Negative recruiting in the Pac-10

Negative recruiting in the Pac-10
Some hard feelings created
by Malamute, 28 February 2002

The negative recruiting babble surfaced a couple of weeks ago and everybody up and down the league has hard feelings. "Certainly we will talk to those who made allegations," Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said recently. "There were enough problems that it created pretty hard feelings."

Well, here are some of the allegations made and the hard feelings created.

Bill Moos (Athletic Director, Oregon): "I will stand in defense of Mike Bellotti and our program. I would highly doubt anything of a serious nature occurred in terms of negative recruiting."

Comment: "I almost didn't take my trip to Washington because I went to Colorado and Oregon, and all they did was bad-mouth Neuheisel." (Donny Mateaki).
Bill Moos: “I would highly doubt anything of a serious nature occurred in terms of negative recruiting.”

Comment: "They showed it (a video clip of Nueheisel juxtaposed with a woman vomiting) six times during the Oregon-Oregon State game, with a variety of recruits there," Neuheisel said. "Guys told me, 'They were bashing you!'”
Ted Miller (Seattle P-I): "The UW filed a complaint with the Pac-10 in December about the video, and Oregon administrators apologized to Neuheisel and athletic director Barbara Hedges. The video was produced not by the university, but by the company that owns Oregon football broadcast rights."
Comment: But they showed it six times.
Bob Toledo (Head coach, UCLA): "He (Neuheisel) called a couple of our recruits and said we were lying to them. He made some real negative comments, that (UCLA) coaches live far away, that we're not close to the campus, that the school doesn't take care of its ex-players, that he had to go to USC to get his law degree.”

Comment: So, where did you get your law degree?
Blaine Newnham (Seattle Times): “In any event, Neuheisel has further solidified his position as glib golden boy of Washington...”

Comment: But you’re pretty glib yourself, Blaine, and you are in your golden years.
Ted Miller: “Washington's hiring the high-profile, glib Neuheisel in 1999 -- and giving him the Pac-10's first seven-figure contract -- put a golden-boy face on the program and made the rest of the conference feel more justified in hating the Huskies.”

Comment: When it comes to glib, golden adjectives, great minds think alike.
Bill Moos: "We don't need Washington's recruiting list. We're proven recruiters."

Comment: One recruiting service rates you as number 48 this year. Maybe you do need Washington’s recruiting list.
Ted Miller: “But if UCLA plopped $2 million on the table for him, Neuheisel undoubtedly would see images of plum southern California recruits dancing in his head."

Comment: Metaphorically or for real? J
Rick Neuheiesel: "Talking to Clayton Walker after UCLA had been in there, you had to have a fire hose to clean him off."

Comment: Rumor has it that UCLA coaches are teaching a class in hosing. ;-)
Bob Toledo: "I told the kid, 'If I get fired, I know Rick Neuheisel will be the first one to apply.' That's exactly it, verbatim."

Comment: Yep, they’ll need a fire hose to clean the kid off.
Mike Bellotti (Head coach, Oregon): “’We recruit from our own recruiting list on the many merits of our own program,’" citing among those, "’our unmatched record on the football field.’”

Comment: Unmatched? I thought the alums had put a match to that record.
Bill Moos: “We've won two (Pac-10) championships in a row."

Comment: When was the last time you went to the Rose Bowl?
John Mackovic (Head coach, Arizona): "It's one thing when you've been involved and a player can't make up his mind, but in a couple of cases we had players committed for almost a month, and then a couple of schools came in and tried to dissuade them. I think that's totally out of line."

Comment: That's par for the course.
Rodney King: "Can't we all just get along?"

Comment: You know? He's right. J

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