruins. Not USC, not any more, not even close, and not only just this year.

That Bob Toledo would end up coaching football at Tulane is sort of like the bread pudding souffle they serve up here: too rich. Four years after a seven-year record of 49-32 got him fired at UCLA, Toledo in December accepted a Conference USA mop-up mission that reacquainted him with uncomfortable parts of his past. "A hurricane and a quarterback I lost," Toledo, seated in his office chair, said with a laugh. "It's amazing."

The three-year coaching hiatus of former UCLA football coach Bob Toledo ended Wednesday when he was introduced as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at New Mexico. Toledo, 59, who had a 49-32 record at UCLA from 1996 to 2002, was hired by Lobo Coach Rocky Long, who worked under Toledo as defensive coordinator for the Bruins in 1996 and '97.

This is about a Los Angeles college football coach who couldn't lose. This is about long winning streaks and national championship aspirations and NFL job offers. This is not about Pete Carroll. This is about Bob Toledo. This is not about the party, this is about the hangover. "Pete is a terrific coach, and I'm wishing him the best," Toledo says. "Because eventually, everybody loses a game, and I know what happens then."

Bob Toledo has not coached football since he was fired by UCLA in December 2002, but that doesn't mean he has lost touch with what the Bruins have been doing under his successor, Karl Dorrell. From his Santa Barbara home, Toledo watches more football than ever before -- and he has noticed how he still is blamed for some of UCLA's problems, particularly on the defensive line. He takes issue with that.

As speculation mounts about who will be the next Raider coach, the obvious answer sits in our own backyard: Bob Toledo. Why Al Davis isn't at his house right now, inking the deal with the guy who ran college football's version of Raider Nation while at UCLA is a mystery. Joe Kiley Sherman Oaks

Karl Dorrell's odd refrain during his first weeks as UCLA's coach: "We are a young team." Memo to Dorrell, who spent the last three years as a Denver Bronco assistant: College teams are always young. Dorrell's words are meant to be cautionary, to temper expectations. Yet they also reflect his genuine reaction to meeting his players and evaluating their talent and knowledge. There is no Ed McCaffrey. No Rod Smith. No Shannon Sharpe.

BOOSTERS Event: Orange County Bruin Boosters. Day: Thursday, July 31. Time: 7 p.m. Site: Holiday Inn, 3131 S. Bristol, Santa Ana. Fee: $25 for members, $30 for others. Basics: Football Coach Bob Toledo will speak. For information: (714) 557-2020.

As speculation mounts about who will be the next Raider coach, the obvious answer sits in our own backyard: Bob Toledo. Why Al Davis isn't at his house right now, inking the deal with the guy who ran college football's version of Raider Nation while at UCLA is a mystery. Joe Kiley Sherman Oaks

As Dirty Harry said: "A man has got to know his limitations." Bob Toledo never understood this and Steve Lavin doesn't. It is obvious to everyone associated with UCLA that Lavin, like Toledo, is inept at what he does. The final sentence of Robyn Norwood's Sunday column (after the loss to Arizona), that Lavin will "continue to try to coach," is exactly the problem. He tries to coach, he doesn't coach. Dan Guerrero should break his promise and make a change now. I wouldn't be surprised if the team starts to defect.