PULLMAN – As Washington State continues its coaching search, looking for someone to replace Jimmy Rogers, few names have bubbled to the surface. The Cougars themselves certainly aren’t releasing any candidates they’re interviewing.
But one name has emerged as a possibility for WSU: Rick Neuheisel.
Currently a college football analyst for CBS Sports, Neuheisel said on a KJR radio segment on Tuesday afternoon that while he hasn’t had any direct contact with WSU, he is interested in the job opening.
“It’s a badge of honor to be a Coug,” said Neuheisel, who last coached college football in 2011, the end of his three-year tenure as the UCLA head man. “There’s no question that there’s great passion there. And I’ve made it clear that I miss coaching. There’s no question about that. So if an opportunity were to present itself, I would certainly entertain it. I have not talked to anybody at the school. These things go by way of search firms and such, so I’ll check in with you later if I’ve got any news, but I don’t have any today.”
At the college level, Neuheisel has been out of the coaching business for nearly 15 years – his last coaching gig was in 2019, when he headed up the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football, which folded during its inaugural season – but he could make a return to the sidelines in Pullman. While he said he hasn’t contacted WSU, it’s possible that work is being done by an agent.
The other interesting part of Neuheisel’s potential candidacy: He could bring along his son, Jerry, who took over as UCLA’s interim offensive coordinator this season. A former UCLA quarterback, he helped lead the team to an upset of then-No. 7 Penn State, going on to win the next two games in a row. The Bruins ended the season on a five-game losing streak, albeit with three games coming against ranked foes in Indiana, Ohio State and USC.
“I’d love to coach with my son, and to have an opportunity for the two of us to collaborate in this environment and put together a program,” Neuheisel said. “I’ve said this new Pac-12 that is going to begin next year with eight schools that all have state named after them – I can’t believe All-State insurance hasn’t decided how to sponsor this thing, because it is all states.
“That new conference is really exciting from a standpoint that you’ve got eight similarly resourced programs. It isn’t like there’s just the elephants in this room that are gonna run the table, kinda like James Madison is in the Sun Belt, where they’ve got more money than everybody else. Sounds to me like you’ve got eight schools that all have a chance to coach hard and recruit hard and a chance to win. That, to me, is appealing.”
Neuheisel, 64, has a bit of a checkered past. After making his head coaching debut with three seasons at Colorado in the late 1990s, he took over at Washington, where he spent 1999-2002. He won the Pac-10 in 2000, but after signing a contract extension in 2002, he was found to be interviewing for the San Francisco 49ers’ job without alerting anyone at UW.
At UW, he was accused of violating NCAA rules by visiting high school players before the NCAA-approved date to do so, and he was the subject of a gambling case. Later, after suing the NCAA and UW for the termination of his contract, he received $4.5M in a settlement.
Could Rick coach WSU for a couple years before handing things off to Jerry, a la former Cougar basketball coach Dick Bennett, who did the same with son Tony? Rick wouldn’t commit to such a thing, at least not publicly.
“I don’t think we can put the cart too far before the horse,” Neuheisel said. “I know this: I’ve loved college football, and I miss it, and the relationships daily. I get a heaping hunk of it doing what I do. I love the CBS gig that I’ve enjoyed now, but if I’m gonna make a run to coach one more time, the clock is ticking, right? So if it were to be, I think I’d be really excited about it. If not, I certainly understand.”
