On to bigger things?

Embattled Neuheisel may have to head to NFL

Washington terminated the contract of football coach Rick Neuheisel on Thursday for his participation in an NCAA basketball tournament betting pool. SI.com talked to Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden, who wrote a 1995 magazine story on Neuheisel, about the coach's latest run-in with the NCAA.

SI.com: Are you surprised this investigation has gone as far as it has?

Layden: NCAA rules are pretty clear on gambling. I would suspect that Neuheisel has stood in front of his team numerous times in the last seven or eight years and preached the importance of not gambling, which has been a point of emphasis for the NCAA for the last five or 10 years. You have to think that regardless of how common big-stakes NCAA pools are in our society, within the NCAA it's still pretty taboo.

SI.com: Is the amount of money involved -- reportedly $5,000 -- the reason this has caused such an uproar?

Layden: I'm sure it is. I can't believe he would be in trouble for it if he was in a pool for 10 bucks. There are multiple layers of dilemma here. The NCAA essentially is creating a situation where a coach will get fired for participating in an institution that makes its own tournament as popular as it is across the country. Without pools, the NCAA tournament no question would be less popular. Yet Neuheisel may soon lose his job for participating in one. I think the word hypocritical somewhat comes to mind.

SI.com: Given that Neuheisel has been in trouble with the NCAA before, was another flare-up inevitable?

Layden: I don't know if you can connect the sloppy recruiting that got Colorado and Washington into trouble with participating in a pool. But I guess you could say there's evidence that he is not a real stickler for rules. If you're going to be employed by an NCAA institution and you're not a stickler for rules, there's a fairly good chance that it's going to rise up and bite you on the butt eventually, for lack of a better term. The NCAA is a rules-driven organization, and you have to constantly be aware of those rules.

SI.com: Neuheisel has been portrayed as a maverick, someone with a sizable ego who marches to the beat of his own drummer. Do you think perhaps he thought of himself as above the rules?

Layden: I don't believe he thought he would lose his job over this. He had to know that he was in a gray area. I'm sure he didn't think the consequences would be as severe as they are.

Neuheisel is an adrenaline guy. He likes to play golf with other good golfers -- whether he plays for big money I have no idea, but when good golfers play money often changes hands. He runs a wide-open offense on the football field. He's good with a quote. He brings his guitar to his coach's show, he takes his team rafting. Whether we can connect those things to what's going on now is conjecture, but he certainly is a guy who does not do things in a conventional way.

SI.com: Is Neuheisel now persona non grata to other colleges?

Layden: I think somebody would hire him. Somebody will always hire anybody. But you have to figure that a serious program would have to take a hard look. This is strike three -- violations at Colorado, violations at Washington, now this. You'd have to take a hard look at whether you want to accept that baggage. And don't forget, he's not a guy who's a proven winner at the highest level, a guy who's won national championships. He's been given a lot to work with and he hasn't done much. He's a good, talented coach -- but not so good that you'd want to risk your institution's credibility on him. I don't think the next college job that comes along with be good enough to satisfy his ego; it will probably be something lower-level, and I can't see him taking it. I just can't see a big, serious Division I-A program taking a chance on him.

SI.com: So where does that leave him?

Layden: I think what we're leading to here is, the guy probably belonged in the NFL a long time ago, and that's where he'll wind up now. The only rule for coaches in the NFL is to win. It's a bit of a shame because he likes college football, likes being around young guys, likes teaching. I think it's college football's loss if he's gone. But certainly a significant portion of the population that pays attention to college football has long thought that he was overrated to begin with. He's gotten a lot of buzz for someone who's never won anything big. And now he's getting buzz for making mistakes. I think he'll have to go elsewhere, and this will hasten what would've been his eventual movement to the NFL.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to SI.com. Read his Viewpoint column every Friday.

 

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