Orange County Register

By ROBERT KUWADA
The Orange County Register
UCLA is confirming that it will announce the hiring of Rick Neuheisel as its next football coach at a press conference later today.

The former Bruins quarterback, now the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, hasn’t been in the college game since Washington fired him in 2003 for participating in a betting pool on the NCAA basketball tournament. He sued for wrongful termination from Washington and settled in March, 2005, with UW and the NCAA for $4.5 million.

When asked earlier this month if returning to the Bruins, whom he quarterbacked to victory in the 1984 Rose Bowl before he became a UCLA assistant from 1986-93, would be his dream job, the 46-year-old Neuheisel said: “Yeah.”

“Rick has enjoyed great success throughout his career and we believe he is the coach who can take our program to the next level,” said UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero. “His teams at Colorado and Washington continually challenged for conference championships and national rankings and that is what we are looking to do at UCLA.

“Rick is an outstanding coach and recruiter. He is outgoing and personable and can motivate our players, fans and supporters. We believe he is well equipped to lead the program and attain the success all Bruin fans wish to achieve.”

“I know there are some issues in Rick’s past that concern our constituency. We have discussed those at length with Rick and have investigated those issues with the NCAA. It has been at least five years and, in some cases, more than 10 years since the incidents occurred. We believe Rick has learned from those incidents and that he is more mature and experienced in the areas of compliance.”

“I am thrilled to be returning to my alma mater as its head coach,” said Neuheisel. “UCLA is a special place and I want to thank Dan Guerrero and Chancellor (Gene) Block for the opportunity to come home. We are going to build a program our supporters will be proud of, both on and off the field. I can’t wait to get started. I made some mistakes earlier in my career and I take responsibility for those mistakes. I have learned from that experience and I would never do anything that would reflect negatively on UCLA.”

Neuheisel, 46, spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. He served as quarterbacks coach in 2005 and 2006 and in January of 2007, was promoted to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. With the Ravens, he worked with quarterbacks Kyle Boller, Steve McNair and, most recently, 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith.

During his four seasons (1999-2002) as head coach at the University of Washington, Neuheisel led the Huskies to a record of 33-16 (.673) and four bowl games (one Rose Bowl, two Holiday Bowls and one Sun Bowl). His Pac-10 record was 23-9 (.719) and Washington won one league title and finished second twice in those four seasons. The Husky offense averaged over 390 yards per game in each season, topped by 420.7 in 2002 (17th in the nation) and 407.9 in 2000 (35th).

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