No soup for you!
Neuheisel, Washington assistants penalized by school
Posted: Thursday March 04, 1999 10:23 PM
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Neuheisel is getting more than just a slap on the wrist for his NCAA violations. Jed Jacobson/Allsport |
SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges is still paying Rick Neuheisel $1 million a season to coach Huskies football and she still speaks of him in glowing terms.
But she's also placing a letter of reprimand in Neuheisel's file for some minor NCAA recruiting violations that have occurred in the short time he's been in Seattle.
The Huskies went further Thursday, taking away some of Neuheisel's recruiting time and the recruiting time of some of his assistant coaches.
Because five Washington assistants visited recruits in their homes Jan. 31 -- a violation of NCAA rules because that day is considered a quiet period -- Neuheisel will only be allowed to contact recruits on nine of 29 permissible off-campus recruiting days during the 1999-2000 spring and fall evaluation periods.
Rob Aronson, the Washington faculty athletics representative, on Thursday said that he hopes the Pac-10 Conference will approve the school's proposed punishment of Neuheisel and Huskies' assistants.
"We think the significance of the sanctions and the measures that we've taken [are] a clear signal to coaches about how important this is and obviously a signal to the Pac-10 to how seriously we take it," Aronson said.
Neuheisel appeared at a news conference with Hedges and Aronson.
"Any time you take away half of your evaluation time, it's a significant penalty," Neuheisel said. "But we are taking our medicine, and we are confident we can put forward the effort to overcome it."
Neuheisel replaced fired coach Jim Lambright, receiving a seven-year contract from Hedges to lure him away from Colorado.
The five assistant coaches -- Keith Gilbertson, Randy Hart, Bob Hauck, Tim Hundley and Wayne Moses -- who visited eight recruits when they weren't supposed to in January also will have letters of reprimand from Hedges placed in their files.
In addition, the university will reduce the number of official, on-campus recruiting visits by six next year; one for the violations by each of the assistant coaches and one for Neuheisel.
Colorado coach Gary Barnett complained to Washington officials that Neuheisel had talked to some of his former Buffaloes players after he took the Washington job and attempted to entice them into coming to Seattle.
Neuheisel admitted he called some Colorado players, an NCAA violation because he had to have his former school's permission first, but he said he wasn't trying to get them to transfer, only that he wanted to say goodbye.
On Thursday, the Huskies said they won't permit any Colorado player enrolled as of Jan. 11 to compete for Washington, even if a transfer is being sought by a Colorado player and permission is granted by that school. The Huskies said they were attempting to avoid even the perception of a recruiting advantage.
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