He has seen the light

Back when he was a big-time college football coach, Rick Neuheisel used to relish that slow walk on the field on game day.

“I was never a coach to be the first out of the tunnel,” said Neuheisel, the onetime UCLA quarterback who later was head coach at Colorado and Washington. “I always wanted the players to come out running. I kind of walked out at the end and took it all in. Then, I’d go over to the sidelines, get my headset and say, ‘All right, boys, let’s get ‘er done.’ ”

But it was that other tunnel -- the long, dark period in his life marked by accusations, lawsuits and uncertainty -- that Neuheisel couldn’t wait to escape.

That seems to him like ages ago now that he’s offensive coordinator of the resurgent Baltimore Ravens, legitimate Super Bowl contenders. But Neuheisel, 46, is only a few years removed from the firing that redefined his career.

In the summer of 2003, Neuheisel was fired by Washington for participating in a neighborhood NCAA basketball pool, which he won. It was later revealed that he had received an internal memo from the school that condoned participation in such pools. Neuheisel sued for wrongful termination, and in March 2005 received a $4.5-million settlement from Washington and the NCAA.

In spite of that award, Neuheisel called the period “a dark time” in his life.

“It was difficult to watch your career and character go through the mill like it was going through,” he said. “And I had very little to say about it publicly, because I couldn’t. You’ve just got to keep telling yourself that there’s going to be a better day, and there’s going to be a point where I’m going to come out of this tunnel.”

Career-wise, he has stepped back into the sun. Neuheisel was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator in January, although Coach Brian Billick will continue to call the plays, as he did last season when the Ravens made a dramatic turnaround. They went from a 6-10 team in 2005 to a 13-3 powerhouse last season that seemed bound for the Super Bowl before being upset by Indianapolis in a playoff game at home.

The 2006 season was marked by a significant midstream change. In the first half of the season, after a string of lackluster performances, Billick fired offensive coordinator Jim Fassel and took over the play-calling. With Billick at the helm for the final 10 games, the Ravens averaged 24.3 points and averaged 344.2 yards of offense a game.

Much of that success could be attributed to the play of quarterback Steve McNair, who in his first season with the team finished with a career-best 63% completion rate, and his 82.5 passer rating was his best since 2003, when he and Peyton Manning shared co-most-valuable-player honors.

After Fassel was fired, it was Neuheisel who ran the quarterback meetings and had more of a voice when it came to implementing the offense.

“I was in kind of an understudy role before,” he said. “While it was interesting, it wasn’t very rewarding.”

That said, Neuheisel is quick to praise Fassel, whose robust resume includes coaching quarterbacks such as Phil Simms and John Elway, earning coach-of-the-year honors in 1997, and leading the New York Giants to the Super Bowl in 2000. That was the same year Neuheisel coached Washington to an 11-1 record and a Rose Bowl victory.

Billick knows offenses too. When he was offensive coordinator in Minnesota, his 1998 Vikings set the NFL record for most points scored in a season, 556.

So it’s not hard to understand why there were philosophical clashes, with Billick, Fassel and Neuheisel all trying to put their imprint on the Ravens’ offense.

“There were more cooks than there were spoons,” Neuheisel said.

There’s a simpler chain of command this season, and the Ravens also have a new look in the backfield. Gone is running back Jamal Lewis, and in his place is the faster Willis McGahee, who is coming off three mediocre seasons in Buffalo.

Make no mistake, Baltimore is still all about defense. And Neuheisel can live with that.

“Baltimore is always going to have the identity of a great defense, and nobody involved in the offense would want anything less,” he said. “Our job is to create an identity that can coexist -- stretch the field, play rock-’em-sock-’em, and be good enough to do it on the big stages in January and, hopefully, February.”

If the Ravens were to get that far, Neuheisel, no doubt, would again savor that long, slow walk out of the tunnel.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com

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Neuheisel Book

* As a player -- 1983 UCLA, QB

* Professional career -- Included two seasons with the San Antonio Gunslingers (1984-1985) of the USFL. He then played three games with the San Diego Chargers and two games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the strike season of 1987.

* College coaching record -- Overall: 66-30; Bowls: 4-3.

* Coaching positions -- 1995-98: University of Colorado. 1999-2002: University of Washington. 2005-: Baltimore Ravens (offensive coordinator)

* Of note -- Was fired in the summer of 2003 from the University of Washington for playing in a neighborhood pool for the NCAA basketball tournament. Legal proceedings enabled Neuheisel to collect a $4.5-million settlement and he was essentially cleared of wrongdoing as the NCAA and Washington were forced to abandon their case.

Source: sportsillustrated.cnn.com, seattlepi.com and gohuskies.cstv.com

Los Angeles Times