There was the time when Rick Neuheisel was trying out walk-on punters.
He had seven or eight candidates. They all wore Washington Huskies practice gear. The Huskies had no scholarship punter at the time, so Neuheisel had to find one before the season opener.
I jokingly volunteered. Said I had some eligibility left. I could out-kick these clowns, even though they were less than half my age.
“Can’t do it,” Neuheisel said. “We checked your transcripts. We couldn’t get you into school.”
Pretty good line, I thought. I still do.
I occasionally think back on those times when I covered Neuheisel’s UW teams for The Herald. The highs were incredibly high — the Rose Bowl year in which Marques Tuiasosopo led comeback after comeback. The lows were subterranean — Curtis Williams’ paralysis and eventual death.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Neuheisel this week, now that he’s making a return to Seattle Sunday as the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator.
Not surprisingly, Neuheisel comes back under unusual circumstances. He’s the Ravens’ offensive coordinator, yes, but head coach Brian Billick calls the plays, a point Neuheisel frequently makes, thereby distancing himself from one of the NFL’s most inept attacks. He may soon distance himself even further, having interviewed for head-coaching positions with Duke and UCLA, his alma mater. Billick has said the door is open for Neuheisel to leave at the end of the season should he score such a position, not exactly a plea for him to stay.
That college athletic departments are even bothering to talk to Neuheisel is a victory for the former Husky coach. Transgressions at Washington and Colorado turned him into a persona non grata, as did his $4.7 million settlement with Washington and the NCAA in his wrongful termination lawsuit. Then there’s the little matter of lying to then-athletic director Barbara Hedges and to a Seattle talk-radio host about interviewing for the San Francisco 49ers job.
Neuheisel’s betting-pool (or “auction” in Neuheisel-ese) scandal was such a comedy, from the circulated e-mail from compliance officer Dana Richardson that gambling in off-campus pools was not against NCAA rules to the NCAA’s bungling over its own interviewing procedure to Neuheisel’s claim that he thought gambling was something only done between an individual and a bookie.
Such is Neuheisel’s dark side, the one that gets him into trouble. He tried to play dumb in that circumstance, but dumb doesn’t suit him.
As intelligent as Neuheisel is, his biggest downfall was his absolute conviction that he was smarter than anyone else and can talk his way out of anything.
That was the flaw that undid all of Neuheisel’s positives. Example: As self-appointed spokesman in the days following Williams’ spinal-cord injury, Neuheisel couldn’t have been more caring to his player or more fair to the media. His oration at Williams’ memorial service was eloquent and emotional. When he wanted to, Rick Neuheisel could lead like no other, effortlessly appealing to intellect and emotions.
Who is he, really? Is he the rule-bending, arrogant destroyer of college football programs or the sensitive, magnetic coach and father of three who’s simply trying to return to his niche?
Has Neuheisel learned from his mistakes? Has he shed the self-destructive quirk that caused so much pain to himself and others?
Who really knows?
In his four seasons of coaching here, I’m not certain anyone really knew Neuheisel in any meaningful way because of the multitude of facets to his complex personality. He could be engaging, as he was in the opening sequence in this piece, or he could be petulant, as he was in one bizarre press conference in which he supplied only terse, one-word answers.
He slammed Gary Barnett for questioning his veracity, but as happy as he claimed to be at Washington, he did little to discourage talk that he was looking to land elsewhere. In his opening press conference at Washington, he praised the university as a place of limitless resources that could accomplish anything.
Soon after came the dalliances with Notre Dame, the 49ers, the Browns, UCLA and others, all of which left serious dents in recruiting.
Now, Neuheisel seems a serious candidate for the UCLA job.
Think of it. Rick Neuheisel — back in the Pac-10.
Fasten your seatbelts.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. To reach Sleeper’s blog, go to www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.
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