Search gets a Christmas break

UCLA’s search for a football coach was expected to take a respite over Christmas, with three candidates apparently being considered.

One of them, interim head Coach DeWayne Walker, wasn’t quite ready to peer into the future following the Bruins’ 17-16 loss to Brigham Young in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday night.

“This has been a great experience for me,” Walker said. “These players, they bought into what I tried to bring to the table. We had a lot of closed-door meetings and a lot of lessons. Not only with the players, but the coaches bought into it because they backed me. I felt we had the right chemistry the last three weeks.”

Walker was believed to have improved his chances through his work since taking over the program, and through attrition. Efforts to woo Boise State’s Chris Petersen and Oregon’s Mike Bellotti failed and UCLA officials are now believed to be sorting through the current field of Walker, Temple Coach Al Golden and Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Rick Neuheisel.

Golden and Neuheisel have already been brought to UCLA to meet with Chancellor Gene Block for a second interview. Walker was expected to meet with Block after Christmas, meaning a decision probably will have to be put off until late this week at the earliest.

“Right now, I’m not even worried about that,” Walker said of his future with the team. “Right now I want to enjoy these players and the coaches a little bit. I’m sure it will take care of itself.”

Still, when asked if he would be a part of the program next season, Walker said, “I hope so. I hope so. But I don’t make those decisions.”

It remains possible that Walker could stay on as defensive coordinator. UCLA officials want “to keep him if at all possible,” a source familiar with the search said.

That is a likely result should the school hire Neuheisel, whose experience is on the offensive side. Golden, on the other hand, is a former defensive coordinator. A source familiar with the team said that Walker was expected to leave if Golden was hired.

Washington Coach Tyrone Willingham, who is in search of a defensive coordinator, was believed to be interested in Walker.

Calls to Golden and Neuheisel were not returned. On Saturday, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero declined to talk about anything except the bowl game.

Walker, meanwhile, continued to receive the support of players.

“He knows how to get the best out of his players,” tailback Chris Markey said. “He’s not going to overwork you, but he knows what you need to be a championship team.”

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Walker said the coach search had no effect on the team during preparations for the Las Vegas Bowl. UCLA nearly rallied from a 17-6 deficit, but BYU survived by blocking a Kai Forbath field-goal attempt on the last play.

“No coach was worried about his job and players didn’t worry about the new head coach,” Walker said. “All we wanted to do was work and play a respectable game. We wanted to win the game, but we fell a little short.”

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Linebacker Christian Taylor put the so-close-but-so-far finish Saturday in the context of a season in which high expectations dissolved into limited returns.

“Definitely this is the same theme as the ups and downs we have had all season,” Taylor said. Still, he added, “by no means were we feeling, ‘Hey, it’s gone this way all year, so let’s end it like this.’ ”

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The brightest spot of UCLA’s frantic final drive was the performance of walk-on quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who took the Bruins from their own two-yard line to the BYU 11 to set up the field-goal try. Bethel-Thompson completed three of six passes for 56 yards on the drive, including a 36-yard completion to tight end Logan Paulsen to give the Bruins a first down at the BYU 13.

Bethel-Thompson’s last game before Saturday was a disaster. He had four passes intercepted and lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown in a 20-6 loss to Notre Dame on Oct. 6.

Said Walker: “After the Notre Dame game, I had a chance to speak with him and said, ‘You’re going to get another chance and you’re going to get the most of it.’ And he did.”

Bethel-Thompson, who threw his first career touchdown pass Saturday, seems to have put the Notre Dame experience in perspective. Asked what had been different about his performance Saturday, Bethel-Thompson said, “The football gods smiled on me today. The last time [against Notre Dame] was no different, two or three passes go the other way and things are different.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com