Bruins Keep It All in the Family

On Wednesday night, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis got the call he had been dreading. It was football Coach Gary Barnett, saying he was staying at Northwestern.

On Thursday morning, UCLA offensive coordinator Bob Toledo got the call he had been dreaming of. It was Dalis, offering Toledo the Bruins’ head coaching job.

No pause. No indecision. Toledo, without even talking contract, accepted.

So, within 12 hours, Dalis went from thinking he had locked up the hottest coach in college football to hiring a man who has never been a head coach of a major football program. Toledo replaces Terry Donahue, who resigned in December after 20 years as UCLA’s coach.

“It’s been wild,” Toledo said Thursday night. “I’m really excited about this. It’s a dream come true. I can’t wait to get started. I came here two years ago hoping I’d be here with Terry for a long time. I’m still hoping to be here a long time.”

In all but accepting a $6-million, 12-year contract with Northwestern, Barnett turned down an offer from UCLA that, although shorter in duration, would have averaged more than $500,000 a year. Under the terms of the Northwestern deal, Barnett must stay the full 12 years to collect his $6 million.

“I will fulfill my commitment to Northwestern and am currently assessing a very fair and long-term offer from the administration which is in the final stages of negotiations,” Barnett said. “UCLA presented me a tremendous offer to become its head football coach. The UCLA administration treated me wonderfully during this process. However, I am turning it down.”

Responded Dalis, “In the end, I think he just couldn’t bring himself to leave Northwestern in the wake of all their recent success.”

Dalis, while obviously disappointed that he couldn’t land Barnett, is highly enthusiastic about Toledo, whose previous head coaching experience consists of two years at UC Riverside, 1974 and ‘75, and four years at the University of the Pacific, 1979-82. A former star quarterback at San Francisco State, Toledo was an assistant coach at USC, Oregon and Texas A&M; before joining the UCLA staff in 1994.

“The people I talked to gave Bob a very strong recommendation,” Dalis said. “He is innovative, he is creative, and he is not hesitant to take risks.”

It didn’t hurt that the 49-year-old Toledo had unveiled his most innovative game plan in UCLA’s biggest game last season under the bleakest of circumstances. Few liked the Bruins’ chances against Pac-10 Conference champion USC especially since UCLA’s leading rusher, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, was out because of an ankle injury.

But when Donahue told Toledo to tear up the Bruin playbook and draw up a new attack, Toledo responded with an offense that featured the rotation of three backs, often running out a shotgun formation. The confused Trojans lost, 24-20.

In citing reasons he picked Toledo, Dalis also pointed out a 1994 game against Arizona State in which Toledo’s offense ran up a Bruin-record 679 yards.

But the selection of Toledo had to do with more than numbers. Just as impressive to Dalis was the loyalty and devotion of Toledo’s players on the offensive unit.

When the UCLA job became vacant, 18-year-old freshman quarterback Cade McNown went to Dalis to push Toledo for the job.

McNown may be too naive to know that 18-year-olds don’t carry a lot of weight in the selection of head coaches.

Or do they?

Before Toledo could even be considered, however, those above him on Dalis’ list had to fall. And, one by one, they did:

--The first was Rick Neuheisel. A former Bruin quarterback and a popular assistant coach at UCLA, Neuheisel has just completed his first year as Colorado’s head coach.

Dalis called Neuheisel the day after Donahue’s resignation, but Neuheisel told Dalis he wasn’t ready to leave Colorado after only one year.

--The next to go was Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder. Dalis was highly impressed with Snyder’s 28-7-1 record over the last three seasons. Dalis had planned on talking to Snyder last weekend after Kansas State’s victory in the Holiday Bowl. But Snyder called to say it would be a waste of time. He wasn’t interested.

--Finally, there was Barnett. After taking perennial loser Northwestern from a 3-7-1 mark to a 10-2 record, a Rose Bowl berth and a top-10 ranking, Barnett was unquestionably serious about the UCLA offer.

Serious enough to have his wife check out Southern California real estate last week.

Serious enough to meet with Dalis last Saturday before the Rose Bowl game.

Serious enough to not only discuss the terms of a contract, but to push for contracts for any assistant coaches he might bring along.

“Every time an issue came up, we solved it,” Dalis said. “It was a wonderful financial package for both him and his assistants.”

Dalis was assured by a representative of Barnett’s on Tuesday that the coach had decided to come to Westwood.

But something changed Barnett’s mind during a Wednesday recruiting trip to North Carolina. And even those close to him are not sure what.

A key factor, according to several of those close to Barnett, is his assistant coaches. He is a firm believer in the theory that Northwestern’s success this season was the result of a talented roster and a close, effective coaching staff.

Although Barnett was assured that he could bring all of his assistants with him, he knew that was not possible. Some would be considered for the Northwestern job that would be opening and perhaps for the coordinating jobs as well, if those became vacant.

So Barnett was facing the prospect of coaching at a school where basketball is king, against a cross-town rival where football is king, recruiting with academic limitations more stringent than those at most other Pac-10 schools, and doing all this without his familiar staff of assistants.

In the end, apparently, he wasn’t ready to make such a radical change in his life at 49.

For Toledo, though, this is a change he has long sought. Both of his previous coaching stints were at schools that thought so little of football, they eventually dropped their programs.

Asked about the UCLA job last week, Toledo said, “It would be nice to have at least as many bullets as the next guy.”

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Previous UCLA Football Coaches

A look at the records of past UCLA football coaches.

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Coach Years W L T PCT Fred Cozens 1919 2 6 0 .250 Harry Trotter 1920-22 2 13 1 .156 James Cline 1923-24 2 10 3 .233 Wm. Spaulding 1925-38 72 51 8 .573 Edwin Horrell 1939-44 24 31 6 .443 Bert LaBrucherie 1945-48 23 16 0 .590 Red Sanders 1949-57 66 19 1 .773 G. Dickerson 1958 1 2 0 .333 Bill Barnes 1958-64 31 34 3 .463 Tommy Prothro 1965-70 41 18 3 .686 Pepper Rodgers 1971-73 19 12 1 .609 Dick Vermeil 1974-75 15 5 3 .717 Terry Donahue 1976-95 151 74 8 .665

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