Toledo Defends His Tenure as UCLA’s Coach

Bob Toledo has not coached football since he was fired by UCLA in December 2002, but that doesn’t mean he has lost touch with what the Bruins have been doing under his successor, Karl Dorrell.

From his Santa Barbara home, Toledo watches more football than ever before -- and he has noticed how he still is blamed for some of UCLA’s problems, particularly on the defensive line.

He takes issue with that.

“We get blamed because we didn’t recruit defensive linemen, and that’s not true,” said Toledo, who coached UCLA to a 20-game winning streak in 1997-98. “I’ve been gone for two years, but before we were let go, we felt that we had to get some defensive linemen and we had a couple of commitments from some players that backed out, once I got fired.”

Toledo points to junior tackle C.J. Niusulu, the Bruins’ most experienced lineman who has been injured part of the season, and third-year sophomore Kevin Harbour, a starting end who suffered a major knee injury last spring. Both were Toledo recruits, as was Thomas Patton, a lineman who left school for academic reasons.

“We had defensive linemen and had commitments from linemen who backed out,” Toledo said, “and we were going to recruit more.”

He finished with a 49-32 record at UCLA, his victories ranking as the third-most in school history. In his last season, nine freshmen and sophomores started and UCLA finished the regular season 7-5 and in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Pacific 10 Conference.

But Toledo’s Bruins lost to highly ranked USC and Washington State by a combined 52 points in his last two games on the sideline.

He was fired after UCLA had accepted a bid to play in the Las Vegas Bowl and did not get a chance to coach that game.

“We were ready to make a move, we won [four] games, six games, seven games and then eight games my last year,” Toledo said. “And we were playing with 22 freshmen contributing.... I think we were headed back on the right track, but we just weren’t given an opportunity to come out of it.”

Toledo, who will continue to receive an annual salary from UCLA until 2008, said he hoped to return to coaching but was in no rush.

“I’m enjoying my family, playing a lot of golf, traveling and taking in the scenery,” he said. “I really do want to get back into coaching -- but at the right place.”

Toledo said he didn’t follow UCLA with a critical eye because he wanted to see players he recruited, such as Drew Olson, Spencer Havner, Jarrad Page and Marcedes Lewis, do well.

“I try and divorce myself from the other stuff,” he said. “I see Karl having the same struggles that I had.... It’s just part of the job. You’re in a big metropolitan area that doesn’t have a pro team. Every little thing you do is under the microscope.

“Look at my last year: We win eight games and get fired. We couldn’t beat ‘SC and, of course, not too many people have beaten ‘SC lately.”