A Bear of a Start for Ready Bruin

Bob Toledo’s UCLA Bruins will begin the 1996 season at Tennessee, against the top quarterback (Peyton Manning) and possibly the top team (better than Nebraska, some think) in college football next season. So, the new coach is either looking at 0-1 or at an upset that will establish him--and his employer--instantly as a genius.

His third game as UCLA’s coach will be played at Michigan, before close to 105,000 fans, and his fourth will be played at Oregon, against an opponent that has spent the last two New Year’s Days at the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl, respectively. So, the new coach is either looking at 1-3 or at a 4-0 start that would be worth, oh, what . . . a 12-year contract?

Bob’s Big Boys better beef up.

“Who made this schedule, anyway?” Toledo yelped at his introductory news conference Friday, officially taking over the job that Terry Donahue quit to go into . . . hmmm, broadcasting? . . . what’s this about Donahue being up for the Arizona Cardinals’ coaching job? The Arizona Cardinals couldn’t beat UCLA.

Assuming he lasts that long, Toledo’s 1997 schedule opens with games against Tennessee and Texas. His 1998 slate begins: Texas, Minnesota, Miami. His second assignment in ’99 is a trip to Ohio State. The fifth week of the 2000 season is a road game at Alabama. Somebody up there doesn’t like Bobby Toledo.

But his enthusiasm was such Friday that nothing could have discouraged UCLA’s new coach, not even if somebody had played a cruel joke and told him that the 1999 season opener with Boise State had been canceled. Toledo was happy as could be, alternately describing himself as doing back flips and cartwheels over the chain of events that led to this chance to “prove that I am worthy of this job.”

Any hesitation at taking it?

“None!” Toledo said. “Whatsoever!”

At 49, he is not the youngest head coach in the land, but today he felt like one. Even UCLA’s chancellor, Charles E. Young, continually referred to him as “Bobby” and “Bobby Toledo,” a name he doesn’t use, although the coach hastily added that Mr. Young could call him anything he liked, now that there was a new title in front of it.

“Funny you ask about my age,” Toledo said. “Because wherever I’ve been before, I’ve always been the youngest. I was the very youngest high school head coach, at 21. I was the youngest Division II head coach, at 27. I was the youngest Division I coach, at 31.

“I got humbled in a hurry. I’ve learned a lot over the years, taking bits and pieces from everybody I’ve ever seen. For example, I learned that you can’t throw the ball on every down and be successful. But when I was young, man, we threw that thing all over the lot.”

Styles change in college football. USC, for example, threw the thing all over the lot at the Rose Bowl, quite the opposite approach from the one Toledo’s old boss, John Robinson, had guaranteed when he returned for his second tour of duty.

Toledo’s intentions--”I’m not afraid to come out of that tunnel throwing the football,” he made clear--could hinge on something as basic as whether Karim Abdul-Jabbar is around to carry a football, or whether Cade McNown comes out firing with the same sort of flourish that the quarterback uses when he’s out in the woods with his shotgun, shooting pheasants.

The coach loses four of five starting offensive linemen, his tight end, his top wide receiver and very likely his top running back.

And goes directly to Tennessee.

“I’m not afraid,” Toledo said. “If Northwestern can become a top-five team, so can we.”

Right he is. Besides, if the job were easy, UCLA wouldn’t have had any trouble filling it.

Much like the team’s quarterback, the athletic director aimed high, gunning for Gary Barnett when the Wildcat coach seemed approachable. However, according to Peter Dalis, “Honestly, I always thought Gary was a longshot. Plus, I was advised that his team captains really worked on him hard on the team’s flight back to Chicago.

“What can I say? You try to hire the best. I wanted to get Mike Krzyzewski in here to coach basketball. I wanted Denny Crum. You take your best shot, certain things happen, then you move on. We moved on to Bob Toledo, a very good man.”

Any reservations?

None. Whatsoever.