Rick Neuheisel Should Probably Stop His Postgame “Pep Talks”

Following UCLA’s 35-0 loss to Stanford at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, Bruins’ head coach Rick Neuheisel gave his traditional postgame pep talk to the Bruin faithful in the stands.

Los Angeles Times columnist, and noted moron, Bill Plaschke said Neuheisel sounded “futile.” While it might be hard to sound “peppy” after a brutal loss like that, Neuheisel’s creepy, constant optimism didn’t appear to be coming through like it has in the past.

Midway through his talk a Bruin fan in the stands yelled, “Stop talking and win a game!”

According the Plaschke the rest of the speech was mostly drowned out by boos.

It’s understandable that UCLA fans are upset, Neuheisel is currently 11-16 in his first 27 games as the coach of his alma mater. That record comes after declaring the “Football Monopoly in Los Angeles” over. On top of that, Neuheisel has refused to commit to Kevin Prince as his quarterback for next week’s game against Houston. The fact that Slick Rick has yet to find a decent quarterback despite having noted quarterback guru Norm Chow on his coaching staff is, frankly, sad.

I’m not saying Neuheisel needs to change everything about his program, since it is showing absolutely no progress at the start of his third season. No, in fact, I’m enjoying his absolute failure. It’s been fun to watch in a schadenfreude kind of way.

But the whole “postgame pep talk” thing following every game (including brutal losses) might not be a good idea. At this rate, the UCLA faithful will be throwing flaming garbage at Skippy by midseason.