Rick Neuheisel

It's usually a waste of time listening to anything Rick Neuheisel has to say, but it's the start of a new season, and I'm the optimistic sort, so I stopped by UCLA. Once again I left disappointed, which is probably the best way to prepare for another season of Bruins football. The guy almost never tells the truth, everything so sugar-coated the malarkey turns to muck, Monday unfortunately no exception. UCLA gets a bye to start the college football season, playing San Diego State, the Bruins 20-0-1 against the Aztecs -- the tie coming in 1924 -- and winning by the average score of 32-10.

For Rick Neuheisel and one of his assistant coaches, Saturday won't be remembered just for the game between UCLA and Kansas State, it'll be remembered for a reunion few would have thought possible only a few years back. "It's going to be amazing," says the UCLA coach. "It's just gonna warm my heart." "I can't wait," adds Darren Witcher, the Bruins' head of player development. "As much as I'm looking forward to this game, I just want to see our guy." "Our guy" plays in royal purple and now resides in Manhattan, Kan. "Our guy" is wire-thin and whippet-fast.

UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel and Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder have a history -- and it suggests a mutual respect. As Big 12 Conference rivals when Neuheisel was at Colorado, they split four games. But it was after Neuheisel went to Washington that he learned he had a friend in Snyder. Kansas State, then ranked No. 7 in the nation, defeated the Huskies, 24-20, in the 1999 Holiday Bowl. Soon after, Neuheisel received a note from Snyder. "He had a very good team, and we were a big underdog, but we gave him a good game," Neuheisel said.

He said he wanted to take UCLA football to a higher level. He never said exactly how. So perhaps one should not be surprised when Coach Rick Neuheisel explained Thursday that he is doing it by . . . helicopter? "Yeah, helicopter," he said. "Pretty cool, huh?" Last Friday night, Neuheisel wanted to attend four inner-city high school football games while burnishing his growing street cred. So he traveled there by whirlybird, buzzing low above fields filled with wide-eyed kids before games at Compton, Crenshaw, Long Beach Poly and Carson.

After reading the comments of Jim Schweitzer [Viewpoint, Feb. 28] in regard to Pete Carroll's compensation at USC, I felt compelled to respond, being that Mr. Schweitzer seems so terribly confused. It is the UCLA coach, Rick Neuheisel, who got Colorado two years' probation from the NCAA for all of the secondary violations he racked up in his short stay in Boulder. He was also reprimanded in 2002 by the Pac-10 and censured in 2003 by the Assn. of College Football Coaches. Before you get the urge to write another letter to The Times sports page, put down the powder blue Kool-Aid.

UCLA's football team has gone winless in their four games since Sept. 26, while USC has won all four of theirs. This is hardly newsworthy nor surprising, except apparently to one Times scribe, who wrote on Sept. 25 that "as clearly as a November Rose Bowl afternoon, what Neuheisel is doing is working. . . . As USC struggles with things that UCLA is doing right -- coaching decisions, quarterback issues -- Neuheisel sits in his darkened office rubbing his hands in delight while waiting to pounce."

You could ask around, make a few phone calls, dig through the archives, write to the Sporting News, but it is unlikely you would find evidence of Bear Bryant doing anything like this at Alabama: On Friday, Aug. 16, as the Colorado Buffaloes wrapped up an afternoon session during two-a-days, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream truck pulled up to the practice field. You never saw 105 players run faster 40-yard dash times. "Twelve flavors, all you could eat," linebacker Matt Russell remembers.

Rick Neuheisel, Colorado coach, was caught in a hotel elevator with a large group of high school cheerleaders on his way to a Cotton Bowl news conference the other day. What did he learn on the trip down? "Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar, all for 62 different high schools stand up and holler," he said. * Roger Staubach and Tom Landry, two of the most famous Dallas Cowboys, visited old buddy Charlie Waters, now an assistant to Oregon Coach Mike Belotti, at a recent practice.

Rick Neuheisel, Colorado coach, was caught in a hotel elevator with a large group of high school cheerleaders on his way to a Cotton Bowl news conference the other day. What did he learn on the trip down? "Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar, all for sixty two different high schools stand up and holler," he said. * Roger Staubach and Tom Landry, two of the most famous Dallas Cowboys, visited old buddy Charlie Waters, now an assistant at Oregon, at a recent practice.

Monday, Terry Donahue turned down the chance to remain UCLA's football coach. Tuesday, Rick Neuheisel turned down the chance to replace him. Moving rapidly to fill the vacancy created by Donahue's move to the CBS-TV broadcast booth, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis made what the 34-year-old Neuheisel termed "an attractive offer" Tuesday afternoon, but Neuheisel told Dalis he couldn't leave the University of Colorado after only one season there as head football coach.