A Chapter Can Close for Toledo

On the winter day four years ago that Texas A&M; Coach R.C. Slocum fired Bob Toledo as his offensive coordinator, a reporter for the newspaper that most closely follows the Aggies, the Bryan Eagle, called the Toledos’ home and spoke to his wife. Elaine Toledo cried so hard she couldn’t finish the conversation.

So anyone who believed UCLA’s game Thursday in the Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M; wasn’t personal for the Bruins’ second-year head coach doesn’t know Bob Toledo.

He spent all week prodding the players to concentrate on their jobs and not his, telling them the game was between the Bruins and Aggies and not Toledo and Slocum.

But it was apparent he was more on edge than usual, especially during a joint news conference Tuesday. That’s the day Slocum admitted he made a mistake in firing Toledo, then had the gall to claim he should get some credit for hiring him in the first place.

Yeah, and John Wilkes Booth should be applauded for at least allowing Lincoln to get comfortable in his seat before shooting him.

On Wednesday night, during the Bruins’ team meeting at their hotel, Toledo revealed his true feelings about the game they were about to play.

“I told them that your life is like a book with chapters and that there was one I hadn’t been able to close,” he recalled late Thursday afternoon.

“I asked them to help me close it. Of course, I was a little more emotional than that when I spoke to them.”

At the end of the game, Toledo accepted the Cotton Bowl trophy on behalf of the Bruins and then lingered to look one last time at a scoreboard that read UCLA 29, Texas A&M; 23.

In Toledo’s three previous visits as a coach to the Cotton Bowl, Texas A&M; also lost. After the most recent one before this week, in 1994, Slocum needed a scapegoat and chose his offensive coordinator, even though the Aggies set the school record for points that season.

As Thursday’s score in the Aggies’ fourth straight Cotton Bowl loss proved, it wasn’t Toledo’s fault.

Asked later if his eyes were red because the gusting winds that earlier played havoc with his passing game had blown a speck of dust in them, he smiled.

“It was an emotional win,” he said. “Any time you spend five years in a place, establish some roots and then get fired, yeah, it’s going to be a special victory.”

Chapter closed.

Toledo must have wondered in the first half if he would be able to say that. Ranked No. 5 and almost a two-touchdown favorite over the No. 20 Aggies, it appeared as if the Bruins decided to phone in their game to the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl.

The reality is that they were out of sync after not playing a game since Nov. 22, which the Bruins’ offensive coordinator, Al Borges, called “disconcerting” because their intricate passing game depends on timing.

The Aggies had played twice since and certainly seemed like the better-prepared team in the first half, when the Bruins committed two holding penalties, dropped six passes and allowed five sacks against a blitzing defense that appeared intent on living up to its “Wrecking Crew” nickname.

The worst moment for the Bruin offense came when quarterback Cade McNown, who had thrown only five interceptions all season, tried to save an aborted screen pass and threw into a crowd of Aggies.

Linebacker Dat Nguyen emerged with the ball, lateraled it to Brandon Jennings and, 64 yards later, Texas A&M; had a touchdown.

The Aggies led, 16-7, at the end of the second quarter.

All that meant is that Toledo and his staff, accustomed to some lopsided scores during their nine-game winning streak, especially against Texas schools, would have to do some serious coaching at halftime.

“A good team will always make adjustments in the second half,” said Nguyen, the only Aggie defensive player the Bruins never figured out how to block.

Toledo called the changes “subtle,” revolving around neutralizing the Aggie blitz with more first-down passes, more second-down runs and quicker strikes from McNown to his receivers.

Suddenly, McNown looked like the Heisman candidate he is expected to become next season, and running back Skip Hicks looked like the Heisman candidate he was supposed to become this season.

“We told the players, ‘Don’t worry about a thing. We need to stop them to start the second half and then we need to score right off the bat,’ and that is exactly what happened,” Toledo said.

If only it had been that easy against the Aggies, who believed they had something to prove after a 54-15 loss to Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game.

Momentum was so fickle that it turned for the Bruins, believe it or not, on a third-and-32 play from the one-yard line.

Faced with the prospect of punting into the wind from the back of the end zone while trailing, 23-21, with less than 12 minutes remaining, McNown instead completed a pass that covered 26 yards.

They still had to punt, but it was a comfortable one.

Four plays later, the Bruins had the ball back and were on the way to an eight-play, 71-yard drive to win the game.

So this one belongs on the walls of the new Getty Center. So it wasn’t another Rout 66 that some expected. It was almost as satisfying to some Bruins because it was the first time this season they had come from behind to win in the fourth quarter.

Dare we call their victory “gutty?” Somewhere, Terry Donahue was smiling.

So was Toledo.