Toledo Plans to Win With Tricks of Trade

It doesn’t bother Bob Toledo that he was UCLA’s third choice, that he was hired as head football coach only after Rick Neuheisel and Gary Barnett had turned the job down.

“I probably wasn’t Elaine’s first choice, either,” said Toledo, pointing to his wife at his introductory press conference Friday, “and I’ve been with her for 28 years.”

So what about it, Elaine?

“Actually, he was my fourth choice,” she said.

Obviously, this is a man who doesn’t discourage easily.

If he did, Toledo would never have completed a journey of nearly three decades that took him from coaching at Riordan High School in San Francisco to being the successor to Terry Donahue, who retired last month after 20 years on the job.

Toledo officially became UCLA’s head coach Friday when he signed a four-year contract worth approximately $300,000 a year.

That’s a long way from where he started his coaching career at Riordan in 1969.

Said Toledo of those early years, “I had some young guys who didn’t know how to put on shoulder pads.”

Toledo taught them that and much more. He was at Riordan three years, won two league championships and got as far as the conference finals one other season.

From there, it was on to UC Riverside, where he became head coach; USC, where he was secondary coach, and University of Pacific, where he was again the head coach.

Another humbling experience.

Toledo still shudders when he remembers showing up for his first day of practice at Pacific and seeing only 42 players.

“I got very, very nervous,” he said.

Before he was done there, he had also made many opponents nervous. With meager resources, Toledo was only 14-30 in his four years at Pacific, but he managed to victories over Washington State, Iowa State and South Carolina.

Still, when Toledo left Pacific in 1982, he vowed not to take another head-coaching job unless he could compete on an equal basis. He says he turned down several offers while spending six seasons at Oregon, five at Texas A&M; and the last two at UCLA, serving as offensive coordinator at all three schools.

And along the way, he picked up a reputation that can best be described in one word: gambler.

Not a reckless gambler. But certainly a coach ever ready to expand his playbook, excite his quarterback and exhaust opposing defenses with a sometimes wild, unorthodox attack that can make playground games look mundane in comparison. This is a coach who never met a formation he didn’t like for some situations.

“We are going to throw more,” he said. “We are going to use multiple formations and trick plays. That is my nature. I’m not conservative. You can’t be foolish, but I’m not going to be afraid to open up. We will come out of the tunnel throwing.”

If, indeed, the Bruins wait that long.

Donahue got stuck with the conservative tag early in his career and never could shake it, no matter how much he opened up his offense. Toledo will almost certainly have his critics and they may call him many things, but conservative doesn’t figure to be one of them.

Toledo keeps a tape full of trick plays, presumably to stimulate himself when he feels he’s getting predictable.

There seems little danger of that, as long as Toledo keeps coming up with plays like the swinging gate, which he unveiled in the Aloha Bowl on Christmas.

Talk about innovative! Quarterback Cade McNown casually trotted to the line of scrimmage with all but one of the offensive linemen on one side of the center. Tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar was in the backfield. McNown reached over and flipped the ball back to Abdul-Jabbar, sort of a lateral snap. Abdul-Jabbar was supposed to take off while the defense was still trying to figure out if the quarterback can take over the center’s duties.

The play didn’t work in the Aloha Bowl, but only, insist the Bruins, because the official was slow in spotting the ball, allowing the defense time to adjust.

No matter. There are plenty of other plays where that one came from.

Senior center Mike Flanagan regrets that he won’t be around to try some of them. ‘It makes me feel real bad I’m leaving,” Flanagan said. “I wish I could play for [Toledo].”

That’s understandable. With all of Toledo’s schemes, Flanagan might have gone from centering the ball to catching it. Or throwing it.

But before Toledo begins sketching his wild X’s and O’s, he has some other matters to attend to.

Such as trying to persuade Abdul-Jabbar, a junior who set a school single-season rushing record of 1,571 yards, to return for his senior year.

Such as trying to persuade defensive coordinator Bob Field to stay. Field, who has been on the Bruin staff for 17 years, was also a candidate for the head-coaching job and must now decide if he wants to stick around after getting passed over.

Such as filling at least three coaching vacancies. Running back coach Wayne Moses has gone to Cal. And linebacker-special teams coach Tim Hundley has gone to Colorado.

And, of course, Toledo needs an offensive coordinator to replace himself. Asked if he will find it difficult not to meddle with the game plan of his new offensive coordinator, Toledo admitted he will tell his new assistant, “I’ll probably keep a finger in the offense.”

Knowing Toledo, it will be more like all 10 fingers. His will be a hands-on approach. He has waited too long to have it any other way.

Oil up that swinging gate.