New Game Plans

The months that brought a life and a death, a crash and an implosion, a wedding and a divorce of sorts, a house being torn up and a foundation being threatened are about to give way, finally, to a new college football season.

But even as Bob Toledo settles on a couch in his UCLA office, he finds no sanctuary. Because of renovation of the Morgan Center, the coffee table that used to be in front of where he sits now is little more than a storage stand for the symbols of success--two Outland trophies, a Davey O’Brien Award, a Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the Jim Murray Trophy marking last season’s victory over USC. So it has come to be that even prosperity is part of the disarray.

“It’s the worst off-season of my life,” he says. “It’s the worst six months of my life.”

Eight months, actually.

“Starting with the Miami game,” Toledo says.

It still lingers, the Dec. 5 loss--the implosion--to the Hurricanes that cost his Bruins the chance to play for the national championship.

Next was the car crash two days later, when he and offensive line coach Mark Weber got T-boned in Georgia during a recruiting visit and Toledo suffered a separated left shoulder that doctors say might need surgery.

Which was followed by the loss to Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and in-fighting among players for the second successive game.

And then the death of his father at 91 on Feb. 9.

And then, 10 days later, the resignation under fire by defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti, which probably ended not only a business association but a long friendship as well.

And then the night later that month that his 30-year-old son-in-law suffered a seizure, the first symptom of what doctors eventually discovered was a baseball-sized brain tumor.

And then the FBI investigation into point shaving and some players’ association with a reputed mobster. Ultimately, all were cleared but only after the words “UCLA, FBI” and “mobsters” appeared together in sports sections around the country.

And then the three months he and his wife spent in a one-bedroom apartment while renovation began on their newly purchased home, at the same time construction was underway at the Morgan Center.

Oh, and then word in July that 14 current and former players had been charged in a handicapped-parking scam and the police report that showed a systematic pattern of abuse, not some aberration by a few guys.

It became an embarrassment for the entire university, but particularly a coach who is so image-conscious that last season he suspended starting tailback Jermaine Lewis for a big game because Lewis defended himself in a fight at a late-night party, instead of simply walking away as Toledo would have preferred.

It also came with a final indignity. Toledo thought he was to attend a news conference merely to show support for the two-game suspensions handed down by the chancellor, only to be called to the podium dressed in slacks and a short-sleeved shirt, feeling uncomfortable about looking resort casual at a suit-and-tie occasion.

There has been no place to hide. Not in the 5,000-square-foot home on the golf course in Westlake Village, where he and Elaine are living in the upstairs guest room while the master bedroom and bathroom are torn up downstairs.

Not entirely in the arms of family, which has also been concerned with the brain tumor that hit the husband of one Toledo daughter, who at the time was expecting their second child, and more recently occupied with the wedding of the youngest of the three daughters July 24, one of the few bright spots in these hellish months.

Not even in his office, the one with the coffee table-as-trophy case, home to a coach who is exhausted before the new season has even started--and angry and frustrated and wounded and concerned about the emotional state of his team. Home at least until the coaching staff, and the hardware, move into new digs in the expanded Morgan Center. They say that’ll be in late September or early October.

“So, right in the middle of the season,” Toledo says from the couch, “we’re going to be moving from this office to that office.”

He laughs.

“I’ll tell you what. If we can get through this one, we’re going to get through anything.”

“It’s Been Very Stressful.”

If we can get through this one?

The concern is so real that there is not even any debate on whether Toledo is emotionally ready for the season to begin--he’s not--and instead focuses on whether he is up for the long haul.

Split end Danny Farmer, the star of what should be one of the best receiving corps in the nation, sees that Toledo is stung.

“I think the thing about Coach Toledo is that he takes a lot of things personally,” Farmer said, “and that’s a great quality he has, not only as a coach but as a person. He really cares for us. To see us make a mistake like that--some of the guys make a mistake like that--it really hurts him.”

Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti, a longtime friend, sees that Toledo is wounded: “There’s no question.”

UCLA Athletic Director Pete Dalis sees that Toledo is stressed, in August:

“I have been talking to him about that since probably January. I kept reminding him that I wanted him to take some time off and get away from all this. So, yes, I’ve noticed that he needed to get some time away from here, like most people in high-stress situations.”

Except his July, the time the football staff usually disappears, was harpooned by the handicapped charges. The vacation plans were modest anyway as the family directed its energies toward the wedding, but even hopes for a three-day getaway to San Diego or Santa Barbara or the Wine Country proved moot because the public outcry against the Bruin players kept the coach anchored in town.

At least the wedding turned out to be a wonderful event, made all the better by the attendance of a newly born granddaughter and her father, in the midst of what so far has been a very promising recovery from the brain tumor.

All of a sudden, it’s football season again. Practice begins Saturday and the first game is three weeks later against Boise State at the Rose Bowl. But the handicapped-parking issue remains at the forefront because of the suspensions and the decision by two players to postpone arraignment until Aug. 25, a new starting quarterback must be found, the three best offensive linemen must be replaced, an internal squad divide must be healed . . . and the coach must re-energize on the fly.

“It’s not being rested,” Toledo says. “I constantly toss and turn at night. I’m thinking of things--’What do I have to do with this team? What kinds of things can I do to bring us together?’ I’m always thinking.

“It’s almost like the season. You’re going 100 mph, and this is supposed to be my off time, my down time. Pete Dalis was supposed to go to Hawaii, and he misses a week of vacation. That catches up with you sometimes.

“It’s been hard. It’s been very stressful. I think that’s probably the only term I could use. It’s been very stressful.

“I didn’t have a vacation, per se. I hope I’m energized enough to get going. We just started back [last week] and I’m sluggish right now. I’m tired.”

He thinks he will be fine for the long haul, he says.

The tone of voice has a not-quite-certain sound, he is told.

“That’s right,” Toledo responds. “Don’t know.”

But he thinks he will be fine, he notes again.

“I want to get it behind me and move on with our program,” he says. “But it’s hard because people won’t let you forget about it. That’s what’s hard. They keep bringing it up.”

It.

Also referred to as “a mistake like that” by Farmer and usually something along the lines of “this thing” or “the problem” by Toledo, but rarely addressed head on.

The handicapped-parking issue.

Nine of the 14 involved have so far pleaded no contest, been fined and ordered to do community service.

But all missed the chance to plea-bargain in the court of public opinion, choosing instead to stand behind lawyers and a prepared public statement read by one of them. Instead of being seen as an embarrassing indiscretion of youth, poor judgment rather than something that required representation by Robert Shapiro, “the problem” has lived through July and into August and will continue at least into mid-September, when the two-game suspensions end.

The players have been penalized, but Toledo has been hammered. As if the scars on the reputation of the program aren’t enough.

“He seems kind of weary and tired of these things,” Dalis said.

Yeah, kind of.

Toledo went to the Pacific 10 Conference media day last week and saw Bellotti, a friend. Bellotti asked to see his parking permit.

He went to Crystalaire, a beautiful course near Palmdale, for a golf tournament and arrived to find a sign: “Mr. Toledo’s Parking Spot.” At least it wasn’t a handicapped spot.

“People try to be funny,” Toledo says. “Always telling me the joke. I’m getting tired of hearing it. I pride myself and the program on doing things right and being aboveboard and not taking the easy way out, and something like this just disappoints you. It just disappoints you.

“It’s not that you haven’t told them, because you have. They embarrassed themselves and our program and the school. But again, it’s got to be over. They’ve now been disciplined. I keep referring to it as a surrogate father. They’ve been disciplined, they’ve been punished a lot and they’re going to continue to be punished for a long time. I just kind of want it to be over with. I want to get on with it.”

Get on with the season.

Ready or not.

A Family Divided

And then there are the internal image problems.

Drew Bennett, No. 1 on the depth chart at quarterback, has a brother in a wheelchair. The father of Gary Bernardi, a Bruin assistant coach, is in a wheelchair. One brother of Al Borges, the offensive coordinator, is missing a leg.

It’s not all about “the problem,” though. The breaks in the foundation of the program can be traced back to actual games and not only off-the-field activities, fissures first spotted--here comes those words again--at Miami. Players on offense sniped at some on defense, which could have been written off to frustration except that the next game, the Rose Bowl, left teammates questioning others’ heart, no matter their positions. Then it became a pattern.

“A lot of people were thinking it,” Toledo says. “I felt it too. But I’m the only one who’s supposed to say it.

“My biggest concern right now is to get them back together as a team and a family. I feel there might be some separation right now, some upset people. There’s people upset with the people who had the problem. What happens is, there’s nine guys [still on the team] who have this problem and all of a sudden the other guys are guilty by association. That upsets a lot of people. Somehow, we all have to forgive and forget.

“I’m just anxious to get back into building it back up again. It’s like we had a bunch of building blocks. We built it higher, then they fell down. We’ve got to start over building again. But it’s not like we have to build a program. We just have to heal some wounds.”

The Bruins as a team. And their coach too.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

UCLA FACTS

* Coach: Bob Toledo

* Record at UCLA: 25-10, 3 seasons

* Starters returning: 15 (6 on offense, 8 on defense, 1 punter)

* First game: Sept. 4, vs. Boise State at Rose Bowl, 6 p.m.

* USC game: Nov. 20, at Coliseum, time TBA

* Big nonconference Game: Sept. 11, vs. Ohio State at Columbus, 5 PDT

A Difficult Stretch

Starting with UCLA’s first loss of the 1998 season in December, it has been a hectic stretch for Bruin Coach Bob Toledo:

* Dec. 5, 1998--Loss to Miami, 49-45.

* Dec. 7, 1998--Car crash on recruiting trip in Georgia with offensive line coach Mark Weber.

* Jan. 1, 1999--Rose Bowl, Loss to Wisconsin, 38-31.

* Feb. 9, 1999--Father dies.

* Feb. 19, 1999--Defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti resigns.

* Feb. 1999--Son-in-law learns of brain tumor the size of a baseball (so far he has made a promising recovery).

* March 11, 1999--FBI investigation of alleged point shaving. Players were cleared.

* July 8, 1999--Charges filed in handicapped parking placard investigation.

* July 21, 1999--Top QB recruit J.P. Losman announces he will transfer.

* July 24, 1999--Youngest daughter marries.

* July 28, 1999--Most players plea bargain on handicapped parking.

* Aug. 14, 1999--Practice begins.

* Sept. 4, 1999--Season opener vs. Boise State.