UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel learns he can come home again

Talk about your homecoming parades.

Rick Neuheisel led one through the center of the college football world Monday night, clanging and thumping and twirling.

It was ear-splitting. It was jaw-dropping. It was big footprints of fresh powder blue, pounding a startling path through our most distant of memories.

Yes, UCLA football has a head coach again.

Yes, UCLA football has a chance again.

What began as a stumble ended in a stomp, the outmanned Bruins twice taking a late lead against 18th-ranked Tennessee before stealing a 27-24 overtime victory in the first stop on Neuheisel's long road home.

"It's good to be back at UCLA, baby," he shouted afterward.

He shouted, because there was no other way he could be heard, his players running in circles and screaming, the Rose Bowl crowd stomping and roaring.

Daniel Lincoln's 34-yard overtime field-goal attempt for Tennessee was wide left and the Bruins went wild right, sprinting around the field as if they were clearing a path, which they were.

For the last decade, Bruins football has been cluttered and chaotic.

For one night, the future felt endless and clear.

And, well, cool.

Neuheisel initially showed his cool by wearing a white long-sleeve shirt and trademark sweater vest in the steamy Pasadena heat.

After pushing and prodding and shouting and stalking for four hours, he showed that cool again when he raised his arm in victory.

Nope, not a sweat stain anywhere.

Only Neuheisel, it seems, could climb on a box in front of the UCLA fans and wave a towel and scream his thanks . . . then remain there when the entire Rose Bowl went unexpectedly dark.

The lights were out, but Neuheisel stayed on, leading the crowd in a Bruins eight-clap cheer.

After which, right on cue, Labor Day fireworks exploded above the end zone where the Bruins had scored their two fourth-quarter touchdowns.

"For an opening act, it was a lot of fun," Neuheisel said.

Twenty-five years since he was here as a player, 15 years since he was here as an assistant coach, all sorts of muddy water under the bridge of his career since then . . . and it was as if he was never gone.