Will Bruins Show Them the Money?

By Chris Dufresne

Dec. 10, 2002 12 AM PT

Bob Toledo’s demise began with a hurricane and ended with a tidal wave.

He might be the first coach who ever lost his job because of a report on the Weather Channel.

Think about it.

If UCLA plays Miami on Sept. 26, 1998, I say the Bruins win by a touchdown, go undefeated, win the national title, win all the recruiting wars and Toledo is UCLA’s coach this year and next.

Miami wasn’t Miami then, it was a young, post-probation team being nurtured along by Butch Davis.

Miami lost three games in 1998, two games before Oct. 10, and probably would have lost to UCLA in late September.

But Hurricane Georges postponed the game to Dec. 5, by which time tailback Edgerrin James was running downhill and the program was primed for a historic run.

Ah, we remember it well. Instead of flying into Miami on Thursday to acclimate to the weather and time change, UCLA saved a few bucks and flew in on Friday, Dec. 4, for a 11 a.m. (Pacific) Saturday kickoff.

You know the rest. Miami knocked UCLA from 10-0 to 10-1 and out of the national title game. The Bruins did, however, come in under budget.

UCLA and Toledo were never the same after that Miami loss, going 24-23 since then until Monday, when Athletic Director Dan Guerrero fired Toledo.

The weather report this time for Toledo involves gathering storm clouds.

Now, gulp, comes the big question: What next?

UCLA has long been the budget motel of major universities when it comes to paying market rate for coaches, selling the love and location of UCLA rather than the love of Porches.

Terry Donahue was bumped up from eager assistant in 1977 and lasted 20 years before retiring and being replaced by Toledo, his offensive coordinator.

Steve Lavin was summoned from the end of the bench to replace basketball coach Jim Harrick.

Why pay the huge money when you don’t have to?

The question now is whether that philosophy works in this brave new athletic world? Can you get to a BCS game and fly on Friday to play Saturday games in Florida?

Guerrero said Tuesday, “We want to have a national caliber program here.”

We know what that means at Texas A&M.; It means kidnapping Dennis Franchione from Alabama and paying him $2 million a year.

At Oklahoma, it means extending Bob Stoops’ contract at midseason after a victory against Nebraska.

At Washington, it means tearing up Rick Neuheisel’s contract so many times to keep him in Seattle you get paper cuts.

USC learned these new realities the hard way two years ago, getting played by other coaches before the ante for out-of-work Pete Carroll rose to more than $1 million a year.

As it turned out, Carroll was worth every cent.

However, we just can’t imagine UCLA ever getting caught up in this sort of negotiating.

“Sure, you learn a lot from other searches,” Guerrero said. “But if someone is using a search to leverage a position, he’s clearly not a right fit.”

If UCLA wanted to win a national title fast, it would adopt the Southeastern Conference’s open-check policy. Guerrero would get Bill Parcells on the horn or maybe have the Coast Guard hunt down Jimmy Johnson, then offer him the moon over Miami.

But that has never been UCLA’s style and never will be.

“I think I know the nature of the situation better than anybody,” Donahue, now a front office executive with the San Francisco 49ers, said. “UCLA has always been a school of balance and has always believed in keeping proper balance. I don’t believe personally that UCLA will deviate far from that formula.”

So forget about Johnson or Parcells.

But can you really win big without hiring the Big Tuna?

“The answer is yes, if you hire the right person,” Donahue said. “To me, that’s where the answer is. There are more coaches you can count that will take that job for way under a million. They are either great coaches at smaller schools, an outstanding coach not currently coaching or a young assistant waiting for the opportunity.”

Guerrero, unlike USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett two years ago, admitted Monday he wasn’t necessarily going after the best coach.

“What I want is the best coach to meet the profile,” he said.

The best guess is that the next UCLA coach will make more than Toledo’s $578,000 per year but less than Carroll, which may come up in negotiations.

Let’s get this straight, Dan, you want me to beat USC but pay me less than its coach?

And we presume Guerrero’s going to say, “yep.”

In an odd, perhaps admirable way, many in the Bruin family are proud of this historical prudence.

“You could hire Jimmy Johnson and he could put his boat in Malibu,” former quarterback Tom Ramsey said, “But that’s stupid money.”

On the other hand, do you want to be national champs or what?

UCLA seems torn between losing to USC and losing interest on its mutual fund.

Not that Guerrero can’t pull this off, but it puts the incredible onus on him to identify the next Jeff Tedford and not the next Bob Davie.

And how many football coaches did Guerrero hire at UC Irvine?

“I feel comfortable I’ll make the right decision,” he said.

The composite coach Guerrero sketched for reporters seems to eliminate the big pitch for someone like Neuheisel, for years the next-UCLA-coach-in-waiting but now a man who has priced himself out of the market and has more issues with the NCAA than Toledo ever had.

The bottom line is UCLA likes the bottom line.

Guerrero talked about giving the next coach an incentive-laced contract that could bring him in line with the market. But he will also have to deal with the issue of increasing the pay of Bruin assistants to avoid the logistical problems of a head coach commuting from Bel Air and the defensive coordinator from Simi Valley.

While Guerrero says he is hell bent on a return to glory, his vision of the next UCLA coach looks a lot like Mike Riley, or former Bruin Karl Dorrell, presently an assistant on Mike Shanahan’s Denver Bronco staff.

Is this the groundbreaking hire that helps end the agony of four consecutive losses to USC? Or, does it produce a Paul Hackett-like mistake that leads to another news conference in three years.

For Guererro, it all comes down to dollars and sense.

No doubt, the UCLA job has a lot to offer.

Sometimes, though, maybe UCLA could offer more.